SuperDuper! question

[iW00t]

I've been using SuperDuper to backup my hard drive to a spare USB drive. Usually what I do is log in to the machine I want to backup, run SuperDuper! and let it do its thing.

Is this the right way of doing it?

I was worried that because I am logged in some files may opened and are in use, hence SuperDuper! won't be able to back those up. Is that a valid concern?

 

[robbieduncan]

I've been using SuperDuper to backup my hard drive to a spare USB drive. Usually what I do is log in to the machine I want to backup, run SuperDuper! and let it do its thing.

Is this the right way of doing it?

I was worried that because I am logged in some files may opened and are in use, hence SuperDuper! won't be able to back those up. Is that a valid concern?

Why won't it be able to back them up? This may be true in Windows but not in OSX.

 

[iW00t]

Why won't it be able to back them up? This may be true in Windows but not in OSX.

The file might be open. For instance when you are running an application, and you try to update it, Finder will inform you that it can't be done because the file is in use.

I was wondering if the same thing might be happening here.

What if Superduper started to copy a file and in the process of doing it the application updates the file?

 

[robbieduncan]

You can't write to an open file in the Finder but you can read from it. On a more interesting note this is not actually enforced by the file system as far as I am aware: the Finder checks before trying to write, other apps may not.

I've just tried this in the Terminal. You can write to a file that is being read through more. When the more memory buffer runs out the file just ends as the open file was written to in the background and is now smaller.