SuperDuper

[billchase2]

yesterday evening i decided i'd run a backup using superduper for the first time. i connected my external firewire drive and had it setup to backup the image of all my files to there. well, after over 9 1/2 hours, it had barely gotten through my files at all so i ended up cancelling it.

how long does this program typically take?? i know this was my first time running it so it'd take longer... but still. that seems WAY too long.

 

[iGary]

yesterday evening i decided i'd run a backup using superduper for the first time. i connected my external firewire drive and had it setup to backup the image of all my files to there. well, after over 9 1/2 hours, it had barely gotten through my files at all so i ended up cancelling it.

how long does this program typically take?? i know this was my first time running it so it'd take longer... but still. that seems WAY too long.

How many GB's of data, and are you using FW400 or 800?

 

[billchase2]

it was FW400 and i'm not really sure. i have a 120gb harddrive and about 40gb is free so perhaps 80gb if it actually copies EVERY single file... i'm just not really sure how the program works since i've never used it before.

 

[billchase2]

oh and when i'd started it was averaging at least 4mb/s... but when i looked at it this morning (just before cancelling the thing) it was down to like .1mb/s or something. that can't be good...

 

[redeye be]

My 47 Gb backup takes little over an hour on my mini G4.
Something's up.

 

[billchase2]

hmm... any ideas? should i just try it again tonight and see if it works after a second try?

should i have it saving the image directly to my external? or is it best to try and save it on my internal then transfer it?

 

[redeye be]

hmm... any ideas? should i just try it again tonight and see if it works after a second try?

should i have it saving the image directly to my external? or is it best to try and save it on my internal then transfer it?

Oops, you're talking image...
I make my bootable backup (no image) to an external partition. It could take longer for an image, but the speed you got there was terrifyingly slow.
Go ahead and try it again, make sure there's enough room (guess you won't find that on your internal disk).
Good luck

 

[billchase2]

yeah i was going to do it the other way but it said it would have to format my external in order to do so. considering i have a lot of school projects saved on there, i figured that wasn't exactly the best idea.

how much free space would i need? i wasn't sure what all files it backed up.

 

[redeye be]

i wasn't sure what all files it backed up.

It's the all files as in everything i presume (a complete copy of your disk).

 

[billchase2]

i tried again using the one that compresses it and...

"Failed to copy files from Macintosh HD to PowerBook Backup"

here's what the log file said. (it's not the whole log obviously... but EACH file said the same thing)


| 10:33:56 PM | Info | WARNING: Target: /Volumes/PowerBook Backup.sparseimage/Users/cmasters/more folders/image.jpg, lstat(): 0
| 10:33:56 PM | Info | Attempting to copy file using copyfile().
| 10:33:56 PM | Info | Attempting to copy file using ditto.
| 10:33:56 PM | Info | Successfully copied file.
| 10:33:56 PM | Info | WARNING: Caught I/O exception(5): Input/output error

 

[spinne1]

What you need to do is think of your external as a mirror backup to your internal and start fresh. How? First, copy all files that are unique to the external drive to the internal drive. Next, repair your internal drive (if necessary) from within Disk Utility (it will tell you if you need to repair or not after you click the Repair button). Next, run Onyx and clean your caches and run the maintenance utilities, and repair your permissions. Now, after your computer is clean and restarted, run SuperDuper and go to preferences and tell it to NOT repair permissions before duping your drive (since you just did it). Now, have SuperDuper reformat your external drive and then copy your entire internal drive to it. This will take maybe an hour. In the end you will have the backup you need AND if you want to use the external again to store new files not on the internal HD you can certainly do it. You simply won't have backup of them until you copy them to the internal or burn discs of them.

 

[skybolt]

I formatted my external HD so that one partition was the same size as my PB drive (named it "clone"), and the other partition was whatever was left (named it "extra files"). Then I use SuperDuper to clone to the "clone" partition, and then I can put any other files I want on the "extra files". I have my music and photos there, and not on the PB drive to save space on the internal. Works great for me!

Good Luck!

 

[billchase2]

hmm... thanks for the tips. not sure if this program is going to end up doing what i wanted. i have a LOT of stuff on my external already (it's 160gb and i have around 70gb life) and i do not have enough room on any of my other harddrives to temporarily put all the files on them while reformatting the external. sooo... we'll see. i was just hoping to use the option to create the image in order to backup.

 

[vansouza]

yesterday evening i decided i'd run a backup using superduper for the first time. i connected my external firewire drive and had it setup to backup the image of all my files to there. well, after over 9 1/2 hours, it had barely gotten through my files at all so i ended up cancelling it.

how long does this program typically take?? i know this was my first time running it so it'd take longer... but still. that seems WAY too long.

SuperDuper formats and then copies with each backup if you are asking it to make the drive bootable. I backup 30 gigs in just a few min... less then 20 for sure. Actaully since I boot from my external firewire miniStack to the internal drive in the mini that might make this apples to oranges...

 

[spinne1]

hmm... thanks for the tips. not sure if this program is going to end up doing what i wanted. i have a LOT of stuff on my external already (it's 160gb and i have around 70gb life) and i do not have enough room on any of my other harddrives to temporarily put all the files on them while reformatting the external. sooo... we'll see. i was just hoping to use the option to create the image in order to backup.

It is vitally important that you have backup. That said, you probably need to buy another GIANT hard drive to be a backup. Put that in an external case (a new one), copy everything important to you to that drive as a backup. I also still suggest having a backup boot drive as it is MUCH easier than reinstalling OS X and then all your apps and then reloading all your files to it. (assuming you have backup to even reload). I would use your present external for that purpose.

PS If you have extremely important files (songs you have written, music you have composed, art you have created, books or stories you have written, etc, etc) then it is also vital to have off-site backup on CDs or DVDs (such as a relative's house), in case of your house being completely destroyed.

 

[jsalzer]

SuperDuper is Super, Indeed

It is creating the image that's slowing you down. Considering the fact that, in my experience with Apple, the hard drive's always the first to go, I don't let any of my Macs go without having a bootable external drive.

Figure out some way to reformat your external with a partition the size of your computer's hard drive and let SuperDuper do this for you. I run the "erase and copy" once a week and a "copy new only" the other 6 days. Perhaps a friend has enough room on an external drive to loan it to you for a day?

Then, if your internal ever fails, you just have to reboot onto the external, and your life keeps plugging along. It's a good feeling to be secure. And SuperDuper has been one of the most consistently secure and working programs I've tried to use.

(I just wish they'd put a front end on some options, like excluding files from backup, instead of those scripts.)