Super Duper w/Intel & G5/Time Machine

I have an Intel MacBook, a G5 iMac and an external fire wire. I would like to format the fire wire in APM? or GUID?, partition it into four blocks and then use Super Duper to clone each into its partition, finally run Time Machine into the third and fourth partition. Question is will Time Machine and Super Duper each work properly on an Intel and Power PC Mac when saved onto a disk that is either APM or GUID?
Thanks
Ivan

You can format the external drive as APM with the 4 partions. An Intel mac will boot from a SuperDuper clone on APM. The G5 will boot from APM, and Time Machine can also use APM.
The confusion about an Intel mac and an APM partition is that you can not install an OS (or run updates I believe) to the partition, but SuperDuper doesn't care and will clone your GUID drive to the APM partition. I found out that this worked by accident when I first upgraded to Leopard. I cloned my drive to a new external drive and it worked fine. Later I tried to reuse the drive to install a second copy of Leopard and it refused with the non-GUID error.
You might as well try it first by using SuperDuper to create the bootable clone on the APM partition and then booting from it. That will prove that the rest of your plan should work.
I don't think you have any option to be able to use both APM and GUID on the same drive and the G5 can't boot at all from GUID.
SuperDuper 2.5 came out a couple of days ago. I've already used it to advantage:) It's nice having such a great program back online...

Similar Messages

My time machine back up drive is full and I need a bootable drive

I hope you can advise me
I have a 1TB external drive which I am using to back up to with Time Machine. Apart from occasionally dismounting itself this is working fine.
I am now considering upgrading to Lion and want to create a bootable copy of my system on the external drive but there is no space.
How do I go about making the space and how much space will I need? The iMac has 640GB and I am using 270GB.
Thanks

If I were in your situation, I would buy a 2TB drive and use carbon copy cloner or super duper to clone the Time Machine drive to it. When satisfied that the TM works, recycle the 1TB disk as your clone drive, which you can use as part of your upgrade strategy, and then later it will be your working clone.
Anyone who relies on having their data should have at all times two backups. One should be a TimeMachine, and the other should be a recent bootable clone. Disk is cheap cheap cheap -- don't waste time, energy or cleverness figuring out how to save disk space when you can just buy another drive and let the computer take care of the job!
Oh -- it's probably a decent idea to partition the 1TB to 650GB and 350GB, Then the 650GB can be your clone going forward, while the 350GB you can use for scratch. Right now, I'd make 2 clones, one on each partition. Upgrade one and play with it, the other one leave alone. Then you can have one as a semi-permanent archive of where you were with a working system in case something goes seriously south with your Time Machine, etc.
Yes, this is straight out of the Paranoid School of Disk Management, but given the price of disk these days it's a pretty cheap piece of peace of mind!

Time Machine: sparcebundle could not be accessed (error -1)

Hello!
I’ve using Time Machine with my Time Capsule for some time and out of nowhere it started giving me the following error: The backup disk image “xxx/xxx/xxx.sparcebundle”could not be accessed (error -1).
I’ve been searching weeks for a fix without success, already tried http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html - #C17 and it didn’t help.
Also tried on my Time Capsule: unplug, reset, factory reset, erase disk, format disk, change password, and on Time Machine preferences tried to remove disk and add again…. no success, error persists.
I discovered the only way for backup to work is to I login as a test user which I created for this purpose (I’m the administrator).
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Here are the logs:
Backup logged in as Administrator (Backup Failed):
Starting automatic backup
Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://xxxx%20xxxx;AUTH=SRP@Aar._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Data
Mounted network destination at mount point: /Volumes/Data using URL: afp://xxxx%20xxxx;AUTH=SRP@Aar._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Data
Failed to eject volume /Volumes/Data (FSVolumeRefNum: -166; status: -47; dissenting pid: 0)
Waiting 60 seconds and trying again.
Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/Data
Failed to eject volume /Volumes/Data (FSVolumeRefNum: -166; status: -47; dissenting pid: 0)
Waiting 60 seconds and trying again.
Network destination already mounted at: /Volumes/Data
Failed to eject volume /Volumes/Data (FSVolumeRefNum: -166; status: -47; dissenting pid: 0)
Giving up after 3 retries.
Backup failed with error: 21
[SnapshotUtilities mountPointForVolumeRef] FSGetVolumeInfo returned: -35
Failed to eject volume (null) (FSVolumeRefNum: 0; status: -35; dissenting pid: -1)
Failed to eject Time Machine disk image: /Volumes/Data/Super’s iMac.sparsebundle
Backup logged in as a test user (Backup completed successfully):
Starting automatic backup
Attempting to mount network destination URL: afp://xxxx%20xxxx;AUTH=SRP@Aar._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Data
Mounted network destination at mount point: /Volumes/Data using URL: afp://xxxx%20xxxx;AUTH=SRP@Aar._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Data
Disk image /Volumes/Data/Super’s iMac.sparsebundle mounted at: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 2
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 2/Backups.backupdb
Using file event preflight for Mac HD
Will copy (44.4 MB) from Mac HD
Using file event preflight for Dados
Will copy (Zero KB) from Dados
Found 2280 files (44.4 MB) needing backup
1.5 GB required (including padding), 752.35 GB available
Copied 7285 files (45.2 MB) from volume Mac HD.
Copied 7303 files (45.2 MB) from volume Dados.
Using file event preflight for Mac HD
Will copy (2.6 MB) from Mac HD
Found 58 files (2.6 MB) needing backup
1.59 GB required (including padding), 752.32 GB available
Copied 1122 files (4.4 MB) from volume Mac HD.
Copied 1140 files (4.4 MB) from volume Dados.
Created new backup: 2013-10-02-121637
Starting post-backup thinning
Deleted /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 2/Backups.backupdb/Super’s iMac/2013-10-01-120751 (4.1 MB)
Deleted /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 2/Backups.backupdb/Super’s iMac/2013-10-01-110755 (8.5 MB)
Deleted /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 2/Backups.backupdb/Super’s iMac/2013-10-01-101239 (21.7 MB)
Deleted /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 2/Backups.backupdb/Super’s iMac/2013-10-01-004813 (1.3 MB)
Post-back up thinning complete: 4 expired backups removed
Backup completed successfully.
Ejected Time Machine disk image: /Volumes/Data/Super’s iMac.sparsebundle
Ejected Time Machine network volume.

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, they may not work as described.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It won’t solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
Third-party system modifications are a common cause of usability problems. By a “system modification,” I mean software that affects the operation of other software — potentially for the worse. The following procedure will help identify which such modifications you've installed. Don’t be alarmed by the complexity of these instructions — they’re easy to carry out and won’t change anything on your Mac.
These steps are to be taken while booted in “normal” mode, not in safe mode. If you’re now running in safe mode, reboot as usual before continuing.
Below are instructions to enter some UNIX shell commands. The commands are harmless, but they must be entered exactly as given in order to work. If you have doubts about the safety of the procedure suggested here, search this site for other discussions in which it’s been followed without any report of ill effects.
Some of the commands will line-wrap or scroll in your browser, but each one is really just a single line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, and you can then copy it. The headings “Step 1” and so on are not part of the commands.
Note: If you have more than one user account, Step 2 must be taken as an administrator. Ordinarily that would be the user created automatically when you booted the system for the first time. The other steps should be taken as the user who has the problem, if different. Most personal Macs have only one user, and in that case this paragraph doesn’t apply.
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
When you launch Terminal, a text window will open with a line already in it, ending either in a dollar sign (“$”) or a percent sign (“%”). If you get the percent sign, enter “sh” and press return. You should then get a new line ending in a dollar sign.
Step 1
Triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it:
kextstat -kl | awk '!/com\.apple/{printf "%s %s\n", $6, $7}' | open -ef
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Then click anywhere in the Terminal window and paste (command-V). A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. If the command produced no output, the window will be empty. Post the contents of the TextEdit window (not the Terminal window), if any — the text, please, not a screenshot. You can then close the TextEdit window. The title of the window doesn't matter, and you don't need to post that. No typing is involved in this step.
Step 2
Repeat with this line:
{ sudo launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.(apple|openssh|vix\.cron)|org\.(amav|apac|cups|isc|ntp|postf|x)/{print $3}'; echo; sudo defaults read com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook; echo; sudo crontab -l; } 2> /dev/null | open -ef
This time you'll be prompted for your login password, which you do have to type. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. Type it carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. Heed that warning, but don't post it. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
Note: If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before taking this step. If that’s not possible, skip to the next step.
Step 3
{ launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.apple|org\.(x|openbsd)/{print $3}'; echo; crontab -l 2> /dev/null; } | open -ef
Step 4
ls -A /e*/{cr,la,mach}* {,/}Lib*/{Ad,Compon,Ex,Fram,In,Keyb,La,Mail/Bu,P*P,Priv,Qu,Scripti,Servi,Spo,Sta}* L*/Fonts .la* 2> /dev/null | open -ef
Important: If you formerly synchronized with a MobileMe account, your me.com email address may appear in the output of the above command. If so, anonymize it before posting.
Step 5
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to get name of login items' | open -ef
Remember, steps 1-5 are all copy-and-paste — no typing, except your password. Also remember to post the output.
You can then quit Terminal.

G4 MDD Cloning with Super Duper

G4 MDD Cloning with Super Duper
My G4: G4 MDD Single 1.25 Dual Boot. Running OS 10.3.9
I purchased a new hard drive to replace my old 80 GB drive. Also, purchased a second new drive to use as a scratch disk. After cloning to the first new drive that I'll use for the boot drive, I will be taking my 80 GB drive out and putting it in a firewire case that I purchased, for backups.
I never did this before and have some questions.
I'm going to leave my 80 GB drive in my G4 while doing the clone. Can I run Super Duper that is on my 80 GB drive? Or do I have to put Super Duper on a Boot CD or just a Data CD to run Super Duper?
To Clone my 80 GB to my new 640 GB for new boot drive, how do I do this? Do I use a Full Backup, is that the procedure?
Can you tell me how I go about doing this?
Another question I have about partitioning. I was told I could use Disk Utility that is on my 80 GB drive, that I don't have to use the boot CD to do this. Is that correct?
Was told I use Disk Utility to first Partition my 2 new drives, then Format them both Journeled. Is that the way to go for formatting and partitioning my new drives? Then I would do the cloning with Super Duper.
Another question: I run Photoshop CS2, Popcorn, Toast, and VisualHub. I will only wind up having 2 new Hard Drives in my G4. And will be taking the 80 GB drive out to use as a back up drive, after cloning.
What is the best way to partition my new boot drive and new second drive for a scratch drive?
I figured the boot drive would be first partition for my OS and second partition for my data/files.
On my second drive, I would use a first partition for CS2 Scratch and a second partition for Popcorn, Toast, etc. Because I know the scratch for CS2 is random and the scratch for the others are more sequential.
Would this be a good scenario for partitioning my 2 drives? Because I will only be using 2 hard drives in my computer.
Also, what partition Sizes should I make? My Boot drive will be a 640 GB drive and my Scratch drive is a 320 GB drive.
I'm new to this and would really appreciate some advise! thank You.

hello,
I've just used super duper for the first time a week ago to back-up before formatting my G4 MDD.
It works perfect BUT I'd recommand you use the version for sale (not the free/trial one) as it allows you to access more options such as creating image disks.
It's around 25$ or someting like that...
I'd also recommand you to read the "read me first" pdf file that goes with it, it's very useful and clear.
You have to install super duper on your computer and run it from there to back-up on the remote HD. You can either create a bootable version (if your external HD is a firewire one, and if it is HFS formated) or a disk image (I used this option since you have to erase the whole external disk to create a bootable back-up and I didn't want to do that).
Concerning partitioning, check it, but I think you have to run disk utility from the bootable apple CD to create a partition (disk utility won't partition the disk on which the system is running).
good luck

Time Machine in addition to Super Duper

My previous backup external drive died and I just got a replacement. I have always used Super Duper (which is great) to back up my computers so that I have a bootable backup. The question is---does it make any sense to partition the drive so that there is one partition for Super Duper and a second for Time Machine? What benefit would Time Machine add?
Thanks

Keep in mind that TimeMachine backs up changes every hour, keeps daily backups for a month and weekly backups thereafter. At work my backup set is about 125GB and I began backing up to the current TM drive in August. The TM backup is now 244GB. Prior to upgrading to 10.6 my home computer's TM backup was nearly 3 times the size of the backup set. To me, the value of TM is the redundancy and its value is diminished when older backups have to be erased to make room for a new backup set. For this reason I recommend that a TM drive be no less than twice the size of the backup set and closer to three times the size. This is in addition to the SD! clone I keep.
If your external drive is large enough then yes, it is fine to partition it. If it isn't, use one method or the other and/or purchase a second backup drive. Also, keep in mind that SD! can be set to perform scheduled backups and it can also keep archives (copies of files that were changed since the last backup).

Time Machine or External Using Super Duper

Apple is going to change the HD on my computer. I know little about Time Machine but I have been backing up my HD using Super Duper and a LaCie external HD. I think it's working out so far. That's what I have done before replacing the HD. So, when the new HD is installed, I can start up using the external and transfer files, i.e., mail, iTunes, Safari, Firefox etc. from the Application file on the external to the Application file on the computer with the new HD without any change in content. Any advantage using Time Machine over the way I intend to do it which should work. Any preferences or none?
I have already posted in a different Topic but on this sight regarding another aspect of this operation.

I generally can get Time Machine to work for a while. It takes way more effort to get it working and to keep it working than you'd expect for a Mac.
The most recent event was when I mounted my new 500 GB Hitachi drive in a new Mercury Elite-AL Pro mini, connected with Firewire 800 to my Mac Mini Server. I formatted the drive, using the 7-pass erase in Disk Utility, with no errors. I used disk utility to verify the file system on the drive before I started using it with Time Machine.
I configure Time Machine to use that new drive, and it starts up, but pukes fairly quickly. I Googled the error messages, and found lots of other people running into the same error.
First off, the disk would not unmount. Had to force unmount it.
Used Disk Utility to Repair the file system. It encountered no errors. So, then I used Disk Warrior to rebuild the directory structure on the disk. It found some things that it corrected. Since then, Time Machine has been working on that disk without further errors (overnight).
How many Apple customers are going to want to deal with force unmounts, running disk utility and disk warrior to tickle Time Machine back into working?
These are my log entries from the most recent Time Machine errors:
Dec 30 09:42:13 MacMini com.apple.backupd[2388]: Starting standard backup
Dec 30 09:42:13 MacMini com.apple.backupd[2388]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Backups/Backups.backupdbDec 30 09:42:13 MacMini com.apple.backupd[2388]: Detected system migration from:
/Volumes/Christopher-J-Shakers-Mac.localDec 30 09:42:17 MacMini com.apple.backupd[2388]: Backup content size: 406.7 GB excluded items size: 34.0 GB for volume MacMini
Dec 30 09:42:17 MacMini com.apple.backupd[2388]: No pre-backup thinning needed: 447.22 GB requested (including padding), 465.02 GB availableDec 30 09:42:17 MacMini com.apple.backupd[2388]: Waiting for index to be ready (
101)Dec 30 09:42:17 MacMini mds[42]: (Normal) DiskStore: Creating index for /Volumes
/Backups/Backups.backupdbDec 30 09:42:30 MacMini ntpd[33]: time reset -0.559108 sDec 30 09:42:54 MacMini JollysFastVNC[898]: (00599870.0592)-[NetworkConnection disconnect] could not shut down writehandleDec 30 09:43:01 MacMini login[1339]: DEAD_PROCESS: 1339 ttys001
Dec 30 09:58:09 MacMini ntpd[33]: time reset -0.483469 s
Dec 30 10:00:34 MacMini kernel[0]: Dec 30 10:00:45: --- last message repeated 3 times ---Dec 30 10:00:45 MacMini com.apple.backupd[2388]: Error: (-36) SrcErr:NO Copying /Developer/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DTMessageQueueing.framework/Versions/A/DTM essageQueueing to /Volumes/Backups/Backups.backupdb/SNOWSERVER/2010-12-30-094033.
inProgress/02385079-1749-4E5A-BC4F-93367E30B581/MacMini/Developer/Library/Privat
eFrameworks/DTMessageQueueing.framework/Versions/ADec 30 10:00:45 MacMini com.apple.backupd[2388]: Stopping backup.Dec 30 10:00:45 MacMini com.apple.backupd[2388]: Error: (-8062) SrcErr:NO Copying /Developer/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DTMessageQueueing.framework/Versions/A/DTM essageQueueing to /Volumes/Backups/Backups.backupdb/SNOWSERVER/2010-12-30-09403
3.inProgress/02385079-1749-4E5A-BC4F-93367E30B581/MacMini/Developer/Library/Priv ateFrameworks/DTMessageQueueing.framework/Versions/A
Dec 30 10:00:45 MacMini com.apple.backupd[2388]: Copied 13388 files (10.5 GB) fr
om volume MacMini.Dec 30 10:00:45 MacMini com.apple.backupd[2388]: Copy stage failed with error:11Dec 30 10:00:46 MacMini com.apple.backupd[2388]: Error: (22) setxattr for key:co
m.apple.backupd.ModelID path:/Volumes/Backups/Backups.backupdb/SNOWSERVER size:1
0Dec 30 10:00:51 MacMini com.apple.backupd[2388]: Backup failed with error: 11Dec 30 10:06:19 MacMini mds[42]: (/Volumes/Backups/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/A3D115A8-4546-4A3B-B36E-59440 4EEA098)(Error) IndexCI in ci_ftruncate:ftruncat
e(34 /Volumes/Backups/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/A3D115A8-4546-4A3B-B36E-594404 EEA098/live.0.indexDirectory, 16448) error:22Dec 30 10:06:19 MacMini mds[42]: (/Volumes/Backups/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stor
es/A3D115A8-4546-4A3B-B36E-594404EEA098)(Error) IndexCI in expandMap:ftruncate err: 22
Here is another one:
Dec 30 10:06:20 MacMini mds[42]: (Normal) DiskStore: Creating index for /Volumes/Backups/Backups.backupdb
Dec 30 10:14:12 MacMini ntpd[33]: time reset -0.496024 s
Dec 30 10:29:48 MacMini ntpd[33]: time reset -0.481983 s
Dec 30 10:42:31 MacMini com.apple.backupd[2388]: Starting standard backup
Dec 30 10:42:31 MacMini com.apple.backupd[2388]: Backing up to: /Volumes/Backups/Backups.backupdb
Dec 30 10:42:35 MacMini com.apple.backupd[2388]: Error: (22) setxattr for key:com.apple.backupd.ModelID path:/Volumes/Backups/Backups.backupdb/SNOWSERVER size:10
Dec 30 10:42:35 MacMini com.apple.backupd[2388]: Detected system migration from: /Volumes/Christopher-J-Shakers-Mac.local
Dec 30 10:42:37 MacMini com.apple.backupd[2388]: Failed to create progress log file at path:/Volumes/Backups/Backups.backupdb/SNOWSERVER/2010-12-30-094033.inProgress/ .Backup.315427357.871281.log.
Dec 30 10:42:37 MacMini com.apple.backupd[2388]: Error: (-50) Creating directory 61478D74-6407-4DBA-A98D-8A20EC6F2140
Dec 30 10:42:37 MacMini com.apple.backupd[2388]: Failed to make snapshot.
Dec 30 10:42:37 MacMini com.apple.backupd[2388]: Error: (22) setxattr for key:com.apple.backupd.ModelID path:/Volumes/Backups/Backups.backupdb/SNOWSERVER size:1
0Dec 30 10:42:42 MacMini com.apple.backupd[2388]: Backup failed with error: 2
So far, it has been running ok on that disk since I force unmounted it and used disk warrior to rebuild its directory structure.
While I was visiting my sister-in-law over Christmas, I had to resurrect Time Machine on my old PowerMac dual G5 I gave her. It's backing up to an internal SATA drive that I previously tested quite extensively. I had to use Disk Warrior to rebuild the directory structure on that disk as well to get Time Machine working again.
It seems to me that time machine, or the device drivers it relies on, needs some work.
Chris Shaker

Time Machine and Super Duper

I purchased Super Duper and did a full backup on my Mac Pro (I have 3 hard drives, the main one and 2 backup drives that are mounted on the desktop). Everything worked fine, I did the Super-Duper start-up/complete backup to one of the extra hard drives. The problem is when I run Time Machine it backs up everything including the extra copy of my computer that Super-Duper just created. This just filled up the extra hard drive that I use for Time Machine.
My question...
1) Is there a way to have the Super-Duper back-up copy of my computer but then not have it re-backed up by Time Machine? Do I need to remove the hard drive (the hard drive with the Super-Duper copy) from the desktop, and how do I do this... they are internal hard drives and not external hard drives.
2) What is the best way to undo what I have done and get the space back on my extra hard drive that I am using for time machine?
Thanks for the help
Chris

As Neville says, you can exclude the SD drive from future Time Machine backups via TM Preferences > Options.
And you can delete the prior backups of that drive, too. See #12 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.

Can i reconnect a "super duper" clone to "time machine" as original?

hi there.
i've recently upgraded the hard drive on my mbp 17, using super duper for cloning my stuff onto the new hd.
only later i've discovered that using the same hd name doesn't mean time machine recognizes it as the same, root hd.
i already slap myself endlessly for this naive mistake, as now i can only back my hd as another hd, multiplying the space and duration the backup requires.. still didn't let it go through.
i have no real experience using the terminal, and since i didn't find any result online relating exactly to my situation, i can't readily try to perform any suggestion i've already found, for the risk of damaging something permanently.
more info - leopard; time machine hd is accessible, as is the backed up info on it when reached through time machine.
i only need a solution for making the new hard drive be accepted by time machine as the old one.
thanx in advance,
yaneev

thx for the answer, i've actually read that article before.
no, i didn't start a new BU sequence, as i'm totally insecure even opening terminal.
by reformatting the HD i would lose months of mail backups etc.
i did take care of periodically manual BUs of important stuff,
so now i guess i just dont get the eventual purpose of TM..
sometimes it feels sad to be lost somewhere between being a very advanced mac user and being just a newbie without a clue of how to mess things up...
Message was edited by: yaneev

Using Migration Assistant with Time Machine or Super Duper data

Can I use Migration Assistant with a Time Machine or Super Duper backup on an external drive instead of the original computer? I'm thinking of upgrading my Mini to a new one but only have one monitor. Not in the mood to hunt down an old monitor & buy adapters, etc. If I can, are there any tradeoffs using a backup instead of the original Mini? And is TM or SD preferable for this purpose? The current Mini runs 10.6 SL.

KevinD wrote:
Can I use Migration Assistant with a Time Machine or Super Duper backup on an external drive instead of the original computer?
yes to both.
I'm thinking of upgrading my Mini to a new one but only have one monitor. Not in the mood to hunt down an old monitor & buy adapters, etc. If I can, are there any tradeoffs using a backup instead of the original Mini?
none.
And is TM or SD preferable for this purpose?
makes no difference.
The current Mini runs 10.6 SL.

Time Machine or Super Duper??

I have been using Super Duper successfully under Tiger with an external Seagate USB Drive. Now that I have Snow Leopard... I was wondering about Time Machine. I only want to use it if it does something substantially better than Super Duper- outperforms in some way shape or form- why mess with a good thing?
Message was edited by: Micah Eavenson

Ditto what Mr. Boyd says, adding "every hour."
Time Machine gives you a *much, much* better chance of recovering something you changed or deleted in error (Save instead of Save As, for example), or somehow got corrupted.
Plus the ability to put your entire system back the way it was at the time of any prior backup.
It's no doubt more than you want, but here's a comparison:
There are three basic types of backup applications: Bootable Clone, Archive, and Time Machine.
This is a general explanation and comparison. Many variations exist, of course, and some combine features of others.
|
_*BOOTABLE "CLONE"*_
These make a complete, "bootable" copy of your entire system on an external disk/partition, a second internal disk/partition, or a partition of your internal disk.
Advantages
When your internal HD fails, you can boot and run from the clone immediately. Your Mac may run a bit slower, but it will run, and contain everything that was on your internal HD at the time the clone was made or last updated.
You can test whether it will run, just by booting-up from it (but of course you can't be positive that everything is ok without actually running everything).
If it's on an external drive, you can easily take it off-site.
Disadvantages
Making an entire clone takes quite a while. Most of the cloning apps have an update feature, but even that takes quite a while, as they must examine everything on your system to see what's changed and needs to be backed-up. Since this takes lots of time and CPU, it's usually not practical to do this more than once or twice a day.
Normally, it only contains a copy of what was on your internal HD when the clone was made or last updated.
Some do have a feature that allows it to retain the previous copy of items that have been changed or deleted, in the fashion of an archive, but of course that has the same disadvantages as an archive.
|
_*TRADITIONAL "ARCHIVE" BACKUPS*_
These copy specific files and folders, or your entire system. With many, the first backup is a full copy of everything; subsequently, they're "incremental," copying only what's changed.
Most of these will copy to an external disk or network locations; some to CDs/DVDs, or even tape.
Advantages
They're usually fairly simple and reliable. If the increments are on separate media, they can be taken off-site easily.
Disadvantages
Most have to examine everything to determine what's changed and needs to be backed-up. This takes considerable time and lots of CPU. If an entire system is being backed-up, it's usually not practical to do this more than once, or perhaps twice, a day.
Restoring an individual item means you have to find the media and/or file it's on. You may have to dig through many incremental backups to find what you're looking for.
Restoring an entire system (or large folder) usually means you have to restore the most recent Full backup, then each of the increments, in the proper order. This can get very tedious and error-prone.
You have to manage the backups yourself. If they're on an external disk, sooner or later it will get full, and you have to do something, like figure out what to delete. If they're on removable media, you have to store them somewhere appropriate and keep track of them.
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_*TIME MACHINE*_
Advantages
Similar to an archive, TM keeps copies of everything currently on your system, plus changed/deleted items, on an external disk or Time Capsule.
Like many Archive apps, it first copies everything on your system, then does incremental backups of additions and changes. But TM's magic is, each backup appears to be a full one: a complete copy of everything on your system at the time of the backup.
It uses an internal OSX log of what's changed to quickly determine what to copy, so most users can let it do it's hourly incremental backups without much effect on system performance. This means you have a much better chance to recover an item that was changed or deleted in error, or corrupted.
Recovery of individual items is quite easy, via the TM interface. You don't have to find and mount media, or dig through many files to find what you're looking for.
You can also recover your entire system to the exact state it was in at the time of any backup, even it that's a previous version of OSX.
TM manages it's space for you, automatically. When your backup disk gets near full, TM will delete your oldest backup(s) to make room for new ones. But it will never delete it's copy of anything that's still on your internal HD, or was there at the time of any remaining backup. So all that's actually deleted are copies of items that were changed or deleted long ago.
Disadvantages
It's not bootable. If your internal HD fails, you can't boot directly from your TM backups. You must restore them, either to your repaired/replaced internal HD or an external disk. This is a fairly simple, but of course lengthy, procedure.
TM doesn't keep it's copies of changed/deleted items forever, and you're usually not notified when it deletes them.
It is fairly complex, and somewhat new, so may be a bit less reliable than some others.
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RECOMMENDATION
For most non-professional users, TM is simple, workable, and maintenance-free. But it does have it's disadvantages.
That's why many folks use both Time Machine and a bootable clone, to have two, independent backups, with the advantages of both. If one fails, the other remains. If there's room, these can be in separate partitions of the same external drive, but it's a bit safer to have them on separate drives.
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_*OFF-SITE BACKUPS*_
As great as external drives are, they may not protect you from fire, flood, theft, or direct lightning strike on your power lines. So it's an excellent idea to get something off-site, to your safe deposit box, workplace, relative's house, etc.
There are many ways to do that, depending on how much data you have, how often it changes, how valuable it is, and your level of paranoia.
One of the the best strategies is to follow the above recommendation, but with a pair of portable externals, each 4 or more times the size of your data. Each has one partition the same size as your internal HD for a "bootable clone" and another with the remainder for TM.
Use one drive for a week or so, then take it off-site and swap with the other. You do have to tell TM when you swap drives, via TM Preferences > Change Disk; and you shouldn't go more than about 10 days between swaps.
There are other options, instead of the dual drives, or in addition to them. Your off-site backups don't necessarily have to be full backups, but can be just copies of critical information.
If you have a MobileMe account, you can use Apple's Backup app to get relatively-small amounts of data (such as Address book, preferences, settings, etc.) off to iDisk daily. If not, you can use a 3rd-party service such as Mozy.
You can also copy data to CDs or DVDs and take them off-site. Re-copy them every year or two, as their longevity is questionable.
Backup strategies are not a "One Size Fits All" sort of thing. What's best varies by situation and preference.
Just as an example, I use TM plus a CarbonCopyCloner clone (updated daily, while I'm snoozing) locally, plus small daily Backups to iDisk, plus some other things to DVD/RWs in my safe deposit box. Probably overkill, but as many of us have learned over the years, backups are one area where +Paranoia is Prudent!+

Would Super Duper!/Time Machine function w/ Littlle disk - MacBook 2.0

RE: Would Super Duper!/Time Machine function w/ Littlle disk - MacBook 2.0
Thanks to all who read on...
The situation at hand is this...
I have 2 Lacie Little Disk Drives 120 & 250 GB, that I once used to make FW clones from iBook G4 to backup my information , applications etc.
1.0_How would I translate such operations with a substituted Macbook 2.0 Aluminum?
1.1_It seems the Macbook doesnt have any FW ports, nor is their any reliable source stating a T-100-to-Firewire adapter would work with OS 10.5.6...?
THAT being said, the USB ports do recognize the built in Lacie Hi-Speed 2.0 extractable USB Connector. (See Topic: Little disk on a hub with Macbook?)
I have given Super duper a try to make a Leopard (10.5.6) over this Hi-speed USB 2.0 and it seems to have made the backup, although I haven't as of yet actually used this clone -yet.
2.0_How can I take advantage of Leopards Time Machine instead of Super Duper!?
2.1_Whilst still possibly incorporating the usb/firewire Lacie Little disks? (As once sod on THIS very site)

I'll agree with the previous two posts. With TimeMachine, you always have your most current and previous versions of data backed up. With SuperDuper (or CarbonCopyCloner), your data is only as current as the last time you ran a backup. The major benefit of SuperDuper (or CCC) is that you can create a bootable backup. If you need to restore your system from a TimeMachine backup, you'll need to start your system from your install DVD which will allow you to restore your system from your TimeMachine backup. I think the biggest benefit to having an external clone is in case your internal drive fails. Since you can't boot from a TimeMachine backup, if you have a hard drive failure, you're out of luck until you get that drive replaced. If you have an external clone, you can simply boot up from that which will allow you to continue working until you can get your internal drive replaced. As has been mentioned, both have their benefits and using both to compliment each other is your best option. Since TimeMachine is part of OS X and both SuperDuper and CarbonCopyCloner are free for full clones (actually, CCC is completely free for all functionality now), there's really no reason not to use both.

Super Duper BU vs Time Machine

Why would I want to replace my current fast and neat " Super Duper " backup software installed in 10.4 Tiger with SL's Time Machine ?

Bic Ford wrote:
Can and should the Time Capsule be partitioned ?
No, it can't. (Well, short of removing the disk, putting it in an enclosure and connecting it to your Mac, which voids the warranty).
Would partitioning be good or necessary if two Mac's are writing TM BU to same EHD ?
It's usually a good idea, for an external disk connected via FireWire or USB, or an internal disk. See item #4 in the Frequently Asked Questions *User Tip.*
In the end I hope to have SD backup going to the Lacie and TM going to the TC HD. Two BU's with two devices for each machine is recommended by BU seminar givers at Tekserve.
Lots of folks here, too, especially those of us who think Murphy was an optimist!

Backing up files to external HDD, time machine? Super Duper?

Well I finally did it. I gave myself an early Xmas gift... a 1TB WD drive. I currently have 4 internal drives in my G4 tower with OSX Tiger on one drive and OSX Leopard on another. I have my itunes, iphoto, imovie and idvd libraries running from the other two internal drives. Dont remember if I asked this before but here goes. What's the best way to back up files without interrupting the library directory system? In other words, itunes and iphoto will be asking me where are my **** files? I was also debating on creating a disk image of the OSX Tiger drive and erase it for other use? I can always mount it later if I need it, correct?
Your input is appreaciated. Thanks

how many drives do you have running?
Currently have 6 machines and a total of 21 drives running.
In two machines I use TM and SD! backup, in the other four I use SD! only.
I've never fallen back/used a TM backup, but constantly use SD! backups.
The performance benefit of running a SD! clone is one main reason.
When would it be appropriate to run SP or CCC?
I run the initial SD! clone upon setup of a drive.
After that, I base frequency on the usage.
With full time machines, Smart Update of SD! runs every night.
In other machines, I run Smart Update once a week.
Having so many drives, it can get hard to cover backups drive for drive, but 1:1 is a better backup scheme.
With the 1TB, 2 TB and 3 TB drives getting so reasonable, a single drive can be partitioned to serve as backup for two, three or even four volumes.
Of course, it is better to limit the number of volumes on a single drive in case of catastrophy....

Can both an intel and a PPC mac use time machine on the same TC?

I just got a TC and have successfully used time machine with a MBP. I was about to install Leopard on my PPC eMac in order to use time machine on the TC but I wondered if they could both use the TC hard drive as it is currently formatted.
As I recall, intel macs use journaled GUID and PPC machines use another format.
Am I deluded?

I don't think there is a problem, and I believe others have reported in these forums that they're doing it.
There is a lot of confusion in this area compounded by a number of people who say that some of the Apple KB articles are wrong/misleading.
But in this case it's more a case of it doesn't matter - here is why.....
The Time Capsule disk comes formatted, you can erase the disk via the Airport Utility. That's the closest you can come to formatting and you don't have options - so it does whatever it needs to do to get it right.
The machines being backed up don't access the Time Capsule's disk(s) directly as they do on a locally attached disk. They do it via AFP network disk protocol and the Time Capsule disk is in effect insulated from the machine being backed up.
(As an aside, it's because of this - the differences in what can be done over AFP - that the Time Capsule stores the backups in a different file format)
If you add a USB attached drive to the Time Capsule you can also erase it with the Airport Utility as above. In my case, I've attached a USB drive to my Time Capsule. I never had the Time Capsule erase it, but before attaching it I attached it locally and formatted it GUID and HFSJ and it work just fine when attached to the Time Capsule. Does it have to be formatted that way - I don't know - all I know is in this one case what I did works which doesn't prove it has to be that way.
Message was edited by: Steve Holton

Using Time Machine to backup a iMac G5 and restore to an intel iMac

Is it possible to use Time Machine to backup my iMac G5 and restore my backup to a new intel iMac?
The reason being is that I my mother-in-law's company bought her a new intel Mac and she wants to trade with me since she only uses her Mac for e-mail, photos and accounting software.
I was thinking of making sure her data is preserved by using the migration assistant to transfer her data to my iMac G5 and then using my time machine backup to restore to her intel iMac. I have concerns about this method after reading about the intel/powerpc issues with time machine. I also have concerns that perhaps the version of MacOS 10.5 installed to my iMac G5 will not be optimized for intel.

Well, not entirely. You cannot install or restore a PPC version of OS X to an Intel Mac because the PPC system will not work on an Intel Mac. You can copy your personal files, most preference files, and third-party applications (although it would be preferable to update all PPC-only apps to universal binaries which perform better on Intel machines.
Another possible concern is if your mother's company is transferring the ownership to her or simply purchasing the unit for her to use. In the latter case the computer belongs to the company, not your mother. She cannot then give it to you because it isn't hers. This problem should be resolved beforehand because the company may one day want the computer back.
Folders You Can Move to Your new Mac
From the Home folder copy the contents of Documents, Movies, Music, Pictures, and Sites.
In your /Home/Library/ folder:
/Home/Library/Application Support/AddressBook (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Application Support/iCal (copy the whole folder)
Also in /Home/Library/Application Support (copy whatever else you need including folders for any third-party applications)
/Home/Library/Keychains (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Mail (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Preferences/ (copy the whole folder)
/Home /Library/iTunes (copy the whole folder)
/Home /Library/Safari (copy the whole folder)
If you want cookies:
/Home/Library/Cookies/Cookies.plist
/Home/Library/Application Support/WebFoundation/HTTPCookies.plist
For Entourage users:
Entourage is in /Home/Documents/Microsoft User Data
Also in /Home/Library/Preferences/Microsoft
For FireFox:
/Home/Library/Applications Support/FireFox
/Home/Library/Preferences/org.mozilla.firefox.plist
Credit goes to another forum user for this information.

Super Duper w/Intel & G5/Time Machine

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