Backing up from 1 External HD to another

[mdrdsr]

Scenario :

I have a MacBook Pro with 2 External FW 500GB (WD My Book Pro) Drives
Each EXT HD is formatted with 2 Partitions. One Partition is bootable and the other is just user files. I use SuperDuper to 1) copy all user files from the MacBook internal HD to EACH bootable partition on EACH EXT HD. My working files *live* on the 1st External HD. So, I 2) also copy, using my own SuperDuper script, all files from 2nd Partition on EXT HD #1 to the 2nd Partition on EXT HD #2.

This is what it looks like:
Bootable Clone Disk #1
User Files Disk #1
Bootable Clone Disk #2
User Files Disk #2


PS: The 2 EXT HD are daisy chained. Could there be some HD ID issues?


ISSUE:

Only the 2 bootable partitions are appearing in Finder or on Desktop. I have adjusted the Finder Preferences, deleted the pref Finder file. I *can* unmount and mount all 4 partitions via Disk Utility. Because I created an alias for each partition as well, I *can* access the partitions to work with data via these aliases. But it is inconvenient.

This happened the 1st time and I thought I messed it up so I reformatted both EXT HD and was back in business. This time I know I did not do anything inappropriate. I unmounted both drives. They spun down. I then disconnected the laptop and when I returned and plugged everything back, they will not appear in the Finder. I had successfully disconnected/connected several days prior to this.

QUESTION:

What is happening? Is it possible that copying from EXT HD Partition to the other EXT HD Partition is causing some kind of permission issues? I have verified and repaired all permissions on all disks -- no errors found.

Help? Thanks in advance,
David

[dnanian]

Are the partitions that aren't appearing mounted in Disk Utility or not?

We don't do anything to the partition scheme, and only copy the data, so it sounds like you've messed with your fstab, potentially?

[mdrdsr]

Thanks for the quick reply. Yes, both *missing* partitions appear in Disk Utility and I can mount and unmount them fine. And then access them via an Alias. :(

PS: I did test booting from each EXT HD boot partition previously (a couple days earlier)

[dnanian]

OK. Something must be unusual about these source partitions, or you (or someone) has been messing with the fstab. Anything ringing a bell?

[mdrdsr]

I don't even know what fstab is. The only thing I know is the I unmounted the drives, then when I reconnected them, the non-bootable clone partitions will not appear in Finder or Desktop. But they are mountable/unmountable via Disk Utility. I am stumped.

David

[mdrdsr]

Here is some info that someone else asked me for. I ran the id and ls -aol /Volumes commands:

Last login: Mon Oct 1 07:54:37 on console
Welcome to Darwin!
david-raimists-computer:~ draimist$ id
uid=501(draimist) gid=501(draimist) groups=501(draimist), 81(appserveradm), 79(appserverusr), 80(admin)
david-raimists-computer:~ draimist$ ls -aol /Volumes
total 8
drwxrwxrwt 8 root admin - 272 Oct 1 07:54 .
drwxrwxr-t 29 root admin - 1088 Oct 1 07:54 ..
drwxr-xr-x 3 draimist admin - 102 Sep 21 18:45 .PEVolumes
drwxrwxr-t 23 root admin - 884 Oct 1 07:39 Bootable Clone Disk 1
drwxrwxr-t 23 root admin - 884 Sep 30 23:40 Bootable Clone Disk 2
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin - 1 Oct 1 07:54 David's Laptop -> /
drwxr-xr-x 14 draimist draimist - 578 Oct 1 07:26 User Files Disk 1
drwxr-xr-x 14 draimist draimist - 578 Oct 1 07:26 User Files Disk 2
david-raimists-computer:~ draimist$

[dnanian]

What's the .PEVolumes file?

[mdrdsr]

No idea. I am running Parallels. Could this be that?

[dnanian]

I don't know. Can you "cat" it?

cat /Volumes/.PEVolumes

[mdrdsr]

I believe it is. Also, this sounds familiar...

http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=16848

[dnanian]

There you go: must be Parallels doing it. Weird.

[mdrdsr]

That did it!! What a mess....Thanks SO much for you time and effort. Much appreciated.