Any harm in using other apps during backup?

[JoBoy]

I'd like to do paying work while doing SD! backups to internal HDs and to a Time Capsule drive that I'm not using for Time Machine. If there's no harm in this, it would help me pay the rent. I couldn't find anything on this in the Users Guide and this forum, but I could have missed it. I have a new Mac Pro with four internal drive bays. One is the "main drive" with Sandbox and Macintosh HD partitions. Two other drives are used for bootable SD! copies. The fourth bay is empty. I launch SD! from the Sandbox and want to run my work applications also from the Sandbox. The Sandbox is "shared users" and NOT "shared users and applications."

Also, is there any problem using other applications during a scheduled SD! backup? Thanks in advance.:)

[dnanian]

In general terms, you can do light work while backing up, and you can certainly back up drives you're not working on. But it's best to not back up the drive you're doing "heavy" work on.

Typically, I schedule backups for after I'm doing "paying work"... that way the work gets backed up.

[JoBoy]

[/QUOTE]Typically, I schedule backups for after I'm doing "paying work"... that way the work gets backed up.[/QUOTE]

That's my usual practice, too, but the initial backup to TC of the SystemImage went over 11 hours at a rate of less than 2MB/s according to SD! so I terminated and deleted it and went back to work. I'm using Apps in the Sandbox, but copying apps and data from the Macintosh HD to the backup drives. If I understand it correctly, I'm working from isolated apps from the same location, but also flogging the same data for both work and backups. That's why I was worried enough to make the original post. What if I first backed up the Macintosh HD to one of the other internal hard drives while not working and then ran SD! from the Sandbox to copy from the other internal drive to TC to make the SystemImage while working? That leaves SD! competing with InDesign and Acrobat in the Sandbox, but not flogging the same data location and not trying to copy the same application set. Would that help? It's this marathon SystemImage that's causing me to try to work and back up at the same time.

[dnanian]

Perhaps use a local drive instead? Network drives are much, much slower.

[JoBoy]

Perhaps use a local drive instead? Network drives are much, much slower.

I can do that, but I was trying to get SOME use out of the TC hard drive since I abandoned TM. Moreover, TC is in a location somewhat remote from my Mac Pro. That way, I'd still have a copy even if the Mac Pro caught fire and destroyed its hard drives (a very long shot indeed). Besides, if I'm using a local drive, I'd rather drop another bootable clone in there. It's quicker and much more reliable than the image.

Is it a potential problem for SD! if I simultaneously use SD! and other apps that are also located in the Sandbox?

[dnanian]

The problem is the data you're writing, not what you're running. So, whether the application is running from the Sandbox or not, the data's being written to some drive you're using, and it sounds like you're backing that up... and that's where you can end up creating problems.

You can certainly continue to use the Time Capsule, and a Smart Update after the initial copy is faster. But it's much slower than local. It's up to you to decide how your own tradeoffs go, though. :)

[JoBoy]

I'm sorry, but I don't quite understand your comment. Are we talking about slightly different things? I was proposing to run SD! from Sandbox (on drive 1) and copy from a second separate hard drive(drive 2) and write to the TC hard drive(drive 3) which also is separate from the Sandbox hard drive. My work apps would run out of Sandbox(drive 1) and read and write data only on Macintosh HD which is a second partition on drive 1. Am I making sense?

[dnanian]

As long as you're copying something other than what you're actively working on, you should be fine. In general, you should run SD! from your startup volume, whatever that is.

[JoBoy]

Thank you very much for the help. I really appreciate it. This will enable me to get the most out of SD!