Shirt Pocket Discussions

Shirt Pocket Discussions (https://www.shirt-pocket.com/forums/index.php)
-   General (https://www.shirt-pocket.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=6)
-   -   Backup appears slow. (https://www.shirt-pocket.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1780)

lfedje 11-13-2006 04:51 PM

Backup appears slow.
 
Hi

I am new to this forum as well as SD. I recently purchased the 24" iMac Core 2 Duo with 250GB HD and installed Parallels with Windows XP. The Parallels partition has about 50GB of programs and data in it and there are a total of 614,000 files. Oh, and BTW, this is my first Mac ever. I have used PC's for the past 30 years, so it's a big leap for me. However, from what I have experienced so far, I don't think I would ever go back!

It seems that the backup has stalled. It's been sitting there for about a half hour at 17GB copied.....woops, it just started again and all of a sudden jumped to 48GB copied, and now the files copied count is going quite well again. Would that be a part of the parallels partition that was being copied over?

I am now into this for 1 hour 48 min. and at 50GB usine a Lacie USB 2.0 external drive. Is this about normal for the original copy?

Also, I see 2 questions sitting in front of me in part 3. "After Successful Copy" . Make Drive Bootable and Restore Spotliht state on Drive. What is the best answer to these 2 questions?

Any other advice on using SD would be greatly appreciated as well. Like little tips to make things run as smoothly as possible.

Thanks, Loren

dnanian 11-13-2006 04:58 PM

That's right: it took a long time to copy the Parallels file, and we don't give status "mid-file", so it's usually best to step away and get a tasty beverage during the copy process.

USB is slow, even USB 2.0, compared to FireWire. It's hard to say how fast it should run, but after you're done Smart Update will speed the process significantly. Just make sure that you're not running Parallels while you're backing up!

lfedje 11-13-2006 04:58 PM

Oh, and if I make it bootable, how do you boot from it? Remember, I am an total neophyte, when it comes to the Mac OS. :)

Loren

dnanian 11-13-2006 04:58 PM

Select it as the startup drive in the Startup Disk preference pane.

lfedje 11-13-2006 05:04 PM

Thanks Dave, and no, just to be on the safe side I am not running anything on that Mac right now, not even my browser. I am using my 17" iMac.

During a backup process like this, can I run the Mac side as normal or would that interfere with the process.

When this is done, I will give you the stats on time.

Loren

dnanian 11-13-2006 05:07 PM

As I said, it's a good time to step away from the Mac and let it back up -- while you might be able to get away with doing some stuff, it's best to not.

lfedje 11-13-2006 05:21 PM

Hi Dave

It took 2 hours 20 min to copy 584,333 files out of 614,407. About 63GB.

Loren

dnanian 11-13-2006 05:32 PM

Was the speed about 6MB/s?

lfedje 11-13-2006 05:54 PM

At the beginning it was about 4.5 while copying small files, but at the end it reported something like 7.5/s.

Loren

dnanian 11-13-2006 05:57 PM

That sounds about right as an average. I think you're in good shape.

lfedje 11-14-2006 09:10 AM

Hi Dave

First, I would like to thank you for all the help on this. It's very much appreciated. Now I guess I should take some time to read the manual. :)

Here are the actual stats from the log.

| 02:17:42 PM | Info | Evaluated 734530 items occupying 62.44 GB (120576 directories, 584419 files, 29535 symlinks)
| 02:17:42 PM | Info | Copied 854996 items totaling 62.24 GB (120565 directories, 584333 files, 150098 symlinks)
| 02:17:42 PM | Info | Cloned 62.24 GB of data in 8618 seconds at an effective transfer rate of 7.40 MB/s

Not bad for a USB drive, I guess.

t3rockhall 11-15-2006 02:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lfedje (Post 9322)
Oh, and if I make it bootable, how do you boot from it? Remember, I am an total neophyte, when it comes to the Mac OS. :)

Loren

Not trying to hijack the thread, but selecting it from SysPref only works if the backup drive is ON.

You can always start from the external drive when the computer or backup is OFF by (1) turning the external drive ON. (2) Hold down the Option key as you start the computer, and when both the internal and external drive appear on the screen, (and the cursor turns to an arrow) click once on the external drive and then click on the right-pointing arrow. This works when you start from OFF or from a restart COMMAND.

REMEMBER, if you are running from the internal drive, and the external is also running, then you should UNMOUNT the external by dragging it into the trash or just shutting off the computer before shutting the backup drive down. If you're running from the backup, it's best to shut down, turn the backup off, and then restart.

This may be more than you want to know, but the important thing is that a disk must be "unmounted" before you remove it from the computer.

My apologies for the intrusion. BTW, SD has made MY life soooooo easy.....


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 09:10 PM.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.