[andyb]

Hi, My back-up clone is also much smaller than original (71Gb for the original, 31Gb for the back-up clone) and I have noticed other posts to this effect. Thanks to comments by the administrator I think I have found one possible reason and would appreciate feedback as whether it makes sense or not and other implications.

I did do 2 back-ups, in between optimizing the original and following about every single Unix maintenance procedure that is recommended. Always the same result in both cases.

Following the advice of the administrator dnanian as to what files are ignored by SuperDuper when making a back-up, I turned all folders & files visible using Cocktail and went snooping in /tmp, /private/var/vm and /volumes. In /volumes I found aliases for all my volumes with the exception of a real folder for my old back-up external drive which was using the Apple Backup program from the .Mac service and found a whole collection of incremental back-up by Apple Backup files totaling about 30Gb. It looks like that's the problem.

- Why would Apple stick those files there if I am backing up to an external drive?
- Can safely delete all these files? They are the incremental back-up files of the apple back-up program (kind: Incremental back-up package).
- Can I delete the whole folder in /volumes with the name of my old back-up external drive in one go?
- At this point I have 2 clones of my harddisk done with SuperDuper so I should be safe moving forward and I am somewhat miffed of what Apple did here. Any reason/benefit to keep using Apple backup instead of ditching and going entirely with SuperDuper.

Thanks for letting me know

PS: I like simplicity/clarity and so far Apple didn't give it to me