Shirt Pocket Discussions - SuperDuper! Failure

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SuperDuper! Failure

I have SD! scheduled to do a daily backup. The last one (early this morning) failed. I was able to retrieve information from the log, and it had a series of error entries:

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| 01:17:59 AM | Info | /.Spotlight-V100
| 01:17:59 AM | Info | Preserving /.Spotlight-V100
| 01:17:59 AM | Info | Ignoring /Desktop DF
| 01:17:59 AM | Info | /Users
| 01:18:35 AM | Error | LOGGED EXCEPTION: NSAccessibilityException, reason: "AXEnabled" attribute unsupported by: <NSPanel: 0x1c9edfa0>, userInfo: {NSAccessibilityErrorCodeExceptionInfo = -25205;}
| 01:18:35 AM | Error | LOGGED EXCEPTION: NSAccessibilityException, reason: "AXChildren" attribute unsupported by: <_NSThemeCloseWidgetCell: 0x1ca034c0>, userInfo: {NSAccessibilityErrorCodeExceptionInfo = -25205;}
| 01:18:35 AM | Error | LOGGED EXCEPTION: NSAccessibilityException, reason: "AXChildren" attribute unsupported by: <_NSThemeWidgetCell: 0x1ca02140>, userInfo: {NSAccessibilityErrorCodeExceptionInfo = -25205;}
| 01:18:35 AM | Error | LOGGED EXCEPTION: NSAccessibilityException, reason: "AXChildren" attribute unsupported by: <_NSThemeWidgetCell: 0x1c9e4530>, userInfo: {NSAccessibilityErrorCodeExceptionInfo = -25205;}
| 01:18:35 AM | Error | LOGGED EXCEPTION: NSAccessibilityException, reason: "AXChildren" attribute unsupported by: <NSButtonCell: 0x1ca1ec10>, userInfo: {NSAccessibilityErrorCodeExceptionInfo = -25205;}
| 01:18:35 AM | Error | LOGGED EXCEPTION: NSAccessibilityException, reason: "AXChildren" attribute unsupported by: <NSButtonCell: 0x1c96a7c0>, userInfo: {NSAccessibilityErrorCodeExceptionInfo = -25205;}
| 01:18:35 AM | Error | LOGGED EXCEPTION: NSAccessibilityException, reason: "AXChildren" attribute unsupported by: <NSButtonCell: 0x1c962270>, userInfo: {NSAccessibilityErrorCodeExceptionInfo = -25205;}
| 01:18:35 AM | Error | LOGGED EXCEPTION: NSAccessibilityException, reason: "AXChildren" attribute unsupported by: <NSButtonCell: 0x1c928390>, userInfo: {NSAccessibilityErrorCodeExceptionInfo = -25205;}

An SD! failure has only happened to me a few times before, and it was the kind of thing that took care of itself after I rebooted and manually ran the backup. Today, rebooting didn't help. In fact, I found the iMac to be rather unresponsive while SD! was attempting to create its backup (the spinning beachball kept on appearing). After a short while, SD! seemed to stall after having run through what appeared to be approximately the same number of files (about 0.5 million), and I had to quit SD! I repeatedly attempted a manual backup (usually after rebooting), but each time the results were the same: SD! would stall, and I’d have to quit. The last time it happened (a short while ago) I checked the log, and found that SD! was stalling at about the same point in its activity; after about a half hour of no further activity, I quit SD!:

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| 10:52:37 AM | Info | /.Spotlight-V100
| 10:52:37 AM | Info | Preserving /.Spotlight-V100
| 10:52:37 AM | Info | Ignoring /Desktop DF
| 10:52:37 AM | Info | /Users
| 11:24:36 AM | Info | User terminated processing of transcript...

I ran Disk Utility as well as TechTool Pro, and both drives (internal and external SD!) appeared to be fine.

Suggestions?

Yes. The problem here is that you were running Safari while we were backing up, and it created (and deleted) that 'lock' file as we were copying (and deleted it out from under us).

Repeat the backup after quitting Safari and it should work fine.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dnanian (Post 25128)

The one that failed with all the (null)s was definitely Safari:

| 01:18:32 AM | Info | Unable to create hard link from /Volumes/Nick's HD Clone/Users/Nick/Library/Safari/lock to (null)

That's because 'lock' was deleted out from under us.

The other issue is likely that it was copying a large file, somewhere in your Home folder...

Quote:

Originally Posted by dnanian (Post 25147)

Thanks, Dave.

I will let SD! continue to do its scheduled backups, and see what happens. But I never had a problem with other apps running while SD! was backing up. Was that just dumb luck, or do I need to make sure nothing else is running during SD!'s scheduled backups? (The Manual says that quitting other apps isn't "strictly necessary," but also indicates that it's "a good practice.")

I also never had SD! fail as a result of stalling and (apparently) timing out while copying a "large" file...and the largest file in my Home folder has always been my Entourage Identity, which is about 4 GB. Is there any obvious reason it should suddenly—and coincidentally—become a "choke point?"

That's the thing. It's not strictly necessary, but you can run into problems -- like this one. I don't know why any given file would "suddenly" become a choke point, but something has. If you drop me some email, I can provide you with a command that'll help you determine what file is being copied at that point in time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dnanian (Post 25152)

... If you drop me some email, I can provide you with a command that'll help you determine what file is being copied at that point in time.

PM, or forums - at - shirt-dash-pocket-dot-com?

Quote:

Originally Posted by dnanian (Post 25154)

support - at - etc.

Check your Support inbox.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dnanian (Post 25152)

...I can provide you with a command that'll help you determine what file is being copied at that point in time.

Thanks...It worked like a charm :). Apparently, SD! was getting hung up on my 4 GB Entourage Identity. Why it would do so all of a sudden is puzzling.

Having stalled on that file, I have been quick to quit all other open apps when SD! begins its scheduled backup. But I eventually found that if I let SD! "hang" on that Entourage file for a while (actually, for quite a while), it finally stopped timing out and continued with the backup successfully. So, that's what it seems to be doing now: Hang for a long time, but eventually proceed again to complete the backup successfully.

I wonder what caused all of this to begin with? It certainly seems like Safari somehow was the "trigger" (though it only was involved that first time); right after that, the failures seemed to be due to the hangs on the Entourage file. But now, SD! "recovers" before "giving up."

(BTW: I really don't use Terminal except on rare occasions (like this time), as I'm not comfortable with it (the one time I really attempted to do something "significant" (by "blindly" following someone's poor instructions), I wiped out my desktop!). I did notice that each time I opened Terminal to use the command you provided, as soon as Terminal opened (before I entered any command/password), it informed me "You have mail." The handful of times I've opened Terminal in the past, I never ran into that. And my email habits/behavior haven't changed, so I wonder why I'm receiving that message. But I guess that's not an SD! question, is it? :o)

It's likely mail that a system tool has sent you.

As far as "all this" goes, hard to say. You should generally quit Entourage, though, before copying its data.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dnanian (Post 25200)

It's likely mail that a system tool has sent you.

Where would it be located (certainly not in Mail.app or Entourage)?

Quote:

... You should generally quit Entourage, though, before copying its data.

I use an automator workflow that quits Entourage and copies its data to a "backup" folder in my docs folder. That's the file that SD! gets hung-up on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nick (Post 25206)

Where would it be located (certainly not in Mail.app or Entourage)?

Note: I will be describing what I see on my Tiger machine. If you have Leopard some details might be different.

System-based email is in the file /var/mail/username (where username is your user's "short user name"). Mail is really geared towards Internet email, so it does not offer a direct way to check this mailbox. You can, however, import this system email into Mail. Choose File > Import Mailboxes…; select Other (the key phrase here is "mbox file"); click Continue; press ⌘⇧G (Command-Shift-G); type /var; click Go; select mail; click Choose; make sure your short user name is checked in the Items to import list; click Continue; read the displayed info about where to find the imported messages; click Done.

Entourage should also be able to do the job. The key words you want to look for are import and mbox. Then just point it to your /var/mail/username file.