Laptop Backup :: Unmount, Then Sleep option?
 

I have a MacBook Pro and would like to be able to queue a backup, close the lid, and when I return, disconnect the attached drive and have my computer already be sleeping, after the backup finishes. Is there a way I could have a "unmount, then sleep" option after copy that would accomplish this? Ideally it would also wake the computer up if it fell asleep during the backup (e.g. from closing the lid, etc), but then deliberately sleep the computer at the termination (for any reason) of the backup.

This would be very nice for me, as I often queue a backup just before bed, let the backup run, and then just grab the laptop on the way out the door in the morning. It would be much less hassle than having to log back in, manually eject the drive, and then sleep the laptop. Also it would save power and with the lid shut, there's less risk of a pet walking on the keyboard (or dust getting in it).

Right now, I have to shut the lid just enough to keep the system from sleeping, and hope the pets don't bump it, which they occasionally do. Quite frustrating.

Thanks!

Well, if you schedule a backup and the drive is connected but not mounted, we'll unmount when we're done. There's also a "sleep when done" option, so by combining the two I think you'll get what you want.

Note, though, that when you close the top the Mac's going to sleep...

Right, but I don't schedule backups except for "now"... :)

So, if I get what you are saying, I should schedule a backup for, say, 5 min from the relative "now", unmount the drive, then sleep the computer. The scheduler should wake the computer up, run the backup, and then since the drive was unmounted, SuperDuper! will unmount the drive for me, and then I can use the "sleep" option to put the mac back to sleep?

Its not a bad idea, just still a bit onerous. I'll give it a whirl tonight.

We don't wake, actually -- you'd also need to set the Energy Saver preference pane to wake a minute before the scheduled backup time.

Hrm... the reason I got this software was to make it simple to run backups, and this is getting rather more complex.

Is it a very difficult thing to allow SuperDuper to wake the system from sleep to run a scheduled backup?

Honestly, the way I think about backing up a system is that since you really can't *use* a system while its being backed up (e.g. there's no way in hell I'm running Aperture or developing websites while I'm backing up), backup is something done during system "downtime"... which, in the case of my laptop, is only when I'm sleeping. And of course, when the system is done backing up, I'd like IT to sleep too. So I'm fine with a minute or less of prep, you know, plug in the firewire drive, deliberately unmount it, run SD!, hit *go*, close lid. That would be ideal. Since the ideal is impossible, are there ways you could make it closer to ideal than requiring me to schedule two separate things every time I want to back my system up?

I'd love to see SuperDuper get even better, that's why I brought this up at all!

The situation seems to be relatively complex due to what you're asking for, applegeek -- SD! is more than happy to do what you want on a regular basis (say, late at night), or to sleep the system with the drive connected. It does stink that Apple manages removable drives poorly -- Windows allows them to be disconnected without fear of extreme corruption -- and we've tried to help with the mount/unmount behavior of scheduled backups, but cannot currently combine the behaviors.

You could write a little shell script that would eject your external drive after the backup, and set that as the "after copy" action if you'd like. That little script could even then put the system to sleep... but I'm reluctant to add additional complexity to SuperDuper! for a case that doesn't come up very often -- that way lies Retrospect. :)

Fair enough. I've actually done that, with the script. It just seemed somewhat "duct-taped" if you know what I mean. Thanks, though, for the candid response. Perhaps we'll see some support for this type of behavior in Leopard? :)

Anyway, thanks very much for the usefulness that SD! definitely does provide!

Perhaps, and thanks for your understanding!