excluding documents and desktop
 

In addition to a complete SD! clone, I want to, in effect, create some snapshots of my system. My Desktop and Documents folders are large. Is there any reason I can't/shouldn't exclude these folders from these supplemental backups (snapshots), which I thought I'd put into either a sparse image or a read-only image...I presume that the latter is better unless I want to reuse the target in which case a sparse image is better. Then, if I have to restore some day, I can go back to the one of snapshots and then take the Documents and Desktop folders from a more recent backup.

Am I missing something here, or will this work?

What are you trying to accomplish? In general terms, aren't your Desktop and Documents folder the most 'valuable' data you have?

Indeed they are, and I am taking (other) steps)....

1. I use Time Machine
2. I use Synk to backup (and archive) a different drive
3. I have a complete clone of my main hard drive (using SD!)
4. I am about to implement an offsite hard drive (a complete clone via SD!) that I will update at least monthly
5. My digital photos (probably the most "irreplaceable" items I have) are stored at Phanfare, from which I can at any time order DVDs of the originals, should I ever need to.

So, what am I trying to accomplish? I've been having trouble with my system (I've posted about it here), and I want to be able to "snapshot" my system so the process of disaster recovering isn't so laborious. Snapshotting via a complete SD clone a 200GB drive takes a lot more room than I have (despite my having recently bought a couple more external drives). So, I thought one way of accomplishing "snapshotting" would be to clone the main drive, minus the Documents and Desktop folders (since the latter are backed up up in other ways), so I could store more snapshots.

Is there an easier way to accomplish what I want to do? I used to rely on the Sandbox feature of SD, but although I still use a Sandbox, I've been having trouble with the system on the underlying drive (which I've written about here) not booting after I work from the Sandbox for a while.

Well... I guess a Sandbox is what I'd suggest. Don't boot from it if you don't want to, but it contains a 'snapshotted' system that can be restored (by cloning back), right?

I DO want to boot from the Sandbox. I love the feature, and have been using it for a while (a couple of years, I think). Something is obviously amiss with my system (or at least was, I rebuilt it a week ago from a SD! clone that was a month old...maybe it's cured). But, I don't have confidence right now that things are going well, and I wanted to take regular snapshots so that if things head south again I don't have to work for so many hours to restore the system to health. I thought if I snapshotted the system regularly, then if things crapped out I could restore from the snapshot (minus Docs and Desktop) and then I could copy those two folders from my other backup methods.

Right, but a Sandbox will do this, just don't boot from it and you'll get what you're looking for.

Hmmm...let me make sure I understand. I see that a Sandbox is a "system snapshot". If I clone the Sandbox off, then I have a system snapshot.

Let's see..

1. If I make a Sandbox with "Shared Users and Applications" then I DO NOT have a snapshot that includes non apple apps.
2. If I make a Sandbox with "Shared Users" then I DO have a snapshot that includes non apple apps.

Do I have this right? If so, I would think I'd want a "Shared Users" Sandbox only. Then, if my underlying main volume craps out, I can clone back the Sandbox and then copy back my documents.

Does this work?

Yes, but remember that it requires your original drive to be there and your Users folder intact. Your Documents folder will be in the same state of was on before the restore, since it'll be preserved.