change the name under which a sparseimage mounts
 

I'm using SuperDuper! to backup to a network-mounted sparseimage[1]. I'd like to use a rotating series of three sparseimages as targets of the backups -- i.e. img1 on Sundays and Thursdays, img2 on Mondays and Fridays, and so on. No problems at all in getting this working, but I'd like to to seed the second and third sparseimages from the first (so that the first run of the second and third backups take less than an hour, instead of six). However, simply copying and renaming a .sparseimage file doesn't do it... If you do that, it still seems to want to mount under the *old* name.

Example: If I have img1.sparseimage and I copy it into img2.sparseimage, mounting the latter gets me a /Volumes/img1 (instead of /Volumes/img2) -- even though the contents of the mount are what's in the img2 image.

I can't find a way to alter this behavior (that is, to get the metadata in img2 updated so that it mounts as img2). I've looked at the help for hdituil, and have run various tests on a small, sample image. I tried "hdiutil convert" with various flags, and also looked at the output of "hdiutil imageinfo". I don't see the as-mounted name in there, anywhere.

Were I mounting the image myself, I could work around this by creating a link, or whatever. Since SuperDuper! is mounting the image, I don't have that option; whatever name it mounts is, as what I've got to work with. Hence the question...

Anybody know if this is possible, and what the incantation is?

[1] I'm doing this in lieu of using Time Machine... I got four separate "read-only" errors (after starting over, from scratch, four separate times while on Christmas vacation; once, I completely wiped the disk and ran a Drive Genius scan on it -- twice). Alas, Time Machine doesn't appear to be dependable, at least not in my environment. :-( Apple discussion forums suggest that many other folks are experiencing the same thing.

Simply mount the image and rename the volume (inside the image) in Finder to the name that matches the filename (e.g. img2).

Hmmmmm... So you're saying that the mounted name is a function of information in the sparseimage, but can be overridden permanently by information on my machine?

[I'll try your suggestion when I get home, certainly, but am a bit confused by the technical details.]

I guess the reason I ask is that image A is on an external drive attached to host A, which has Personal File Sharing turned on. I copied image A to image A', from host A. Then, from host B, I'm doing a "Connect As" to attach to the drive on host A, and am then mounting image A'. The fact that it mounts as A (and not A') tells me that the name comes from inside the image, and not from anything external.

However, you're suggesting that if I mount A' (which shows up as A), then rename it *on host B, where it's remote-mounted* to A', that the name A' will stick from then on, whenever (for example) SuperDuper! automatically mounts the image for me... Is that the idea?

That would mean that host B maintains a separate cache of names that overrides everything else... Which is why I'm confused. :-) The fact that A' mounts as A suggests that there's something *in* the image file itself that could be changed, to make it mount as A'.

Regardless, thanks for your quick help. I love SuperDuper! -- it's been rock solid for me, for years. I would recommend it on a heartbeat...

Yes. It comes from inside the image: the volume name (which is the same as a physical disk). It will also rename it remotely if you have permission to do so, since it's equivalent to a locally mounted drive.

Excellent info -- thanks! Will give this a try...