SuperDuper is frozen during backup
 

Dave,

Just doing my normal nightly backup and SD is frozen, not moving at all, about halfway though. I was doing a smart update. Should I quit and then just do another smart update, or should I erase the destination disk and start fresh?

Frozen as in "pinwheeling"? How long have you left it?

It got stuck for several minutes, but kicked back in on its own. Thanks!

I actually have had just that same issue - the app itself doesn't seem to be pinwheeling - menus are responsive, as is the rest of my system.

However, the copying process itself seems to be stuck - for about ~45 mins., the progress bar hasn't moved, and there's nothing to suggest that there are any files being copied (there's no change in the number of files copied, or evaluated).

This is on a Smart Update, on a cloned backup which hadn't been updated in some time (about two-three months) - is it just because SD! is taking an extra long time to examine all of those older files for updating?

Sounds more like the actual external drive isn't responding properly. I'd force quit SD!, power off your system and drive, simplify connections to just the absolutely necessary items and give it another try.

Same problem here on my MacBook with 10.4.11. While SD! doesn't indicate any progress, I can hear the external drive doing some work. Suddenly SD! reports 100% done and terminates the script. Now I should check if really 100% of the files have been updated.
Same here.

You can use v2.1.4 to avoid this problem. It's due to a bug in an API in Tiger that causes information flow to stop between the UI and copy process, on an Intel Mac. It's fixed in Leopard, and we've worked around it in the next update, too.

That's very good to know, thanks. Could you please confirm that:

- the backup should be ok ?
- the problem isn't linked to Smart Update ?

The problem is not linked to Smart Update: it's due to an API in 10.4.x that has an *intermittent* bug on Intel Macs. Use v2.1.4 if you're uncomfortable with what it's doing: there is no significant downside to v2.1.4 under v2.5, and it does not use the defective API.

i'm uncomfortable that it's hung but i don't have 2.1.4 as i'm a fairly recent purchaser and i only have 2.5. i don't have the option to leave it running unchecked and i've had to stop it...

pressing Stop gets me the 'Stopping now will leave backup in an unknown state. Are you sure you want to stop?' message but I've had to just do it. is there any particular recommended process to make another copy? can I try again to the same location? will it just happen again?

You can download v2.1.4 from the link on the SuperDuper! page.

thanks - will do so as a workaround. i'll probably update to Leopard but, in the meantime, you say above that you've 'worked around it in the next update' - is that update for for OSX 10.4? and if so will it be posted soon?

The next update will work for 10.4.x and 10.5. We don't comment on release dates.