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-   -   Western Digital My Book drives and SuperDuper (https://www.shirt-pocket.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2791)

hdtvluvr 08-28-2007 09:22 PM

Western Digital My Book drives and SuperDuper
 
OK, I have been a long time user of CCC. After 2 HD crashes in the last 18 months I decided that I would rather use an external HD than a second internal HD for backups. Therefore, I bought the WD My Book Pro (3 interfaces including FW800).

My problem is that this drive goes to sleep if not accessed regularly. CCC will not wake it up to perform a scheduled backup. After reading about other backup utilities, I found Superduper. I downloaded it and really like the interface and abilities. However, it seems I must pay for it before I can schedule a backup. I don't mind paying for the software but I'd rather not buy it to find out it will not wake up an external drive either.

Will superduper wake up an external drive when a backup is scheduled? My internal drive is set to never sleep. Looking forward to a response - I really need to start getting backups again!

d-v-c 08-28-2007 09:59 PM

I've got one I'm going to try -- so I may, in the next 10 days, be able to let you know.

As I understand, with an Intel Mac, the two 250MB drives can't be a joined into a RAID. Each is seen as individual drive. Correct?

This is fine with me as I want to format each drive as HFS+.

HERE'S MY QUESTIONS

After saving from a Mac using SD -- if I want to be able to boot from the saved OS -- what determines if a boot can be performed?

1) Does the MyBook have the correct FireWire chipset?

2) If I partition a drive into 2 or 3 "sub-partitions" can each sub-partition be bootable OR can there only be ONE bootable partition per drive?

3) If I partitioned one of the drives into 2 "sub-partitions" can 1 partition be bootable and the other be for data only?

dnanian 08-28-2007 10:49 PM

I don't understand how the drive could go to sleep in a way that wouldn't let it "wake" -- that's really a function of the OS, and not the application... we don't really have a way to "wake" the drive!

hdtvluvr 08-29-2007 08:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dnanian (Post 13742)
I don't understand how the drive could go to sleep in a way that wouldn't let it "wake" -- that's really a function of the OS, and not the application... we don't really have a way to "wake" the drive!

So in essence, you're saying that the drive should automatically 'wake' when the backup starts?

I just opened SuperDuper and got a message stating that it could not find the target drive and to mount it. But the drive does show up in the dropdown list. The drive also appears on my desktop so it really is 'mounted'.

Is there anything I can do to get this to work?
Running a PPC G5 with OS 10.4.10

dnanian 08-29-2007 08:36 AM

If it says it can't find the target, it's because the target's low-level id (UUID/GUID) has changed. Reselect it in the pop-up, quit and restart and it should restore as expected.

hdtvluvr 08-29-2007 09:47 AM

So, I need to select the target, quit SuperDuper, Restart the Mac and everything should be OK from then on?

The external drive has never disappeared from my desktop so how can the low-level id (UUID/GUID) change?

Will SuperDuper perform a scheduled backup since I am having this problem? Any resolutions? Can I use a script in the before copy of the advanced tab to 'mount' the drive? I really need to be sure this app will work before purchasing.

dnanian 08-29-2007 11:03 AM

Simply erasing the drive outside of SD! will change its low-level ID. So, yes, if you do that (and just restart SD!, not the Mac), it should be fine; give that a try.

"This problem" -- namely the UUID change -- shouldn't happen at all unless you erase/change the drive at a low-level outside of SD! itself. (We preserve the UUID if you do an erase-then-copy inside of SD itself.)

You haven't yet talked about a drive being mounted/unmounted. Are you trying to unmount the drive?

hadleyhope 08-29-2007 04:33 PM

I have today brought a WD My Book Premium (dual interface). I have just evaluated SD, whilst I was busy ready about "my first backup" the drive powered down. When I finally got round to pressing the copy button the drive powered up again and the backup proceeded.

After the clone I successfully booted from the My Book drive, so add me to using the WD My Book without any problems.

I was so impressed I have now registered SD!

dnanian 08-29-2007 05:24 PM

Thanks, hadleyhope!

hdtvluvr 08-30-2007 07:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hadleyhope (Post 13763)
When I finally got round to pressing the copy button the drive powered up again and the backup proceeded.

Yes, but did the scheduled backup run? i.e. did it wake the drive and successfully perform a backup?

I'm going to try to run a backup again today and see if SD remembers the drive exists when I open it afterwards.

hdtvluvr 08-30-2007 08:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dnanian (Post 13748)
You haven't yet talked about a drive being mounted/unmounted. Are you trying to unmount the drive?

No, I really don't want to mount/unmount the drive. Is there an advantage to unmount a drive when it is designed to go to sleep if not accessed regularly?

dnanian 08-30-2007 08:31 AM

Well, it ensures it's not available on the desktop, which can be an advantage, yes.

hdtvluvr 08-31-2007 04:32 PM

I think that even though the backup HD shows on the desktop, I need to somehow mount it before SD runs. Can I have SD run a shell script (Advanced tab) to mount the drive before it begins its copying? If so, how would I create the script?

dnanian 08-31-2007 07:00 PM

No, you don't need to "mount" it if it's on the desktop. It's already mounted.

hdtvluvr 08-31-2007 07:31 PM

I don't feel as if I am conveying my problem correctly so I will try again.

I have an external FW800 drive that goes to sleep due to it's firmware. This info was found/surmised by others on the Western Digital website. This is either a bug or perhaps by design to prevent it from overheating - again a design issue.

Anyway, the HD shows up on the desktop but is actually asleep when I want to perform a scheduled backup. My last post was to determine a way to 'mount' it again so that it would be accessed and thus wake up before SD started trying to copy. Is this not a viable workaround? The OS is set to never put the HD's to sleep so the booted drive is awake. I was hoping to use the scriptable portion on the Advanced tab of SD to run a script to mount the drive. If this is possible, how would I write/create/store the script?

Thanks for your continued assistance.

EDIT: I am assuming that SD won't 'wake' the drive since Carbon Copy Cloner and Silverkeeper won't. The drive is 'mounted' but unavailable since it is asleep. I need to know if SD will 'wake' a mounted drive either by itself or by executing a script before copying. If it will I will register and purchase a copy. I just don't want to purchase a copy and it not work for my situation.


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