"To" keeps changing
 

I've used SD to backup an external FW800 drive to another one on the same chain for some time now (from: Jens Media to: Backup Jens Media). A bit ago (not certain when, it was on a schedule), SD started changing the "to" volume to be the same as the "from" volume. I noticed it today, and confirmed that now matter how I did the backup ("copy now" from the schedule, or "load settings" from the saved setting, the "to" volume quickly changed from the correct name to the name of the source volume: like in about 1 second). The flashing lights on the drives indicated only one drive was doing anything.

So, I cleared everything out: saved settings (there is only one), the schedule scripts (again, only one), quick SD, and restarted the iMac (intel, mid-2008, OSX 10.5.7, all current).

I started SD and select the "from" and "to" volumes from the drop downs (the correct drive names were there), select the "smart backup" option, and the copy worked correctly. Flashing lights indicated BOTH drives were doing something.

Then I saved that setting with a name. When I "loaded it" right away, once again, the "to" volume name became the same as the source volume name!!! Same thing if I set it up manually and "scheduled it" and did a "copy now."

What's going on?????

Ed Oates

(sorry if this appears twice: I thought I submitted it earlier, but it disappeared).

It sounds like both drives have the same low-level ID. Delete the schedule and erase one of the drives with Disk Utility. Then, recreate the schedule & settings. That should fix it.

Thanks for the swift reply.

Is there a way to determine what the low level ID is on each drive? It is possible that at some point, I just renamed on of the drives to "backup...".

I'd like to do a quick check if I can before the fairly lengthy new backup (they are terabyte drives with about 600GB stored: media drives, after all).

Eddie O

You can assign a new UUID to them with a low-level utility. Drop me a line to the support email address.

Hi,
I'm having exactly the same problem. I have a LaCie external enclosure with 2 HDDs (no RAID) and both HDDs have the same UUID. When I create a backup script it's always selecting the other drive. It's driving me nuts and I can't schedule it because it will backup the wrong drive.

Do you know how can I change the UUID of one of those drives? I'm on Snow Leopard. Is the UUID assigned when the HDD is mounted or it's somewhere on the HDD itself?

Thanks a lot,
appreciate it,
Petr

Use disk utility to erase the drive, Petr, and it'll give it a new UUID.

Yep, that worked.

Thanks a lot.

Just out of interest, do you if there's a non-destructive way as well? I know that on linux there is something like "tune2fs" but I couldn't find anything like that for Mac.

There is (I didn't mention it because it's low-level and geeky): hfs.util. Do a "man hfs.util"...