stalls while copying files

[jason]

I've been using SD with my macbook for a while now without any problems, but just today it's started to get stuck while copying files? I've tried it several times and it always seems to get stuck in one of two places.

I'm guessing perhaps it's finding a file it doesn't like? If so, how can I find which file?

Appreciate any help.

[dnanian]

Drop me a note to support and I'll provide a command that'll help...

[jason]

Thanks for the quick reply, I've sent an email to support. I actually sent another earlier today... are they getting through?

[dnanian]

I'm certainly getting a ton of mail, so stand by and I'm sure it'll get in.

[mitchcg]

Originally Posted by dnanian

Drop me a note to support and I'll provide a command that'll help...

I have exactly the same problem. I've been using SD for over a year to do daily backups of my system, but now it stalls during the copy. Then, when I "quit" SD I'm unable to unmount the drive. Even the unix "umount" command fails. I have to do a hard reset of my computer to get the disk to unmount.

[joemac]

Originally Posted by dnanian

Drop me a note to support and I'll provide a command that'll help...

why not just provide the info here?

it looks like several folks are or will be in need on this issue.

joemac

[dnanian]

Mitch, your problem seems like a hardware issue to me; likely a drive lockup, bus issue, etc.

joemac: because it's technical enough that I want to walk the user through.

[mitchcg]

Originally Posted by dnanian

Mitch, your problem seems like a hardware issue to me; likely a drive lockup, bus issue, etc.

joemac: because it's technical enough that I want to walk the user through.

Dnanian,

This happens with any drive I attach to the computer. The drive I tried most recently is brand new. I've tried both Firewire ports as well. So yes, it could be hardware, but I don't think it's the drive or the Firewire adapter. Any other hints?

[dnanian]

You'd really have to look at what's actually accessing the drive. Yes, we're copying files to it, but we're using very high level calls and can't really be 'locking up' the drive.

If the drive's "locking up" like that, it's either hardware (might be computer-side FireWire trouble) or some very low level software (e.g. drivers, AntiVirus).

[schembs]

MacBook Pro (Intel), Mac OS X 10.4.11, backing up onto LaCie drive.

Could it be this particular combination of software and hardware?

Even when it doesn't appear to stop mid-backup, the backups take much more time than they did before this problem started happening for me.

Any suggested resolution?

Thanks,

RJ

[dnanian]

The issue that we know about has no effect at all on speed. Downgrading to v2.1.4 will certainly stop the status display 'update' issue, but -- again -- no speed issue, and I'm unaware of any actual 'problem' with speed in SD.

Other things, though, like Spotlight, AntiVirus, etc could cause problems, of course. As could hardware issues.

[Fraser]

I have had the same problem for the last couple of weeks. I am backing up a fairly small drive that takes less than 15 minutes to complete. It seemed to stall at the same place after about 5 minutes. I left it alone while I made some coffee and when I came back, SD said the backup was complete, it showed 13 minutes elapsed time and the usual number of files checked. I checked some files on the backup and they were up to date. I think it is just the progress display that is at fault.

[dnanian]

What Mac and what OS version, Fraser? Remember: if we're copying a large file, the status display will not update again until that large file has been copied.

[Michael Hyatt]

I am having the exact problem. SuperDuper backs about half the drive, then stalls on 58,118 of 1,202,913 files evaluated. This has been happening for about two weeks now.

I am running a MacBook Pro 2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 4GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM. I am using Mac OS 10.5.4. I am backing up to a 1 TB MyBook External Drive. I have 370 GB of free disk space available.

I am also backing up to this same external drive via Time Machine. It is working flawlessly.

What do I need to do to remedy this?

[dnanian]

Drop me a note and we'll see what it's copying, Michael. (I think you already did, though -- I see three identical support reqeusts that came in after this.)