question about scheduling a backup +/- safe mode

[TomBB]

I have set up SD to perform backups of all files using smart update method. I like being able to schedul backups, but am confused by the instructions manual's suggestion to log in in safe mode to perform backups. This does not seem possible with scheduling unless I make sure to log out and back in in safe mode at the end of every night.

My question then is: will scheduled backups be affective without using safe mode if my computer is unattended say at 3am? Or is this too risky, and why?

I saw another posting about scheduling under Root user account, but that was for a server environment-- will that solve my problem in my standard single computer situation? Or is all of this overkill and I should just allow my standard user account to run it a 3am?

Thanks for the clarification for a new user.

[dnanian]

Actually, we don't suggest using Safe Boot. The suggestion in the User's Guide is that for easy of quitting applications, you could log out and in with Shift down, not restart with Shift down.

In general, as long as your application isn't downloading large files (browser, BitTorrent, etc), and isn't something that's constantly writing to a big database or data file (Parallels, VMWare, Entourage), you're fine.

[TomBB]

Hi again Dave. Thanks for clearing that one up. Loving the ease of SuperDuper more and more each day!

I have a follow up question about this.

I have set up SD! in my Standard User Account, not my Administrator Account. I would like to have SD! run while both my Standard User Account and my 3 year old son's limited Standard User account is logged in and his is the active one in front. That way SD! will back up, and the computer will be left available for my son's electronic trampling around in search of Thomas the Train later that morning after I am gone. (I usually am not around to attend to SD! before/during/after the backups to manually log out etc.)

I tried this setup and the logs this morning show that the backup was not performed (bummer!).

Ideas and solutions would be greatly appreciated.