How to preserve icon of target volume during smartbackup?

[bbarol]

yep, me too. I've tried everything suggested here with no luck. this is admittedly a minor usability issue, but it's getting under my skin a little bit. so please consider this a feature request: have SD preserve custom icons on target volumes. and thanks.

[jotaro]

Add me to the growing list of SD users who want the icons on the target disks preserved. I know nothing about shell scripts or programming or developer tools. So adding some kind of script to SD isn't feasible for me. I, too, find it a little annoying that my choice is to accept the generic icons or manually replace the personal icons each time. So if the script is simple enough for programmers, perhaps the author of SD could add this little icon function to the next update.

I'm assuming that there will be another SD update even though Leopard's arrival is looming. I'm not technical enough to know whether Time Machine will render SD obsolete. I knew TM was coming but purchased SD anyway in light of the good reviews. So I hope SD will continue to be valuable under Leopard and that the author of SD will add a fix for the icons.

jotaro

[AzureeWill]

Originally Posted by DavidGG

I may be missing something here, but is there a reason why the user should be bothered with maintaining a "Volume Icons" folder? Wouldn't it be better to use a "before copy" script that saves the icon in /tmp, and an "after copy" script that restores it later?

# Save volume icon
if [ -e "$4/.VolumeIcon.icns" ]; then
cp "$4/.VolumeIcon.icns" "/tmp/$3.VolumeIcon.icns"
fi

# Restore volume icon
if [ -e "/tmp/$3.VolumeIcon.icns" ]; then
cp "/tmp/$3.VolumeIcon.icns" "$4/.VolumeIcon.icns"
if [ -e /Developer/Tools/SetFile ]; then
/Developer/Tools/SetFile -a C "$4" # Set "custom icon" flag for volume
fi
rm -f "/tmp/$3.VolumeIcon.icns"
fi

Actually, is there a reason SuperDuper doesn't have an option to do this automatically?

Playing with scripts/programming is outside my field of expertise, but I really want my custom drive icons to stay the way I have them, so I'd appreciate it if anyone could answer my questions about DavidGG's script. I too would like to avoid maintaining a "Volume Icons" folder, but am a little sketchy on how to implement DavidGG's workaround.

1) I feel quite ignorant asking, but... if I copy this script off the forum page, what do I do with it? Paste & save in TextEdit or? Do I have to save it in a particular location?

2) Do the custom drive icons have to have been changed in any particular way in the first place in order for this script to do its job? I've simply done the quick copy-paste of the icon image in the Get Info window, didn't use CandyBar or anything.

3) Where it says "$3" and "$4", do I need to change that to match the actual names of my particular volumes? And if so, which one refers to the Target and which one refers to the Source?

Thank you for any guidance you can give!

As other users have stated, I too would appreciate future updates to SuperDuper! to include the option of maintaining custom drive icons. As simple as the little things are to change in the first place, I really don't like having to tinker with programming in order to put them back the way I had them before running a SuperDuper SmartUpdate. I'd prefer to leave the programming to the SuperDuper programmers, so they can implement a clean and elegant solution to the icon issue, just as they've created such a clean and elegant backup solution!

[dnanian]

You'd need to create two files -- plain text ones -- with those commands in them. The actual files would be:

saveicon.sh:

#!/bin/sh

# Save volume icon

if [ -e "$4/.VolumeIcon.icns" ]; then
   cp "$4/.VolumeIcon.icns" "/tmp/$3.VolumeIcon.icns"
fi

restoreicon.sh:

#!/bin/sh

# Restore volume icon

if [ -e "/tmp/$3.VolumeIcon.icns" ]; then
  cp "/tmp/$3.VolumeIcon.icns" "$4/.VolumeIcon.icns"
  if [ -e /Developer/Tools/SetFile ]; then
    /Developer/Tools/SetFile -a C "$4" # Set "custom icon" flag for volume
  fi
  rm -f "/tmp/$3.VolumeIcon.icns"
fi

These would have to be saved in those files, then each would have to be marked as executable. That would involve a command in Terminal (assuming they're in your Home fodler):

chmod +x ~/saveicon.sh ~/restoreicon.sh

Thanks for the other comments.

[AzureeWill]

Thanks Dave! I'll save the script as you've instructed ang give it a go. Would you happen to have any answers for my questions 2) & 3)?

SuperDuper is so nice & easy, I may even switch my parents over to it, but I need to resolve this little icon issue first or they will quickly get confused about which drive/partition is which. It's all about the pretty pictures making everything clear for them!

[dnanian]

Remember: if you eject the drives, we'll mount them, back up and unmount them. Can't get confused if they're not there.

[TimLawson]

Originally Posted by AzureeWill

Thanks Dave! I'll save the script as you've instructed and give it a go. Would you happen to have any answers for my questions 2) & 3)?

Would it be possible, please Dave, to have the answer to '3' in particular? I'm confused (as a non-programmer) as to exactly what the $3 and $4 means although suspect they are drive references. For example, in the Info pane of Disk Utility, I see that my Mac HD is described as 'disk1s3' and my FW rive as 'disk2s3', so would that be $1 and $2 in your code? Or what?

Tim.

[TimLawson]

Originally Posted by MarkUK

I have a pre-script and post-script which run an automator action:

/Users/mark/SaveBackupIcon.app/Contents/MacOS/SaveBackupIcon
&
/Users/mark/SetBackupIcon.app/Contents/MacOS/SetBackupIcon


I did this for flexibility, automator can do applescript, shellscript etc etc.
Then the save automator action just runs a shellscript to save the icon to my /ICONS directory:

cp '/Volumes/volume/.VolumeIcon.icns' '/ICONS/volume.VolumeIcon.icns'
/Developer/Tools/setfile -a V /ICONS/*.icns


Then my set automator action to put it back runs the following script:

cp '/ICONS/volume.VolumeIcon.icns' '/Volumes/volume/.VolumeIcon.icns'
chown mark:admin '/Volumes/volume/.VolumeIcon.icns'
/Developer/Tools/SetFile -a C '/Volumes/volumes'


I then do a 'Get Specified Finder Items' and that contains the volume whose icon is about to be restored. Pass that into an applescript action:

on run {input, parameters}
tell application "Finder" to update input
return input
end run

Maybe it's of interest to someone, maybe not!

I feel bad asking, but would it be possible, please, to have step-by-step instructions for a non-programmer to be able to do this? Grovel, grovel!

Tim.

[dnanian]

The User's Guide section on these shell scripts explains what the $-parameters all are. Basically, they're arguments that SD! passes to the script so you can tell what's going on.

The icon should be copied from its "on-disk" format, not from the Get Info dialog (which won't work). So, you do need to copy the file as explained in the original post...

[gryphonent]

Dave,

I've been a registered user for a while and overall I'm pretty happy with SuperDuper. However, I don't want to play around with scripts and the like. I've made this point numerous times before and I just don't get why you are so hesitant to listen to users and fend off whatever feature request comes your way. Are you not interested in improving your software? Please provide an option in the preferences tab to keep the target volume. I want a simple checkbox to click. No fumbling around with scripts and reading through this forum, trying various ways how to achieve a simple task.

Your software claims to be easy to use... it is, however, only to a degree. I don't want to open the hood. More regular updates would be truly appreciated. It would also provide greater exposure on Versiontracker and Macupdate, probably boosting your sales. Think of it that way.

[dnanian]

Believe me, I'm not at all reluctant to listen to users, and I do not "fend off" features. I'm well aware of this particular request, and it's something we're looking at, but it's more complicated that you might think to do properly, and is gated on some other things we're working on.

We cannot update a product like SuperDuper! frequently. Providing you with a reliable solution is far more important than exposure on VT/MU, and that means careful engineering and extensive testing.

I'm sorry that this particular design choice is frustrating you and others, but there are solutions in this thread that will do the job until a carefully designed and thoroughly tested internal solution can be made available.

[gryphonent]

Dave,

Thanks for your reply... but considering that the initial request was posted on 2nd December 2005 your timetables are as believable as those issued by the Bush regime.

[dnanian]

I'm sorry to disappoint, but we have things that are of higher priority. That doesn't mean I'm ignoring the request.

[mypointofview]

1. Download this here: http://uk.geocities.com/galery003/su...get_Volume.zip

2. Put folder "SuperDuper!" into your user's Library folder and (important) customize the icon names!

3. Select "After copy" script as explained in the note.

Please give feedback if it works or if it doesn't. It works for me on OSX 10.48 with SuperDuper! version 2.1.4.


Martin

PS: you can use your own icons, for example exported from Pixadex. Pixadex is a great icon management application. Be sure to use only icons in ICNS file format.

[GMacSpark]

I was also one of those a little peeved at having to manually restore the icon on my target volume after a backup, but then it occurred to me: instead of having to restore it, why not simply avoid having it overwritten in the first place?
Just add a script command that ignores /Volumes/(your source volume)/.VolumeIcon.icns and your target volume icon should remain untouched. Any reasons this shouldn't work? (No, I haven't tried it yet - I just thought of it :^)

Gary