Smart Backup Error

[bill s]

Unfortunately no. The only copy was apparently on my erstwhile computer's HD which I no longer have. I was thinking it all was on "Backup". The one thing you can see, however, is my "Smart Update" which was the beginning message in this thread.
Would it be possible to copy "Backup" to the new HD and then copy "sandbox" to the same HD?
Dave, I really appreciate the help you are giving. It's above and beyond.

Bill

[dnanian]

I don't know if that's possible, Bill -- it's really hard to say what state any of these disks are in. Since I don't know, I don't want to advise you to do it.

Instead, since you have a new computer, I think I'd suggest using the backup and/or Sandbox to restore your files by drag-and-drop. Then, once things are the way you want them, let's try to figure out what -- exactly -- you're doing as your backup regimen, OK?

[bill s]

Thanks Dave
What I think may be best is to resurrect my 4 week old Retrospect backup set. That was before I got SuperDuper. Then I can drag & drop whatever important files were created in the interim.
I'm at a loss as to what happened. I've got over 50 GB on "backup" (I think it should have been about 10 GB more) so I would think the stuff was moving over ok. The old HD might have gotten totally screwed up and that was what I was copying over, I don't know. Just this AM before I brought my old computer to Apple. I pulled up Itunes for some info and there were absolutely no files there and I have over 9,000. It appeared that most of the files were in their place on the HD but the connection to Itunes seemed to be lost. Some strange things seemed to happen with that drive/computer.

Bill

[dnanian]

Yeah. I hate to leave it like that, Bill, but I just don't know what you were doing. But again, once you're set up again, let's chat here about what exactly you're doing to back up.

If you're running from a Safety Clone (Sandbox), you should be using "Backup - all files" to back up the original volume (typically "Macintosh HD"). You'd want to use Smart Update to save time. If that's done, every significant file on the original drive -- including your user files -- would be properly copied over to the backup.

You wouldn't ever want to back up the Sandbox, because anything that's on it is basically on the main drive too (or can be easily re-done, like installing a software update or application).

If you were doing that, the backup should definitely be "whole". We've never had a report otherwise, nor have we seen anything that would indicate it doesn't do what it's supposed to...

[bill s]

Dave
I wanted to get back to you before but the damn thing was acting up and I wanted to do the Retrospect restore so I wasn't able to access the net.
I hope you didn't think I was implying that SuperDuper was at fault. I certainly didn't intend that. I think the problem was with the previous computer/HD/Software which corrupted data before it got to SD or me, I guess. I've already redownloaded SD and will retablish the clones when ready. Will get back to you.
Thanks again.

Bill

[dnanian]

No, no -- I just feel bad that I can't help, is all.