Shirt Pocket Discussions  
    Home netTunes launchTunes SuperDuper! Buy Now Support Discussions About Shirt Pocket    

Go Back   Shirt Pocket Discussions > SuperDuper! > General

 
 
Thread Tools Rate Thread Display Modes
Prev Previous Post   Next Post Next
  #1  
Old 07-27-2011, 01:39 AM
sumguy sumguy is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 6
non-heroic recovery FAIL! what should i have done?

hi all -

i thought i was covered for backups, using both super duper and time machine. but when the Unfortunate Event finally happened, it seems i messed it all up! i don't feel heroic at all!

i'd like to relate the story of what my brilliant plan was, and how it all went wrong, in the hope that other people can avoid my fate, and that someone might give me some advice on how to do better next time...

i have an external usb drive with two partitions - one has my automatic hourly time machine backup, alongside a bootable copy of the snow leopard install disc. the other partition has a weekly bootable backup made with super duper.

my plan was that if my mac died, i could boot another mac from the super duper backup partition, and use time machine to update it to the latest state, i.e., an hour or less from the time the mac died. then i could continue working, and when my mac came back from the repair shop, i could use super duper to copy the working partition back to the internal drive.

well, the first part of the plan worked - my mac died! after that, i was able to boot another machine from the super duper backup. but then everything went off course...

i couldn't figure out any way to use the time machine backup to update the super duper backup partition. i assumed you could do something like a "smart update" with time machine, i.e., update only the files that have changed, and make the drive match the last saved state in the time machine backup. but all i could see was either to do a full restore, or just manually restore files one by one. considering i have something like a million files on my mac, there's no way i could remember everything that had changed in the past week, since the last sd backup! did i miss some option in time machine?

so then i decided to forget about super duper, and do a full restore from time machine. i booted from the copy of the install disc, erased the super duper backup partition, and restored the most recent time machine state to it from time machine. it took several hours, but finally i had a copy of the drive exactly as it had been, just before my mac died - or so i thought.

when i booted it, the first thing i noticed was that safari had lost all its page preview thumbnails on the bookmarks page. then i tried mail, which said something like "in order to use the new features, mail must import all your mail messages". and then time machine said something like, "if you make a backup now, you won't be able to use it on your other computer". obviously this was not an exact copy of my drive! i wondered and worried about what else was missing or not properly restored, and about screwing up my previous time machine backups.

the hardware problem with my mac wasn't related to the hard drive, the data on it was still ok. so in the end i just gave up. i waited for it to come back from repairs. i didn't feel comfortable about erasing it and replacing it with what had been restored from time machine, and i had already lost the sd backup. and actually i felt kind of stupid and frustrated about the whole thing. thankfully i didn't lose any data, but i lost a few days of my time, and it turned out my backup plan was a failure.

so, live and learn - what should i have done? doing hourly super duper backups isn't practical. but going back to a several-days-old backup doesn't seem really sensible either, when i also have an hourly time machine backup. did i miss some way to better integrate them? and, what's the deal with time machine full restore? is it just not reliable?

i realize that very little of my sad story can be blamed on super duper. it did exactly what it said it would do, and i do appreciate that. but the reality is that time machine exists, and in most cases will have a more up-to-date copy of your files. when you throw that into the mix with super duper... well, i for one failed spectacularly at implementing a successful workflow. anyone else?

cheers!

Last edited by sumguy; 07-27-2011 at 01:53 AM.
Reply With Quote
 


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Does SD! clone the new Recovery HD partition in Lion? mrlatte General 16 08-10-2011 04:33 PM
Cloning MacBook Air Recovery USB stick? x509v3 General 0 03-06-2011 07:49 PM
Script on fail? Diggory General 3 11-28-2008 12:51 AM
Backup fail notice? francola General 2 03-13-2008 11:46 AM
SuperDuper causing Time Machine to fail jrdub General 2 02-26-2008 10:22 PM


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 09:38 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.