SuperDuper freezes copying G4 HD to iMac

[axxxxe]

I am trying to backup an old G4 PowerBook (Leopard) to a new iMac (I don't have an external disk).

I started the PowerBook in target disk mode and connected it to the iMac with a FireWire cable. I then run SuperDuper full copy from the PowerBook hard disk to an uncompressed read-only disk image on the iMac desktop.

SuperDuper then runs extremely slowly, it takes a minute before the first files are copied, and then it creeps slowly through the files, eventually stopping at about file 27,000 (out of 500K files) after an hour or so. It's been sitting at the same file count now for about 16 hours.

This is the second time I've tried the above procedure. The first time the iMac Finder was frozen along with SuperDuper, though other apps were still working. I rebooted the iMac (with the PowerBook still attached) which took a VERY long time - maybe 15 minutes for the iMac to boot. Disconnecting the PowerBook restored a normal speedy boot sequence.

This time Finder is not frozen but SuperDuper sure is.

Any suggestions? Is the PowerBook hard disk dying? If so, what are my best chances of getting as much data off as possible?

Thanks! (Thanks also for a great tool that's always worked perfectly until now ;-)

[dnanian]

Sounds quite likely that you're having drive problems. I'd suggest clean installing Leopard to the new iMac and then -- when it prompts you during your first startup to "copy from another Mac" -- follow the instructions to do so. Hopefully that'll bring in a small enough subset (skipping the OS) that it'll avoid the damage.

[axxxxe]

Hmm, that means I lose all the data on the iMac, yes? Can I run migration assistant on the iMac without first doing a clean Leopard install? Or is a fresh OS on the iMac important?

Thanks for the quick response!!! :-)

[dnanian]

Huh? What data on the iMac? You've already indicated you were going to clobber the whole thing with a backup from the PowerBook anyway, no?

[axxxxe]

Originally Posted by axxxxe

I started the PowerBook in target disk mode and connected it to the iMac with a FireWire cable. I then run SuperDuper full copy from the PowerBook hard disk to an uncompressed read-only disk image on the iMac desktop.

Sorry if I wasn't clear - I'm just trying to create a backup of the PowerBook hard disk onto a _disk image_ on the iMac (stored in the iMac filesystem). Not trying to overwrite anything on the iMac, just trying to use 50G of the 650G available iMac disk space as a copy of the PowerBook volume.

My plan was to then mount the resulting disk image and decide what to migrate to the iMac.

But I want to make a copy of the entire PowerBook volume to protect against a disk failure.

[dnanian]

Ah, quite different. Perhaps you should send in the log from the backup using "Send to shirt pocket" so I can take a look.