File Preventing Successful Backup

[michael k]

Hi all: SuperDuper seems like a great program. Kudos to you, Dave. However, when I first tried to back up my hard drive, a single jpeg image file always prevented successful execution. I am pasting the log entry below:

|07:08:54 AM|Info| WARNING: Source: /Users/michaelk/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Albums/New Infiniti/New Car!.jpg, lstat(): 0
|07:08:54 AM|Info| WARNING: Target: /Volumes/ABS-1/Users/michaelk/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Albums/New Infiniti/New Car!.jpg, lstat(): -1
|07:08:54 AM|Info| WARNING: Could not copy file with Cocoa frameworks. Attempting to copy with ditto.
|07:08:54 AM|Error| ditto: can't get real path for source

I subsequently trashed the file, and its presence in the trash also prevented successful backup. I literally had to purge the file entirely. Can you tell from this log file what the problem was with this file? Will SuperDuper always abort backup if it finds just a single file that it doesn't like?

michael

[dnanian]

Thanks, Michael. I think the best thing to do in this particular case is to (uses "hypno-voice") send the Infiniti to meeeee.

Seriously, though, we consciously take a VERY conservative approach to error handling, because we don't know (automatically) how important a file is to back up and -- very often -- the user doesn't either. If the failure is on a "boot-critical" file, for example, not backing it up could mean you've got a rather ineffective backup!

So, we stop the backup. If the user knows what the file is, they can take appropriate steps, and Smart Update will automatically continue from the proper location (it won't copy files that are already there, and will do any rearranging that the "fix" requires). If they don't, support is here for them to help make an informed decision on how to continue...

This kind of thing doesn't happen very often, fortunately, as it indicates some basic damage on the drive or in the file structure. Once corrected, you should be OK. But, in case it's a pending physical problems, I suggest that you download a copy of the nice, free program SMARTReporter from VersionTracker. It'll inform you if your drive indicates that it's having issues, which will give you extra time to take action.

[michael k]

Thanks Dave. I appreciate the quick feedback. Looking forward to long and productive use of SuperDuper. mcihael

[sjk]

You might also want to monitor the console or system log for disk I/O errors like:

Dec 21 15:09:13 halo kernel: disk0s5: I/O error.

That was the start of trouble (happy holidays ) on my iMac G5 internal drive even though SMARTReporter still reported the drive was okay. Apparently that error indicated a bad sector (or sectors) on the drive, and running DiskWarrior actually made the problem worse. I eventually salvaged a satisfying amount of data from the drive, then ran Media Scanner from SpeedTools Utilities on it. That detected and mapped out more bad sectors than I could count before I gave up and called AppleCare to get a replacement drive. I ran Media Scanner on that drive for a day and it was error-free and has been trouble-free.

There was never any indication of a S.M.A.R.T. error on the bad drive (with several utilities) and I'm much more attentive to disk I/O errors as a symptom of potential drive failure.

[dnanian]

Yeah, this is a tough one for "regular users" to look for, since the console/system log look like so much gobbledegook, and it's not even clear what drive it's referring to.

SuperDuper! will generally (consciously & conservatively) fail if we encounter an I/O error during backup, and I'll help them determine whether or not the drive is in failure.

S.M.A.R.T. is, indeed, not a panacea, but it works pretty well for certain types of physical error (like slow spin-up due to motor and bearing failure, etc). Better to have it than to not have it!