MBR partition table (instead of GPT) on Intel Mac okay for SD?

[pmocek]

I'm using Mac OS X 10.4 on Intel hardware. The machine has an MBR partition table instead of the default partition table type, GPT, so that I can more easily run other operating systems on it.

I am able to successfully clone to another partition, but Superduper fails when it attempts to mark the other partition ("volume") as bootable.

Is Superduper compatible with MBR partition tables?

[dnanian]

We don't really care what the partition scheme is, but OSX might. I'd need to see the error to attempt any kind of diagnosis, though.

[pmocek]

Originally Posted by dnanian

I'd need to see the error to attempt any kind of diagnosis

Here's the relevant portion:

| 04:51:36 PM | Info | PHASE: 3. After Successful Copy
| 04:51:36 PM | Info | ...ACTION: Making Mac OS Backup bootable
| 04:51:36 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Blessing OS X System Folder
| 04:51:36 PM | Info |       Did not bless Mac OS X System Folder on Mac OS Backup  because it does not exist.
| 04:51:36 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Blessing OS 9 System Folder
| 04:51:36 PM | Info |       Did not bless Mac OS 9 System Folder on  Mac OS Backup  because it does not exist.
| 04:51:36 PM | Info | ...ACTION: Restoring Spotlight state on Mac OS Backup
| 04:51:36 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Restoring Spotlight search indexing state on Mac OS Backup
| 04:51:37 PM | Info |       /Volumes/Mac OS Backup:
| 04:51:37 PM | Info |       	Indexing enabled for volume.
| 04:51:37 PM | Info |       Indexing enabled on Mac OS Backup
| 04:51:37 PM | Info | PHASE: 4. And Finally...
| 04:51:37 PM | Info | ...ACTION: Setting Mac OS Backup as Startup Disk
| 04:51:37 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Setting startup disk to Mac OS Backup
| 04:51:37 PM | Info |       Could not set Mac OS Backup  as the startup disk because it does not contain a valid Mac OS X System Folder.
| 04:51:37 PM | Error | ****FAILED****: result=256 errno=22 (Unknown error: 0)

[dnanian]

I need the whole thing, not just a clip.

[pmocek]

Originally Posted by dnanian

I need the whole thing, not just a clip.

Hmm... It's pretty long and I'd have to read the whole thing to make sure there's no personal information in there before I go posting it on the Interwebs. Is there some particular part (besides that which shows the error and associated codes, which I have already posted) that you need to see in order to diagnose?

[dnanian]

Feel free to send it to me at the support address. But I do need the whole thing.

[pmocek]

Is it saved somewhere, or do I need to run another clone? (I closed Superduper after running it to get the error code you requested.)

[dnanian]

Open SuperDuper!, press Cmd+L, then "Send to shirt pocket..."

[pmocek]

Originally Posted by dnanian

I need the whole thing, not just a clip.

Here it is (note that although I changed the names in the abbreviated log quoted above, I'm actually backing up from "Mac OS (backup)" to "Mac OS"):

| 04:44:57 PM | Info | SuperDuper!, 2.1.3 (80), path: /Applications/SuperDuper!.app, Mac OS 10.4.6 build 8I1119 (i386)
| 04:44:57 PM | Info | Started on Fri, Dec 29, 2006 at 4:44 PM
| 04:44:57 PM | Info | Source Drive: Mac OS (backup), mount: /, device: ST3300831AS, interconnect: Internal ATA, file system: "Journaled HFS+", OS: 10.4.6 (8I1119), capacity: 40.00 GB, used: 17.32 GB, directories: 39136, files: 206896, ejectable: NO, ACLs: Disabled
| 04:44:57 PM | Info | Target Drive: Mac OS, mount: /Volumes/Mac OS, device: ST3300831AS, interconnect: Internal ATA, file system: "Journaled HFS+", OS: 10.4.8 (8L2127), capacity: 40.00 GB, used: 17.08 GB, directories: 41145, files: 209780, ejectable: NO, ACLs: Disabled
| 04:44:57 PM | Info | Copy Mode   : Smart Update
| 04:44:57 PM | Info | Copy Script : Backup - all files.dset
| 04:44:57 PM | Info | Transcript  : BuildTranscript.plist
| 04:44:57 PM | Info | PHASE: 1. Prepare to Copy Files
| 04:44:57 PM | Info | ...ACTION: Preparing Mac OS (backup)
| 04:44:57 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Verifying the integrity of volinfo.database
| 04:44:57 PM | Info |       volinfo.database OK
| 04:44:57 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Enabling permissions on Mac OS (backup)
| 04:44:57 PM | Info |       Refreshing Disk Arbitration ...
| 04:44:57 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Verifying that permissions are enabled for Mac OS (backup)
| 04:44:58 PM | Info |       Permissions on '/' are enabled.
| 04:44:58 PM | Info | ...ACTION: Repairing permissions on Mac OS (backup)
| 04:44:58 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Repairing permissions on Mac OS (backup)
| 04:45:31 PM | Info |       Started verify/repair permissions on disk disk0s3 Mac OS (backup)
| 04:45:31 PM | Info |       Determining correct file permissions.
| 04:45:31 PM | Info |       The privileges have been verified or repaired on the selected volume
| 04:45:31 PM | Info |       Verify/repair finished permissions on disk disk0s3 Mac OS (backup)
| 04:45:31 PM | Info | ...ACTION: Preparing Mac OS
| 04:45:31 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Enabling permissions on Mac OS
| 04:45:31 PM | Info |       Refreshing Disk Arbitration ...
| 04:45:31 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Verifying that permissions are enabled for Mac OS
| 04:45:32 PM | Info |       Permissions on '/Volumes/Mac OS' are enabled.
| 04:45:32 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Verifying that Mac OS ACL support matches Mac OS (backup)
| 04:45:32 PM | Info | ...ACTION: Preserving Spotlight state on Mac OS
| 04:45:32 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Disabling Spotlight search indexing on Mac OS
| 04:45:32 PM | Info | PHASE: 2. Copy Files
| 04:45:32 PM | Info | ...ACTION: Copying files from Mac OS (backup) to Mac OS using Smart Update
| 04:45:32 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Cloning Mac OS (backup) to Mac OS
| 04:45:32 PM | Info |       Copying copy files with delete using script: /Users/phil/Library/Application Support/SuperDuper!/Copy Scripts/Standard Scripts/Backup - all files.dset
| 04:45:32 PM | Info |       Loading 19 commands from copy script /Applications/SuperDuper!.app/Contents/Resources/Copy Scripts/Exclude system temporary files.dset
| 04:45:32 PM | Info |       Loading 6 commands from copy script /Applications/SuperDuper!.app/Contents/Resources/Copy Scripts/Exclude system cache files.dset
| 04:45:32 PM | Info |       Loading 1 commands from copy script /Applications/SuperDuper!.app/Contents/Resources/Copy Scripts/Exclude Norton FileSaver files.dset
| 04:45:32 PM | Info |       Loading 2 commands from copy script /Applications/SuperDuper!.app/Contents/Resources/Copy Scripts/Exclude Spotlight search index.dset
| 04:45:32 PM | Info |       Loading 0 commands from copy script /Users/phil/Library/Application Support/SuperDuper!/Copy Scripts/Standard Scripts/Backup - all files.dset
| 04:45:32 PM | Info |       /
| 04:45:35 PM | Info |       /cores
| 04:45:35 PM | Info |       /usr
| 04:46:29 PM | Info |       /.Spotlight-V100
| 04:46:29 PM | Info |       Ignoring /.Spotlight-V100/.journalHistoryLog
| 04:46:29 PM | Info |       Ignoring /.Spotlight-V100/.store.db
| 04:46:29 PM | Info |       Ignoring /.Spotlight-V100/_rules.plist
| 04:46:29 PM | Info |       Ignoring /.Spotlight-V100/ContentIndex.db
| 04:46:29 PM | Info |       Ignoring /.Spotlight-V100/store.db
| 04:46:29 PM | Info |       /.Trashes
| 04:46:29 PM | Info |       /.vol
| 04:46:29 PM | Info |       Ignoring /.vol
| 04:46:29 PM | Info |       /Applications
| 04:48:40 PM | Info |       /automount
| 04:48:40 PM | Info |       /bin
| 04:48:40 PM | Info |       /Network
| 04:48:40 PM | Info |       /Users
| 04:49:14 PM | Info |       /System
| 04:50:58 PM | Info |       Ignoring /System/Library/Extensions.kextcache
| 04:50:58 PM | Info |       /dev
| 04:50:58 PM | Info |       /efi
| 04:51:01 PM | Info |       /sw
| 04:51:10 PM | Info |       /Library
| 04:51:34 PM | Info |       /sbin
| 04:51:34 PM | Info |       /private
| 04:51:36 PM | Info |       Did not COPY shared-item /private/tftpboot/private/tftpboot because it would have overwritten the original
| 04:51:36 PM | Info |       Ignoring /private/var/db/volinfo.database
| 04:51:36 PM | Info |       Ignoring /private/var/db/BootCache.playlist
| 04:51:36 PM | Info |       Ignoring /private/var/run
| 04:51:36 PM | Info |       Ignoring /private/var/tmp/folders.502
| 04:51:36 PM | Info |       Ignoring /private/var/tmp/mds
| 04:51:36 PM | Info |       Ignoring /private/var/vm
| 04:51:36 PM | Info |       /Volumes
| 04:51:36 PM | Info |       Ignoring /Volumes/Mac data
| 04:51:36 PM | Info |       Ignoring /Volumes/Mac OS
| 04:51:36 PM | Info |       Ignoring /Volumes/Mac OS (backup)
| 04:51:36 PM | Info |       Ignoring /mach.sym
| 04:51:36 PM | Info |       Ignoring /mach
| 04:51:36 PM | Info |       Ignoring /Desktop DF
| 04:51:36 PM | Info |       Ignoring /Desktop DB
| 04:51:36 PM | Info |       Ignoring /.hotfiles.btree
| 04:51:36 PM | Info |       Evaluated 245554 items occupying 16.98 GB (39130 directories, 201110 files, 5314 symlinks)
| 04:51:36 PM | Info |       Copied  20917 items totaling  0.67 GB (3185 directories, 9236 files, 8496 symlinks)
| 04:51:36 PM | Info |       Cloned  16.87 GB of data in 364 seconds at an effective transfer rate of 47.46 MB/s
| 04:51:36 PM | Info | PHASE: 3. After Successful Copy
| 04:51:36 PM | Info | ...ACTION: Making Mac OS bootable
| 04:51:36 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Blessing OS X System Folder
| 04:51:36 PM | Info |       Did not bless Mac OS X System Folder on Mac OS  because it does not exist.
| 04:51:36 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Blessing OS 9 System Folder
| 04:51:36 PM | Info |       Did not bless Mac OS 9 System Folder on  Mac OS  because it does not exist.
| 04:51:36 PM | Info | ...ACTION: Restoring Spotlight state on Mac OS
| 04:51:36 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Restoring Spotlight search indexing state on Mac OS
| 04:51:37 PM | Info |       /Volumes/Mac OS:
| 04:51:37 PM | Info |       	Indexing enabled for volume.
| 04:51:37 PM | Info |       Indexing enabled on Mac OS
| 04:51:37 PM | Info | PHASE: 4. And Finally...
| 04:51:37 PM | Info | ...ACTION: Setting Mac OS as Startup Disk
| 04:51:37 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Setting startup disk to Mac OS
| 04:51:37 PM | Info |       Could not set Mac OS  as the startup disk because it does not contain a valid Mac OS X System Folder.
| 04:51:37 PM | Error | ****FAILED****: result=256 errno=22 (Unknown error: 0)

[dnanian]

Quite weird. So, you're updating a 10.4.8 volume with a 10.4.6 install... something weird clearly happened. Can you try an erase-then-copy rather than a Smart Update to see if that works?

[pmocek]

Originally Posted by dnanian

you're updating a 10.4.8 volume with a 10.4.6 install

Oh. Oops. No, actually I applied the 10.4.8 update to the clone partition after creating it with Superduper and receiving the same error. I just ran it again today so I could get the error code for you.

[dnanian]

OK. But could you try an erase-then-copy to see what that does?

[pmocek]

Originally Posted by dnanian

But could you try an erase-then-copy to see what that does?

Done.

| 07:56:26 PM | Info | SuperDuper!, 2.1.3 (80), path: /Applications/SuperDuper!.app, Mac OS 10.4.6 build 8I1119 (i386)
| 07:56:26 PM | Info | Started on Fri, Dec 29, 2006 at 7:56 PM
| 07:56:26 PM | Info | Source Drive: Mac OS (backup), mount: /, device: ST3300831AS, interconnect: Internal ATA, file system: "Journaled HFS+", OS: 10.4.6 (8I1119), capacity: 40.00 GB, used: 17.32 GB, directories: 39133, files: 206900, ejectable: NO, ACLs: Disabled
| 07:56:26 PM | Info | Target Drive: Mac OS, mount: /Volumes/Mac OS, device: ST3300831AS, interconnect: Internal ATA, file system: "Journaled HFS+", OS: 10.4.6 (8I1119), capacity: 40.00 GB, used: 17.00 GB, directories: 39116, files: 206808, ejectable: NO, ACLs: Disabled
| 07:56:26 PM | Info | Copy Mode   : Erase, then copy files
| 07:56:26 PM | Info | Copy Script : Backup - all files.dset
| 07:56:26 PM | Info | Transcript  : BuildTranscript.plist
| 07:56:27 PM | Info | PHASE: 1. Prepare to Copy Files
| 07:56:27 PM | Info | ...ACTION: Preparing Mac OS (backup)
| 07:56:27 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Verifying the integrity of volinfo.database
| 07:56:27 PM | Info |       volinfo.database OK
| 07:56:27 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Enabling permissions on Mac OS (backup)
| 07:56:27 PM | Info |       Refreshing Disk Arbitration ...
| 07:56:27 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Verifying that permissions are enabled for Mac OS (backup)
| 07:56:27 PM | Info |       Permissions on '/' are enabled.
| 07:56:27 PM | Info | ...ACTION: Erasing Mac OS
| 07:56:27 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Preserving Mac OS UUID
| 07:56:28 PM | Info |       5AD115E5C74A8A94
| 07:56:28 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Preserving spotlight indexing state
| 07:56:28 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Erasing Mac OS
| 07:56:38 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Restoring Mac OS UUID (5AD115E5C74A8A94)
| 07:56:39 PM | Info |       5AD115E5C74A8A94
| 07:56:39 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Restoring Spotlight search indexing state on Mac OS
| 07:56:39 PM | Info |       /Volumes/Mac OS:
| 07:56:39 PM | Info |       	Indexing enabled for volume.
| 07:56:39 PM | Info |       Indexing enabled on Mac OS
| 07:56:39 PM | Info | ...ACTION: Preparing Mac OS
| 07:56:39 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Enabling permissions on Mac OS
| 07:56:39 PM | Info |       Refreshing Disk Arbitration ...
| 07:56:39 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Verifying that permissions are enabled for Mac OS
| 07:56:39 PM | Info |       Permissions on '/Volumes/Mac OS' are enabled.
| 07:56:39 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Verifying that Mac OS ACL support matches Mac OS (backup)
| 07:56:39 PM | Info | ...ACTION: Preserving Spotlight state on Mac OS
| 07:56:39 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Disabling Spotlight search indexing on Mac OS
| 07:56:39 PM | Info | PHASE: 2. Copy Files
| 07:56:39 PM | Info | ...ACTION: Copying files from Mac OS (backup) to Mac OS  
| 07:56:39 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Cloning Mac OS (backup) to Mac OS
| 07:56:40 PM | Info |       Copying copy files using script: /Users/phil/Library/Application Support/SuperDuper!/Copy Scripts/Standard Scripts/Backup - all files.dset
| 07:56:40 PM | Info |       Loading 19 commands from copy script /Applications/SuperDuper!.app/Contents/Resources/Copy Scripts/Exclude system temporary files.dset
| 07:56:40 PM | Info |       Loading 6 commands from copy script /Applications/SuperDuper!.app/Contents/Resources/Copy Scripts/Exclude system cache files.dset
| 07:56:40 PM | Info |       Loading 1 commands from copy script /Applications/SuperDuper!.app/Contents/Resources/Copy Scripts/Exclude Norton FileSaver files.dset
| 07:56:40 PM | Info |       Loading 2 commands from copy script /Applications/SuperDuper!.app/Contents/Resources/Copy Scripts/Exclude Spotlight search index.dset
| 07:56:40 PM | Info |       Loading 0 commands from copy script /Users/phil/Library/Application Support/SuperDuper!/Copy Scripts/Standard Scripts/Backup - all files.dset
| 07:56:40 PM | Info |       /
| 07:56:43 PM | Info |       /cores
| 07:56:43 PM | Info |       /usr
| 07:59:04 PM | Info |       /.Spotlight-V100
| 07:59:04 PM | Info |       Ignoring /.Spotlight-V100/.journalHistoryLog
| 07:59:04 PM | Info |       Ignoring /.Spotlight-V100/.store.db
| 07:59:04 PM | Info |       Ignoring /.Spotlight-V100/_rules.plist
| 07:59:04 PM | Info |       Ignoring /.Spotlight-V100/ContentIndex.db
| 07:59:04 PM | Info |       Ignoring /.Spotlight-V100/store.db
| 07:59:04 PM | Info |       /.Trashes
| 07:59:04 PM | Info |       /.vol
| 07:59:04 PM | Info |       Ignoring /.vol
| 07:59:04 PM | Info |       /Applications
| 08:11:44 PM | Info |       /automount
| 08:11:44 PM | Info |       /bin
| 08:11:44 PM | Info |       /Network
| 08:11:44 PM | Info |       /Users
| 08:27:19 PM | Info |       /System
| 08:31:17 PM | Info |       Ignoring /System/Library/Extensions.kextcache
| 08:31:17 PM | Info |       /dev
| 08:31:17 PM | Info |       /efi
| 08:31:17 PM | Info |       /sw
| 08:31:59 PM | Info |       /Library
| 08:33:34 PM | Info |       /sbin
| 08:33:37 PM | Info |       /private
| 08:33:40 PM | Info |       Ignoring /private/var/db/volinfo.database
| 08:33:40 PM | Info |       Ignoring /private/var/db/BootCache.playlist
| 08:33:41 PM | Info |       Ignoring /private/var/run
| 08:33:41 PM | Info |       Ignoring /private/var/tmp/folders.502
| 08:33:41 PM | Info |       Ignoring /private/var/tmp/mds
| 08:33:41 PM | Info |       Ignoring /private/var/vm
| 08:33:41 PM | Info |       /Volumes
| 08:33:41 PM | Info |       Ignoring /Volumes/GRUB
| 08:33:41 PM | Info |       Ignoring /Volumes/LINUX
| 08:33:41 PM | Info |       Ignoring /Volumes/Mac data
| 08:33:41 PM | Info |       Ignoring /Volumes/Mac OS
| 08:33:41 PM | Info |       Ignoring /Volumes/SWAP
| 08:33:41 PM | Info |       Ignoring /Volumes/Mac OS (backup)
| 08:33:41 PM | Info |       Ignoring /mach.sym
| 08:33:41 PM | Info |       Ignoring /mach
| 08:33:41 PM | Info |       Ignoring /Desktop DF
| 08:33:41 PM | Info |       Ignoring /Desktop DB
| 08:33:41 PM | Info |       Ignoring /.hotfiles.btree
| 08:33:41 PM | Info |       Evaluated 245561 items occupying 16.98 GB (39133 directories, 201114 files, 5314 symlinks)
| 08:33:41 PM | Info |       Copied  284582 items totaling  16.87 GB (39113 directories, 201044 files, 44425 symlinks)
| 08:33:41 PM | Info |       Cloned  16.87 GB of data in 2221 seconds at an effective transfer rate of 7.78 MB/s
| 08:33:41 PM | Info | PHASE: 3. After Successful Copy
| 08:33:41 PM | Info | ...ACTION: Making Mac OS bootable
| 08:33:41 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Blessing OS X System Folder
| 08:33:41 PM | Info |       Did not bless Mac OS X System Folder on Mac OS  because it does not exist.
| 08:33:41 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Blessing OS 9 System Folder
| 08:33:41 PM | Info |       Did not bless Mac OS 9 System Folder on  Mac OS  because it does not exist.
| 08:33:41 PM | Info | ...ACTION: Restoring Spotlight state on Mac OS
| 08:33:41 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Restoring Spotlight search indexing state on Mac OS
| 08:33:43 PM | Info |       /Volumes/Mac OS:
| 08:33:43 PM | Info |       	Indexing enabled for volume.
| 08:33:43 PM | Info |       Indexing enabled on Mac OS
| 08:33:43 PM | Info | PHASE: 4. And Finally...
| 08:33:43 PM | Info | ...ACTION: Setting Mac OS as Startup Disk
| 08:33:43 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Setting startup disk to Mac OS
| 08:33:43 PM | Info |       Could not set Mac OS  as the startup disk because it does not contain a valid Mac OS X System Folder.
| 08:33:43 PM | Error | ****FAILED****: result=256 errno=22 (Unknown error: 0)

[dnanian]

This is quite peculiar, pmocek. It's almost like you're running on a non-Apple computer. Possible?

[pmocek]

Originally Posted by dnanian

It's almost like you're running on a non-Apple computer. Possible?

Well, depending on how you define "non-Apple" it's beyond possible -- it's a fact. As I said before: this is not a stock machine. I have changed the partition table from GPT to MBR in order to more effectively boot multiple operating systems. GPT is fairly new, and many other operating systems don't yet handle it properly. It's a better system, in my opinion, but I'll stick with the old one if doing so will make OS X to play nicely with GNU/Linux and others.

Is Superduper restricted to use with machines using GPT partition tables when running on OS X on Intel hardware?

Truth be told, I have had trouble getting the cloned partition set as a startup disk. But I would think that if Superduper cannot do so, Shirt Pocket would prefer it to recognize this and then issue a warning, refuse to run until the option to set as startup disk is disabled, etc., instead of running all the way through the backup then failing with a cryptic error message. The latter is definitely not consistent with Superduper's otherwise excellent UI.

So, any clues? I realize this is a corner-case for now, but I'm confident that with time you'll find yourselves with more customers running OS X on newer hardware, and more of us Unix geeks jumping on the bandwagon, pushing the boundaries of OS X and Superduper in the process.