SuperDuper problem
Recently, I did a SuperDuper backup but with a "MINOR" change. I changed "Restart from (internal drive)" to "Restart from (external drive)". I did this to make sure the external drive was bootable. It was; however, now I can't get my computer to boot from the internal drive. In addition, I can't get SuperDuper to back up my internal hard drive to the external HD. The external HD is grayed out. How do I get back to "normal"?
Thanks.
Thanks.
Comments
You should be able to go to System Preferences, then select Startup Disk, then select your internal hard drive, which will cause your mac to reboot from the internal drive. Once you do that, the external drive should no longer be disabled in Super Duper (it won't let you back up to it now because it's currently set to be your boot disk). Hope this helps.
That did it. It's back to the internal drive, AND the external drive is no longer disabled.
Thanks. One more question: For a day or two, I didn't realize I was using the external drive and I saved a bunch of stuff, which of course is now on the external and not the internal drive. I don't recall all that I saved or changed. How do I sync the two drives? I don't want to scramble up the additional files and changes.
I guess what you could try is booting off your external drive again (by reversing the steps above), then use Super Duper to clone your external drive over to your internal one. I think that will work in theory but personally I'd be reluctant... if it were me I'd try to find the files I had changed on the external and copy them over manually instead. I think I cloned an external to my internal once using SD and I had some permissions issues or something. Can't really remember but it just makes me a little wary. Maybe you could create a smart folder in Finder that shows you files that were modified within the last x days... I think that should work.
I liked your suggestion to find the changed files. That makes a lot of sense. I ran 'Find' set up as "Files created after 12-17-07 on the external HDD which I figured would cover the files I saved after I screwed up and let everything save to the external HDD instead of the internal HDD.
Well, "Find" found those files - 785 - of them. Most were 'caches', update summaries, logs, contents, settings, messages, (just) numbers, Resources, CrashReporter, preferences, Defaults, indexes, etc.
Do you have any idea as to whether I should copy ONLY the files I recognize or ALL of them? Which way will I screw up the least? I realize I am burdening you with this question, so I am opening this up to ANYONE who has a suggestion. I have learned a good lesson from this, but I don't think it's worth the aggravation. I'll NEVER do this again. Your advice has been worth it's weight in gold and I'll know what to do "NEXT" time I foolishly make the external HDD the start up drive.
I wouldn't worry about booting from the external in the future as long as you don't do any work on it that you'll want to be accessible later. I switch my boot drive to the external once in a while just to make sure it's all working (at least I did before I switched to Leopard and started using Time Machine)... everything goes smoothly as long as you remember to set it back before you start doing real work!
Thanks again.
Edit: At times, I teach entry level apps like Office (on PC's). I tell my students that they shouldn't be afraid of the computer. I tell them if they back up often, they can't mess up too badly. Wrong!!! I'm going to have to tone down that advice. I find that the 20 something students aren't as concerned about screwing up as the older students are.
Besides backing up on external hard drives I also back up my data and digital pictures on DVDs, 9 DVDs currently, once a month and store it in our bank safety deposit box. At least if the house burns down I'll have semi current data.
I was really looking forward to 50 and 100GB Blu-ray discs for safety deposit storage but I'm beginning to question whether that'd be cost effective. Now that the price on external 2.5" drives are pretty reasonable, it seems a better way would be to buy two 160GB drives for backup and alternate them in the safety deposit box. With that much storage you could come pretty close to cloning your HD. Of course, this approach is only for people who are paranoid about backing up.
Having said that, I'm finding FolderShare a pretty convenient way to get important files offsite. It can sync directory structures between different computers over the internet, so if any of your sync comps are offsite, you effectively get an offsite backup with it. But not entirely--it's not a true backup... no version control for example. But still, effective if your house burns down.
I gritted my teeth and did the same - backup from ext HDD to int HDD. Then restarted from the internal HDD.
Everything s back to "normal" now, except for 1 day of missing emails. Evidently, those unseen files are needed, but I sweated blood over the more than 1000 support files that I "unleashed" on my main drive.
I am grateful for AppleInsider and the knowledgeable AI members. Even when you guys don't know the definitive answers, you get me to thinking more logically and open new vistas (pardon the expression) for me.
AI has become a "religion" for me.