Network backup issues
 

Hi, I'm trying out CCC & SD to see which works for me. I'm wanting to backup a couple of computers to a Firewire drive attached to a Mac mini. To make the restore process easier, I suppose I should backup to sparse disk images. Because the backup drive will be taken offsite & stored in my office, the image should be encrypted in case someone steals the drive while it is offsite.

Problem 1: Using SD, I can create a sparse image & clone to it. Takes ages, but that is to be expected for a network backup, I think. (Using CCC, I can't even get this far.) The sparse image is not encrypted, so I created an unencrypted image & an encrypted image using Disk Utility. The unencrypted image worked fine. The encrypted image failed to mount. Mounting the encrypted image first in the Finder with the password was possible, but SD wouldn't use the already mounted image & complained the the image failed to mount.

Problem 2: Now, using the already cloned unencrypted disk image, I heeded etherdancer's issue of prolonged disk image mounting time & tried to do a new backup over the old one. After 5 minutes, SD complained that the disk image failed to mount. During this time, network traffic was continuous. Mounting the image in the Finder is quick, but SD refused to use this image, once again complaining of being unable to mount.

Is what I am hoping to achieve unachievable?

In both situations, try pointing us at the already mounted image's volume, not the file, and see if that works.