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-   -   When will the next scheduled backup be if copmuter was turned off? (https://www.shirt-pocket.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1243)

macjonte 04-22-2006 07:16 AM

When will the next scheduled backup be if copmuter was turned off?
 
I'm looking for alternatives to SilverKeeper, since it can't make backups to network drives.
After checking like 10 different backup applications I found this one on recommendation. (gee, there is a lot of bad backup apps out there)

This seems to do same job as SilverKeeper, except for the nice thing to save everything into a sparse image, a solution I like a lot. Much better to do backup of the backup server with 10 sparseimages than one million files.

but, what happens if the computer was turned off when the scheduled time occurs? SilverKeeper runs the backup when the computer is tuned on again.

Besides, I find it too bad to not be able to test the entire app before buying it. let me try 10 backups or 20 days or something. I'm interested if it can be something that fit my demands.

dnanian 04-22-2006 10:13 AM

Hi, macjonte. If the computer is turned off, we don't run "skipped" jobs, since they were scheduled for a specific date and time, and that time has past. But, we're looking at improvements to this for future versions.

As far as demo limitations are concerned, please read my blog post The Limited. That explains why we do what we do, and offers a solution for you as well.

loosegroove 04-22-2006 11:46 AM

Perhaps using a program like Anacron would help ensure that a missed task gets run once the computer is turned back on.

http://members.cox.net/18james/anacron-tiger.html

--
Bronson

macjonte 04-23-2006 11:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dnanian
Hi, macjonte. If the computer is turned off, we don't run "skipped" jobs, since they were scheduled for a specific date and time, and that time has past. But, we're looking at improvements to this for future versions.

As far as demo limitations are concerned, please read my blog post The Limited. That explains why we do what we do, and offers a solution for you as well.

Looking forward to that improvement, very important for us.


*reading The Limited*
You have thought about evaluation opportunities in a very sense way I think. I understand your point of view now.

/John

dnanian 04-23-2006 11:50 AM

If those skipped jobs are important, you can do it now. Follow the steps for the "OneTouch Button" in the FAQ, but instead of settings things up for the button, schedule with iCal, and tell iCal to run that little application as an alarm event. iCal will always show you pending alarms when you start, and you should be all set.

gryphonent 05-01-2006 11:01 AM

Dave,

Can you give any indication as to when the scheduling feature in SD will be improved? Roadmap or timeline?

I can see various posts here in the forums addressing this issue through AppleScripts and other helpers... but truth be told, I would expect SD to do these jobs out of the box! Especially given the price level this app is sold for. I’m not a technophile and have switched to SD for ease of use. However, since purchasing the app it has not been reliable when it comes to running scheduled jobs. Today I had the chance to be present at my Powerbook when the 11AM weekly backup sessions was skipped yet again. This is a serious shortcoming of SD and as a previous user of the more complex SynchronizePro! I start toying with the idea to return to this app or find yet another backup solution.

Don’t get me wrong, I like SD and appreciate your support and app... but it just doesn’t run scheduled jobs as it should. And this is a MUST! Also, if scheduled jobs don’t run for whatever reason, then they should kickstart the next time the computer is switched on and the backup drive is present.

dnanian 05-01-2006 11:19 AM

Sorry, Jurgen. I rarely if ever discuss planned features or timelines.

In general, forums contain posts from people having problems or asking questions, so I'd expect you to find various questions and problems here. We designed SD! to allow for these types of things, as the replies indicate.

SD! is reliable when running scheduled jobs. Your computer, however, has to be on and awake when the time comes to run the job: it's a documented requirement. If followed, the jobs run.

That isn't to say things can't be enhanced to have other behaviors -- such as "back up once a week" as opposed to "on Friday at 1am". They're semantically VERY different, and I'd expect the first to run whenever my machine turned on after a week had gone by, whereas I would not for the 2nd. After all, on Saturday at 11am, it's not Friday at 1am.

If you want those copies to run regardless, as I mentioned elsewhere, please follow the steps in the "OneTouch" FAQ and schedule the little application with iCal. iCal will fire its "alarm" (and thus run the backup) even if the computer is asleep when the time arrives (as soon as you log back in).

Apart from that, though, I don't have any short-term solution for you: sorry!

pack@ucar.edu 07-01-2006 11:00 PM

Can you initiate a backup on shutdown?
 
I have a backup scheduled for the middle of the night.
As others have noted, this will not run if the machine is off.
Is there a way to initiate the backup on normal shutdown?
For me, this would catch most of the situations when the
machine is off during the scheduled backup.

dnanian 07-02-2006 01:26 AM

There isn't, but instead, we will shut down after a backup. So, set the backup "On successful completion" option to "Shut down...", and it'll back up and shut things off for you.

Hope that helps!

pack@ucar.edu 07-02-2006 12:48 PM

Yes, I am aware of the option to backup and shutdown. What I would like
to do is set up a machine for another user. This user cannot be relied upon
to shutdown by invoking Superduper.

Perhaps some testing is in order... I can track down the application invoked
by cron. I can invoke that directly and start a backup. So I should try to put
this task in my shutdown items and see if it works.

dnanian 07-02-2006 12:53 PM

Hm. What's a shutdown item? I wasn't aware of this. Is it part of OSX?

If so, you can follow the general steps in the "Maxtor OneTouch Button" FAQ entry, and use the little executable there in the "shutdown items"...

MacPrince 07-10-2006 11:55 AM

*Off-topic*
Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave in 'The Limited'
“Cookie" the user’s system in some hidden way so you know when the program was first run, and can therefore calculate when you’re supposed to expire.
--SNIP--
The first, in my opinion, is right out. I hate it when programs hide things on my system, and while I understand why they do it (see above), it’s just the wrong thing to do, especially for a backup program.

Thank you! Someone who knows my pain!
(Ambrosia Software--I'm looking RIGHT at you.)

dnanian 07-10-2006 12:16 PM

Thanks, MacPrince. Yeah -- it's the same all of us... drives me nuts.

MacPrince 07-10-2006 02:11 PM

If I ever get motivated to do so, I'll blog about my experiences with the demo of Escape Velocity: Nova. NOT fun.

(Probably wasn't that great anyway, especially not $30 worth of great.)

gryphonent 07-11-2006 05:13 AM

While I second all the above it would still be great to have some kind of notice to inform me that it’s about time to run a backup, because the last time the backup did complete successfully is a while back. It is probably common knowledge by now that this is THE feature I miss most in SuperDuper! Which makes it less super for me. So, here’s a suggestion: have a small app (VISIBLE to all) sitting somewhere and run independently from SuperDuper at startup. The app quickly checks for its internal modification date and depending on that notifies the user that a schedule didn’t run yesterday and whether it should run now. Or that the last backup was some four weeks ago. At each successful backup SuperDuper could notify this small app and update its timing table. It would not have to run all the time, but only at startup... and it would be free to users to decide whether they need that feature at all. I do for one, because SD’s scheduling reliability is the worst I ever encountered with any backup solution.


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