Backed up to sparse image on Airdisk, but now can't select it again
 

I followed the instructions for creating a sparse image and sucessfully backed up to an Airdisk. However, when I launch SD now I can't figure out how to access the Airdisk again. The instructions say SD should mount it automatically, but nothing happens for me.

Is the image file listed as the destination?

No, there is nothing showing as the destination - and the destination drop down list only shows the local disks on the computer.

Right, so you'll choose "Disk Image..." in the destination pop-up, then select the image in the standard file panel (even if it's grayed out)....

OK, I got it now. I had to drill down through several destination layers before seeing the destination image I needed, but I got there in the end.

I was just a bit confused, because the manual says SD would mount the destination automatically.

It should once it's been saved...

problem with SD backup to sparse image on Time Capsule external drive
 

I thought this thread had a solution for a problem I emailed you about in June of 2010 but I'm not sure that it is working properly.

My original problem was that I had to first use Finder to access the Time Capsule and then the external drive folder containing the sparse image to get SD to work. And often even that is not enough and I need to reboot the computer before I use the Finder trick. IF I don't the SD backup fails and I get the message: "failed to mount idisk backup".

I recently spent hours trying to teach myself automater to do the finder trick every night before backup time, but even though it would work if run manually, I could never get it to run as a ICal entry.

So I just found and tried the solution in this thread for my idisk backup which normally backs up in less than 1 minute. Now it takes over an hour. And in Finder I see an idisk backup.dmg file along with my idisk backup.sparseimage file. Fine, it worked. But when I repeated the backup it took another hour.

I saw that there was another forum thread about the sparseimage file being changed to a dmg file but that ended before any explanation as to what was happening.

So is my system supposed to create a dmg file each time and take an hour for each backup?

I just ran the idisk weekly the old way by just using COPY NOW and it worked perfectly (in 15 seconds) without the Finder trick. But that might be because SD just ran the 1 hour version of idisk backup so it already knows where the sparse image is located. :(

Sounds like you selected a read-only image in the destination pop-up, rather than a sparse image or bundle.

problem with SD backup to sparse image on Time Capsule external drive
 

Now I'm not sure what I did the second time when it took an hour, but I just tried using COPY NOW from the scheduled copies page and it worked perfectly without the FINDER trick. I see in the FINDER that the dmg files have not had their modified dates changed while the sparse image files have so maybe it is working fine now.

So do I keep these DMG files? I have one for my idisk backup which is scheduled to run daily and another for my idisk monthly.THey were created when I used the solution in this thread. THe idisk weekly worked the old way, directly from the scheduled copies COPY NOW without creating a dmg file. THe dmg files are 1.75GB each for a small idisk file. I can't imagine how big the files will be when I backup my 280GB Macbook pro which is what takes the most space on the external disk attached to the time capsule. I'll try that one overnight.

The DMG is because you have a read-only image - assuming you didn't accidentally turn on the "Image" option in the Advanced tab.

problem with SD backup to sparse image on Time Capsule external drive
 

Here is exactly what I did:
I already found my idisk name in the "copy" field so I clicked on the selection bar(can't remember what else it is called) in the empty "to" field and selected Disk Image.
THat opened up a save dialog box showing me all the different files on my TC external disk. Even though all the sparse image files are greyed out I selected the idisk backup.sparseimage file which showed that it was a read only disk image.

AHHA Now I see what you are talking about. I should have changed it to either a read/write sparse bundle or image. BUt which one? you didn't mention this step in your instructions in the beginning of this thread.

GReat, so now do I want a bundle or an image? ANd can I delete the dmg files?

No, it didn't "show" it was a read-only image, you had read-only selected. You need to switch it to a read/write image (which is what you had before). That should work.

sparse image files still not backing up properly
 

I am going to continue this here since I am still having problems with my SD backups to sparse image files on an external drive connected to my Time Capsule.

I have had so many problems with SD in the past week that I decided to start over with the external drive attached directly to my imac. I erased the drive, even renamed the single partition and used the directions above to recreate the sparse image files. I have 3 sparse images to backup my idisk; "idisk daily backup.sparseimage", and one for weekly and monthly. I also have a sparse image file for my mbp but it takes so long to backup to it that the idisk ones are great for solving this problem.

I used to call my idisk daily backup "idisk backup" and that still appears as a destination for my SD backups even though there is no file with that name anymore.

WHen I reboot and try to COPY NOW from the scheduled copies page and run smart update idisk daily backup from my idisk I get "failed to mount idisk daily backup"
HERe is the log:
| 12:39:08 PM | Info | SuperDuper!, 2.6.4 (89), path: /Applications/SuperDuper!.app, Mac OS 10.7.2 build 11C74 (i386)
| 12:39:08 PM | Info | Started on Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 12:39 PM
| 12:39:08 PM | Info | Source Volume: cwbrandt, mount: /Volumes/cwbrandt, device: /dev/disk2s2, media: Apple sparse bundle disk image, interconnect: File Virtual Interface, file system: "Case-sensitive Journaled HFS+", OS: N/A, capacity: 10.77 GB, used: 1.76 GB, directories: 322, files: 1629, ejectable: YES, ACLs: Enabled
| 12:39:08 PM | Info | Target Image: /Volumes/mbp superduper2 backup via TC/idisk daily backup.sparseimage, name: idisk daily backup
| 12:39:08 PM | Info | Copy Mode : Smart Update
| 12:39:08 PM | Info | Copy Script : Backup - all files.dset
| 12:39:08 PM | Info | Transcript : BuildTranscript.plist
| 12:39:08 PM | Info | PHASE: 1. Prepare to Copy Files
| 12:39:08 PM | Info | ...ACTION: Preparing cwbrandt
| 12:39:08 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Verifying the integrity of volinfo.database
| 12:39:08 PM | Info | volinfo.database OK
| 12:39:09 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Enabling permissions on cwbrandt
| 12:39:10 PM | Info | File system user/group ownership enabled
| 12:39:10 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Verifying that permissions are enabled for cwbrandt
| 12:39:10 PM | Info | Permissions on '/Volumes/cwbrandt' are enabled.
| 12:39:10 PM | Info | ...ACTION: Mounting idisk daily backup
| 12:39:10 PM | Info | ......COMMAND => Preparing idisk daily backup
| 12:39:12 PM | Info | hdiutil: create failed - No such file or directory
| 12:39:12 PM | Error | ****FAILED****: result=256 errno=0 (Undefined error: 0)


I can a get it to work only if I then open time capsule and click on the external drive to show the file names of the various sparse image files. ANd sometimes that doesn't even work and I need to reboot and start over. Needless to say that most of my overnight backups do not work because of this problem.

I emailed you in July 2010 about this problem but you couldn't help me with it then and I have just been getting more and more frustrated with it. I tried creating an automater workflow as a calendar item to run every night before SD would run but even though I could get it to work within automater, it never worked at night for me. THis was my first automater workflow so I probably didn't do it right.

ANyway, I can't believe I am the only one who has this problem and I am hoping you can tell me what to do.

The host volume for the image is mounted by resolving an alias to the file. The system should mount that image, using credentials in your keychain.

Note, though, that Lion sometimes looks for those credentials in the system keychain, rather than your user keychain. If you copy them using Keychain Access, from your login keychain to the system keychain, that may resolve the problem.

But if you have to reboot to get a mount to be recognized, there's something more significant going on - perhaps your mount is failing, or mounting to a different location?

no luck. I copied from login keychains to system keychains 4 lines called cindy's Time capsule which were airport disk passwords and 1 also called cindy's Time Capsule but it was an airport base station password. I rebooted and it still didn't work until in Finder I opened cindy's time capsule and then opened MBP superduper2 backup via TC to show the sparse images.

Is it possible that I need to partition the MBP superduper2 backup via TC drive so each sparse image is in a separate partition?