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  #1  
Old 04-08-2010, 10:33 AM
snpollack snpollack is offline
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Unhappy Hard drive crash - advice sought

Hello.

I have been using SuperDuper (SD) for many years to help keep my anxiety level at a manageable level. Over the past 6 years or so, I have only had to invoke SD once due to a hard drive crash.

Today, it seems, I might need SD again. Let me explain my setup. I have a MacPro which runs off of my main internal drive (#1). I have SD make nightly backups to internal drive #2 (at 1AM) and to an external drive (at 4AM). I also have Time Machine (TM) make incremental backups of my main drive every hour.

Last evening, apparently during the SD backup to internal drive #2, during the repair permissions of internal drive #1 step (I use repair permissions before every SD copy), drive #1 must have failed. Maybe a bad sector was encountered during the repair permissions step. Therefore, I have a SD backup that is 24 hours old and a TM backup that is 1 hour old.

I woke up this morning to a frozen screen saver screen and I could hear the internal drive making the sickening intermittent clicking sound of the r/w head trying to access the disk.

I was able to reboot on internal drive #2, but I want to recreate drive #1. I am going to purchase a new drive, but I'm trying to figure out whether I should use SD or TM (or a combination) to restore to the new drive #1. The last time I had to do this, TM didn't even exist (I think I was running Panther).

I'd like to get back to as close as my previous state as possible (with proper prefs, passwords, desktop layout, etc.). What do you suggest as my most appropriate step(s)? I am running Snow Leopard 10.6.3.

Thanks in advance!

Stu
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  #2  
Old 04-08-2010, 10:38 AM
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dnanian dnanian is offline
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It's really up to you, Stu. You can certainly restore with Time Machine, and if you don't like the result, restore your SuperDuper! backup and selectively restore what you're 'missing' with Time Machine. Or you can just do the latter... totally up to you.
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Old 04-08-2010, 11:01 AM
snpollack snpollack is offline
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Thanks for the quick reply, Dave.

Are there any significant differences between the two methods (e.g., speed of restore & completeness of restore with respect to preferences, os configuration, etc.)?

Also, once I get my main drive restored, will I need to recopy the newly restored drive #1 to my two SD backup drives or can I just pick up with smart updates (I suspect the former will be necessary)?

Thanks.

Stu
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Old 04-08-2010, 11:07 AM
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dnanian dnanian is offline
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It's certainly faster to restore with SD... and you can resume with Smart Update regardless (although you'll have to delete and recreate your schedules).
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Old 04-08-2010, 01:40 PM
snpollack snpollack is offline
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Ok. I just got home with the new HD. I decided to use SD for the restore, since I've always trusted it, and don't know what surprises I will have with TM. I might just use TM for restoring the few files that changed in the last day.

Now, can you please refresh my memory for the steps needed to accomplish this restore from HD#2 (my SD backup) to my new HD#1 (which doesn't appear yet - I think I must have to initialize it).

I'm not sure if I use the SD interface and select Restore - All Files option from HD#2 to HD#1 or if I use the Disk Utility restore option.

Thanks. I'll let you know how it goes.

Stu

Last edited by snpollack; 04-08-2010 at 01:56 PM.
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Old 04-08-2010, 03:42 PM
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dnanian dnanian is offline
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Partition it as explained in the Frequently Asked Questions, and use SuperDuper! to "Restore - all files" from the backup to the new drive. Name the new drive the same thing the old drive was named, and start up from it... the end!
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Old 04-08-2010, 05:42 PM
snpollack snpollack is offline
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Well, it worked. Yay!

For some reason, I must have lost some Little Snitch rules, since it is asking me for some connection authorizations I hadn't seen before (though, legitimate ones).

Now, if I could only find out what things to copy over from my TM backup during the last day...

Thanks.
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