Copy doesn't retain Desktop Prefererence

[wellerb]

I just purchased & registered SuperDuper!. After my 1st SD copy I successfully booted from the external disk on which I placed the copy but the Desktop image was not retained, instead the system default image was used. Does this mean my copy is not complete? How do I configure SD to copy all my System Preferences?

My system: Mac Pro, OS 10.5.8, 10 GB RAM, System Disk 1TB internal, Backup disk Seagate FreeAgent 1.0TB external FireWire 400

Thank you.

[dnanian]

Try repeating the copy, but name the backup drive the same as the source before starting up from it. Let's see if that retains your desktop image.

[wellerb]

Originally Posted by dnanian

Try repeating the copy, but name the backup drive the same as the source before starting up from it. Let's see if that retains your desktop image.

Hi, thanx for the quick reply. No joy.

I renamed the external disk to the same name. When I rebooted holding down the Option key, the external disk had the same name as the internal disk, plus a space and a 1, i.e., internal=MacPro-1 external=MacPro-1 1. I selected the external disk and the default desktop background image still came up, not the one selected when I boot from the internal disk.

I have not tried to look at, let alone touch/update, the default folders to exclude. Might there be something along these lines I should investigate?

Other ideas on how the external disk copy results in a user configuration the same as the original, internal disk?

Thank you.

[dnanian]

I'm really not sure why your desktop would be different, given this. It's possible that the preferences involved are not fully written to disk at the time the backup is done, or that they're in a state that causes that particular item to be reset. I'm trying to reproduce it here but haven't been successful.

Do you have any accounts other than this one? If not, try creating one. Set the desktop for that account, then log out of it. Log back in to your main account and do the copy. Boot from the backup, then try logging into the account that was logged out when you did the copy... is the desktop correct for that account?

[wellerb]

Originally Posted by dnanian

I'm really not sure why your desktop would be different, given this. It's possible that the preferences involved are not fully written to disk at the time the backup is done, or that they're in a state that causes that particular item to be reset. I'm trying to reproduce it here but haven't been successful.

Do you have any accounts other than this one? If not, try creating one. Set the desktop for that account, then log out of it. Log back in to your main account and do the copy. Boot from the backup, then try logging into the account that was logged out when you did the copy... is the desktop correct for that account?

Dave, thank you for the suggestions. I'm going to be offline for a while and will get back to you after I try your suggestions.

[ramblinwreck001]

Hi,

Originally Posted by wellerb

After my 1st SD copy I successfully booted from the external disk on which I placed the copy but the Desktop image was not retained, instead the system default image was used. Does this mean my copy is not complete? How do I configure SD to copy all my System Preferences?

I've just experienced the exact same behavior here. Did you ever find out anything else about this?

My desktop image was not retained, though all my data (music, photos, docs, etc) appears to be in place.

I'm using Snow Leopard 10.6.1 with SuperDuper v2.6.2. I have a brand new WD640 GB drive, connected through an OWC enclosure with a FW400 connection. I formatted the drive and did the zero-out option per the SD user guide, and then let SD do the initial backup. When I booted from the cloned drive I got the default desktop background rather than my own.

I don't recall having ever encountered this behavior with 10.5.x, though honestly it's been a while since I've tried to boot off an external drive cloned with SuperDuper.

Any ideas on things to check? Should I be worried that other bits of my data might not have been fully backed up?

Edit - There are two accounts on this machine, my own, and "guest". There are no other accounts. I'll try the experiment above when I get a chance.

[dnanian]

You also might want to ensure the backup drive has the same name as the source before you start up from it.