An (Applescript) hack to automate mounting and unmounting external volumes

[AVT]

One question. I've created the scripts in the original post, but what is the "daily backup script" referenced in the original post? The problem is that SuperDuper gets stuck when it launches and the external drive is not already mounted and the only option is "cancel." I need to automatically mount the external drive before SuperDuper even launches. How do I do that?

Originally Posted by dnanian

Great tips, Keith -- and one of the reasons we decided to write the backup "engine" in AppleScript! This makes it easy for users with specific requirements to modify and adjust it to their own particular requirements.

Thanks for contributing!

[dnanian]

If you plug the drive in at that point, it should be recognized and the copy should continue.

[AVT]

I understand that, but I'm trying to get things set up so that the drive is automatically mounted, superduper runs, and the drive is automatically unmounted. That's what the scripts provided above do. My problem is how to get the external drive mounted before SuperDuper tries to do its thing. I've fiddled with the crontab file, and I've managed to get the drive mounted before SuperDuper runs. But when SuperDuper attempts to run the "unmount drive" script, it reports that "permission is denied". So, I've found a half-solution, so far.

Originally Posted by dnanian

If you plug the drive in at that point, it should be recognized and the copy should continue.

[dnanian]

You'll need to use the general framework we provide in our own copy template, and you'll want to run with "without user interaction", too.

[Wings]

Originally Posted by AVT

One question. I've created the scripts in the original post, but what is the "daily backup script" referenced in the original post? The problem is that SuperDuper gets stuck when it launches and the external drive is not already mounted and the only option is "cancel." I need to automatically mount the external drive before SuperDuper even launches. How do I do that?

AVT: What I do is to set iCal to run a mount script about a minute or 2 before SD is scheduled to run.

My mount script is: (compiled & saved as an application in Script Editor, and set to run as an alarm in iCal)

set diskName to "Backup"
set deviceName to do shell script "diskutil list | grep \"" & diskName & "\" | awk '{print $6}'"
do shell script "diskutil mountDisk /dev/" & deviceName