Can this be done?

[trifin]

I have a set of video files on a external hard drive. I have copied / backed up these to another hard drive. I would like to give this secon drive to someone to work on. I may also work on some files on the original drive but not the same files as the other person. Is there any way I can resync all these changes?

[dnanian]

Not with SuperDuper! (at least, not easily), no. I'd suggest having the user move the files they're working on to their own folder, then copy those files back.

[trifin]

thanks. What about if I didn't change anything? Could he work on the files and then I re-back them up to the original drive?

[dnanian]

Restore them, you mean? Yes.

[trifin]

I'll try to explain better.
Drive A is backed up drive B. Drive B is then worked on. I would like to get the changes back onto drive A automatically without checking each folder and file and not replacing everything on drive A with what's on drive B as there is hundreds of gigabytes of data.

[dnanian]

And, assuming drive A hasn't been changed, you'll restore by copying -- with "Backup - all files", from the B to A on return of the drive, using Smart Update.

[joemac]

here is my sort of related question.

i know from reading here that sd! is NOT recommended for just backing up a few data files or parts of the home folder, but...

i have 2 large external drives (about 200 gb and 300 gb) with PHOTOS only and VIDEOS only on each.

these are 1000s of raw photos and various compression schemes on one drive in a variety of folders some linked to p'chop and others to iphoto or aperture.

and ~100 full length uncompressed movies (2-7gb each) on the other (video_ts or dvdplayer media documents)

i'd like to make clones of each drive for storage off site.

can i use duper for this?

while TM might do the duty and other 3 party programs might to, i want reliable, accurate and EXACT clones...

thanks dnanian (and others) for your advice.

love the duper!

joemac (intel mbpro x2, leopard 10.5.4 and other stuff...)

[dnanian]

SD! should work fine for that, joemac.

[joemac]

Originally Posted by dnanian

SD! should work fine for that, joemac.

awesome!

i assume it is just a matter of connecting both drives and opening SD!, specifying the 'copy' and 'to' locations with the external drive names (movieA and movieB)

then for the occasional batch additions i can use smart update to copy between the two externals (A to B)

there are no applications on any of these large media-only external drives.

one LAST thing on this issue...

IF i create 2 home folders (one for pix and one for video) on the internal drive...

can i then just 'smart update' the external drives with new stuff without altering the existing data on those external drives?

love the duper!

joemac

[dnanian]

Right, using Smart Update and "Backup - all files". I'm not sure what you mean about "home folders". You mean partitions?

[joemac]

hi dnanian

right, poor choice of terms on my part.

by home folders i mean a folder on the desktop or in my user profile, like the library? folders leopard includes for movies or photos or music or documents...

so this would NOT be a separate partition on the drive, just a file folder...

thanks for the help

joemac

[dnanian]

It's important to note that any time you direct files to a volume, decisions are made about the source and destination. If you direct a smart update to a partition/volume with files on it, as it says in the "What's going to happen?" section, it's like an erase-then-copy. That is, anything there that's NOT in the selections from the source will be deleted.

So -- make sure you isolate any set of files you're going to copy in its own partition... and review the User's Guide.

[joemac]

Originally Posted by dnanian

... it's like an erase-then-copy. That is, anything there that's NOT in the selections from the source will be deleted.

So -- make sure you isolate any set of files you're going to copy in its own partition... and review the User's Guide.

yes i've read this in only about 100 of your posts and the users guide...

eventually i WILL sink in...

so i'm gonna try just cloning (smart update/back up ALL files) between videoA and videoB as i originally planned.

i'll let ya know how long 300gb of video takes to clone...

joemac

[dnanian]

It'll take a while, especially the first time. Have provisions and beverages handy.