Using 12GB-ish of 74.5GB..Sparse should be around 12GB-ish too??
 

Hello all, I have read a lot on here and the manual. Had a HD crash and now learning about backing up:)

I have 80GB ibook G4 10.4.11 OSX 1.33 GZ and 1.256 Ram

My question and concern when I used SD last night. I created a Sparse image through Disk Utility. I inputted 75GB for it's size in the selection, it corrected me and made the sparse file the same size of what I have in free space...62GB.

Ok, I am using around 12GB-ish. I start SD, it works for a couple hours (status bar stalled on 4,703 file with 278,276 files to go, but I kept checking the finder folder at the bottom where it shows my free space. In a one second click to desk top and back to finder folder to activate it, it would drop 300-700MB in that short second period!?) So, I just let it keep working to see what would happen. Well, I stopped SD when the finder folder and sparse folder said 11.61GB of free space left! The sparse folder was 48GB and not done!?

I am trying to understand why this happened when I have roughly just 12GB's of stuff to back up!?

So, I wanted to try another program, I downloaded CCC. Did the same thing in creating a Big Sparse folder 50GB before I stopped it.

My HD was wiped and reinstalled last week and a new logic board. So not much stuff on it and it is clean and new.

Thank you for your time and input!
PS. I want to use SD and not another application.

...why I created a sparse file
 

Just adding to my previous post above.

I have a 500GB Maxtor OneTouch4 2.00 USB (no firewire).
However, it has on it 100GB's of important work files I don't want to erase or move over again then back with USB (I hear it can easily corrupt files).

Then I was going to copy the sparse image over the the Maxtor.
Until I buy a dedicated back up HD in about a month from now.

I know there is the option of coping "different files" over to Maxtor but heard it would create a mess of folders or such.

I would like to use Maxtor as-is if possible without messing up any files already on there.

Thanks!

Sounds like you're having problem with a file that's being updated while it's being copied, like an Entourage database, VMWare, etc. Drop me a line to support and I'll help you figure out what it is.

Perhaps you should consider using iPartition -- or similar -- which can partition your drive without erasing?