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justanotheruser 11-17-2005 08:55 PM

Question about exluding a directory in script
 
Hi

I am aware of most of the methods of creating a backup on a disk that already has files on it. Too bad I cannot partition it while I can't copy some large files to another volume, and I want to boot from this FireWire disk.

Please advise: I'm thinking on creating a single directory, let's call it STORAGE, on the target disk. I want to copy everything using the "smart update" option, but leave STORAGE untouched. ALL other files will be located in that directory that should never be deleted.

Now, if defining a new script, I will first tell the program to copy the whole volume (system HD) but *exclude* STORAGE directory from just the target volume, will that directory be skipped (not deleted) from the target disk?

Or, should I create an empty (hidden?) folder called STORAGE on my source volume and define a script line telling SD! to skip it? Will this work at all?

I could not find the answer anywhere or I didn't know how to ask the question... THANKS in advance for any suggestions. I need a sure-fire answer, while I cannot afford an unsuccessfull experiment ;)

Matt

dnanian 11-17-2005 10:04 PM

Neither of those techniques will work.

The best thing to do is to invest in something like iPartition, which can do a "live partition" of the data. It's much better to isolate your backup from your real data for many reasons, not the least of which is that you can restore, in an emergency, using simple tools like Disk Utility that don't allow you to be selective about what you're copying.

But, if you must isolate this one folder, you can do so by creating a symlink -- NOT an alias -- to it from the original volume. SuperDuper! won't replace a folder with a symlink to that folder, and will therefore leave it alone.

You should test this on something else first to make sure you get it right. The way to make the symlink would be, in Terminal, assuming the backup drive is called "Backup":

ln -s "/Volumes/Backup/STORAGE" /STORAGE

Translated, this means "create a symbolic link to the folder STORAGE on the volume "Backup" in the root of my current volume".

That'll work. But, I want to emphasize again that isolating backup from data is, without question, the preferred solution.

Make sense?

justanotheruser 11-18-2005 10:54 AM

Thanks, Dave

I will try to get some more background knowledge on the symlink to be better aware of what I'm doing (this method was not clear to me as I was reading the manual, either)
In the meantime, I will try to think of some method of partitioning the large external drive, I agree this would be the best thing to do. I have a large .sparseimage folder that contains all the data from the old HD that died, and I'm hesitant to trash it just right now (just in case).

Matt

dnanian 11-18-2005 11:17 AM

Understood. If you have any further questions, just ask.


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