How do I know if I've made a good copy?

[katherine]

I'm having serious problems with my MacPro spontaneously rebooting itself and I'm trying to get a good clean back up with SuperDuper. I've been using Time Machine for the past few weeks, but Apple tech support has told me to turn off Time Machine until we figure out what the problem is. In the meantime, I haven't made a SuperDuper copy since April and I'd like to make a clean good copy of my entire hard drive. When I start the process, it goes for a while and then when I come back to the computer the screen is back to my desk top. As I haven't been sitting in front of the machine, I have no way of knowing if Super Duper has completed the backup and looking at the file list on my external hard drive doesn't show today's date. '

How do I know if I have a good copy?

Thanks, Katherine

[dnanian]

SD! wouldn't have quit if you had a good copy (unless you told it to). It sounds to me like it's crashing, for some reason. Did you look at the log (Open SD!, choose Window > Show Log)?

[katherine]

I did check the log and there isn't a recent date there. I tried with a "copy newer files" command and it went to 96% before my computer rebooted again. I'm going to try again. In the meantime Apple has decided it's a hardware problem and after the weekend will send someone out to replace parts. Thanks for your help. Katherine

[dnanian]

If you can put your MacPro into FireWire target disk mode, you might be able to use a second MAc to back it up. Use Smart Update, not Copy Newer.

[katherine]

I tried again with Copy Newer and the computer stayed "alive" long enough to get a clean copy. New processor and logic board coming Monday, so I hope the problem will be solved. Thanks for your help.
Katherine

[dnanian]

Good luck, Katherine!