SuperDuper vs Tiger - slower backups?

[2stepbay]

Since upgrading to Tiger from Panther, my bu time for cloning my HD has increased from 8+ minutes to over 17 minutes. The last 3 backups have been around 17:30. Other than Tiger, there has been no significant addition to the system. Also, I am not indexing my external HD via Spotlight.

Wondering if anyone else has experienced similar?

[dnanian]

Yes, it's not uncommon. Floating files are handled differently by Tiger, and it confuses SD! As such, all floating files look like they've changed every time, and we copy them.

To fix this, you need to lock down ownership -- likely in your Home folder. You can do so with the "chown" command, if you know how to use that... I can give some basic instructions to help out, too.

Once that's been fixed up, your 2nd and subsequent backups after the lockdown should be fast again.

[2stepbay]

[QUOTE=dnanian]To fix this, you need to lock down ownership -- likely in your Home folder. You can do so with the "chown" command, if you know how to use that... I can give some basic instructions to help out, too.[QUOTE]

Thanks Dave. Sounds like a Terminal command? Appreciate any direction you can offer.

Does version 2.0 adjust for the floating files? or is the chown command enough?

I appreciate the updated info about v2.0. I like the screen shots. Very generous of you to offer it as a no charge upgrade.

I think SD is a much more efficient way to clone than what the competitors offer. Thanks again for your attention to the detail.

[dnanian]

We've figured out another way to handle floating files under Tiger in v2.0, so this isn't a problem. (They changed things in Tiger, and -- unknown to us -- that messed up our previous floating detection.) So, if you don't want to do this, you can wait.

If you don't mind doing it, here's how. First, start Terminal. By default, Terminal starts in your Home folder: that's where we want it to be.

Determine your User ID and Group ID with the following command:

id

(Just copy/paste.) That'll give you output like:

uid=501(dnanian) gid=501(dnanian) groups=501(dnanian), 81(appserveradm), 79(appserverusr), 80(admin)

So, on this machine, my user id (uid) is 501 and my group id (gid) is 501. That's what I want my personal files owned by (I'm assuming here that you keep your personal files in your Home folder, as you should under OSX -- if that's not the case, let me know). To accomplish that, I use chown as follows:

sudo chown -R 501:501 *

Substitute your uid and gid as appropriate -- you want uid:gid in that command (so mine is 501:501). Note that you will have to enter your password when prompted -- it won't echo. that's normal.

In English, that command says "as the super user, change the owner of all files in this folder and all folders contained here, to user id 501 and group id 501".

Once that's done, do your backup twice. The 2nd time, it should be back to normal speeds.

Let me know if that makes some sense.

[2stepbay]

Thanks for the Terminal guidance. My nos. were the same as those listed for you. Wondering if this change is undone if I repair permissions?

After change first time backup was 19:40, second 13:37. I'll try again tomorrow. In Panther, my backup times were around 8 minutes.

Thanks again Dave.

[dnanian]

Well, if your backup times are still longer than expected, there are two possibilities:

- You've got Spotlight on, and it's scanning a lot during the backup
- You've got floating files somewhere other than your Home folder

So, do you store personal files in a different location?

[sjk]

Originally Posted by dnanian

sudo chown -R 501:501 *

Shouldn't that be:

sudo chown -R 501:501 .

... to include any hidden dotfiles?

[dnanian]

(Yes, strictly speaking, it should, but I don't think his problem has to do with hidden dotfiles.)