mbabco Posted August 30, 2009 Report Share Posted August 30, 2009 I like to have a cloned back-up of all of my files. Rather than use RAID, I have purchased a second hard drive for my MacPro and I periodically copy either my home directory or the entire drive to that second hard drive. For awhile I was using the option "Copy selected file and folders" with the "Copy only files that have changed" option but I recently discovered that I don't end up with an exact copy; for instance, if I delete the "Chicken_Recipe.doc" on my main drive, that file still exists on the second hard drive after the copy. What I really want to do is clone the one drive to the other so that the two are exact copies. When I select "Make an exact copy of a source volume or favorite folder" it gives a message: "Warning: Destination will be erased before copying." What I really would like is the ability to clone my main drive but have the program intelligent enough not to erase those files and folders already present that are the same as on the original drive. Is there any way to do this? Note: When I do perform this exact copy, despite the warning that the destination will be erased, it does not appear as if the entire destination is being erased. Is it possible that this option already does what I want it to do? Thanks, Michael B Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramon88 Posted August 31, 2009 Report Share Posted August 31, 2009 What you need is a "Duplicate" script... from the Technical FAQ ( http://www.retrospect.com/supportupdates/technical/retrospect/retrofaq ) Duplicate Retrospect offers another option for copying data to a hard disk: the duplicate feature. The first duplicate operation will copy all files from the source volume, keeping them in Finder format. Subsequent duplicate operations will be incremental, copying and replacing files that have been modified or are new. Identical files are not copied again. What is the difference between Backup and Duplicate? Backup copies files in a proprietary format only accessible using Retrospect. Duplicate copies files in standard file format so they can be opened or used right on the backup disk without having to go through Retrospect. Backups offer optional compression, not available with Duplicates. Backups offer optional encryption, not available with Duplicates. Backups can save old data incrementally so files deleted from the source are still available in the backup. Duplicate basically keeps a mirror image of the source so each duplicate operation overwrites previous data and only retains the current files. Duplicates are always a one-to-one operation; one volume is duplicated to one volume. If you have multiple volumes to duplicate you will have to create an empty folder on the destination for each disk you wish to copy. You can then define those empty folders as "Subvolumes" from within Retrospect. This will allow you to copy Source volume #1 to Destination subvolume #1 and Source volume #2 into destination subvolume #2. The Retrospect User's Guide contains detailed instructions on how to configure a folder as a Subvolume. There are some option you can set when you choose the destination folder. Try it and figure out which setting works best for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbabco Posted August 31, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 31, 2009 Thanks for sending the technical FAQs. I think part of the problem is that the language is not consistent -- possibly because these FAQ's appear to be about version 6. The FAQ's talk about "Duplicating" but in 8.0 that word is not used -- what's used is "Copy." I'm now fairly certain that when I do a copy using "Make an exact copy of a source volume or favorite folder" that Retrospect does not delete the entire folder or volume that you are copying to. However, they have warnings in two places that confused me. I've set up a script to do an exact copy of my iTunes library. On the destination tab there is the warning "Warning: Destination will be erased before copying." Then when I proceed to run the script I get another warning "Are you sure you want to erase the entire source before copying?" -- This one in particular is really confusing. I think of the library I want to copy as the source -- I certainly don't want it erased. The only thing I can figure is that it's warning me that it will erase the source on the destination disk. Both warnings seem to imply that the destination file or volume is going to be completely erased. In fact, this doesn't happen. My iTunes library is 26.61 GB. It was backed up recently and not really used much (if at all) since. When I run my script to do an exact copy of the library, 3 files, 11.2 MB are all that are copied: had it done the erase that it said it was going to do, it would have been 26.61 GB. I'd like to see two things: 1) Clean up the confusing warnings that imply everything on the destination will be erased. 2) Give us a real manual for version 8, accessible from the "Help" menu item. Give us easily accessible FAQ's specifically geared for version 8. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macnetwork Posted September 23, 2009 Report Share Posted September 23, 2009 (edited) Retrospect has always warned you that the destination will be erased when doing a duplicate. However it never did, it only ever copied files that were new or altered and deleted files that were no longer on the source. So no change in version 8! But Michael B is being too kind, this message is crazy: "Are you sure you want to erase the entire source before copying?" What is the point of that stupid warning? Wouldn't something like "Are you sure you want to use Retrospect?" be more pertinent? I'm only into day 1 of trialling this software and already my confidence in the product is rock bottom. How can you expect anybody to proceed with a backup strategy that warns you it will delete all your files before you back them up! I am now trying a restore - first it's completly tied up with sending an email, okay there's no internet connection but why can't it get on with the backup at the same time? Especially since it's going to carry on anyway after trying for 3 minutes. Now it says: Status - Needs Media (Choose Media) Is that the destination Media or the source Media? Good grief this is one badly designed interface. Edited September 23, 2009 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eppinizer Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 I'm now fairly certain that when I do a copy using "Make an exact copy of a source volume or favorite folder" that Retrospect does not delete the entire folder or volume that you are copying to. If you use the "Make an exact copy of a source volume or favorite folder" option in the copy assistant, it will erase the destination. The second warning that you mention ("Are you sure you want to erase the entire source before copying?") is technically correct due to terminology, but it is very confusing from a new user's point of view. During both the source and destination selection screens, the user is selecting sources. I have logged this as a UI bug, hopefully the terminology will be looked into. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbabco Posted September 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 "If you use the "Make an exact copy of a source volume or favorite folder" option in the copy assistant, it will erase the destination." So it erases the destination of the new files only? I'm still confused. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eppinizer Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 (edited) If you use the "Make an exact copy of a source volume or favorite folder" it will completely erase the volume that you are copying to. It does not erase the volume that you are copying from. If you do not wish for this to happen you can use the "copy selected files or folders" option. Edited September 24, 2009 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhwalker Posted September 24, 2009 Report Share Posted September 24, 2009 The second warning that you mention ("Are you sure you want to erase the entire source before copying?") is technically correct due to terminology Oh give me a break. And up is down, black is white, and source is destination? Newspeak reigns. George Orwell would be amused. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fasix Posted October 7, 2009 Report Share Posted October 7, 2009 (edited) I have the exact same problem. I'm using Retrospect 8.1(526) on both Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.6. I want an exact copy. And I want the copy operation to occur each night. But I do not want it to erase the destination first. Because if it does, it takes to much time. I've tried: - Overwrite matching files - Overwrite older files - Copy only missing files But none of these erase files removed from the source (original) drive. Only "Overwrite entire volume" erases files. But in my setup it first erases the entire destination drive, then copies all the files to it again. It's not handling it "intelligently" (copying new files, overwriting changed files, deleting deleted files). (The way it did in Retrospect 6). Any ideas as to what I do wrong? EDIT: I now know what I did wrong. When creating the script I choose "Copy selected files and folders" instead of "Make an exact copy of a source volume or favorite folder". It is a bit confusing because the quickstart-movie tells you to use "Copy selected..." and when the script is made, you cannot see if it is the one or the other type of script ... Edited October 7, 2009 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bpieber Posted October 23, 2009 Report Share Posted October 23, 2009 I am a new user and still very confused. Does the "Warning: Destination will be erased before copying." mean that the destination is erased so that unchanged files have to be written as well, or not? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyclopath Posted October 23, 2009 Report Share Posted October 23, 2009 My understanding is that the destination is NOT erased every night when I run my "Mirror" script. If it was, then EMC have figured out how to transfer 90gig over the network in 18 min (based on last nights "Mirror"). Certainly when one compares the Destination and Source it looks for all intents and purposes as if the Destination was erased, and replaced with an exact copy of the source. This is very much the outcome I'm looking for: an exact mirror of my fileserver, every 24 hrs. However, from an implementation standpoint it would be stupid to actually ERASE the destination and transfer EVERYTHING every night. Is it possible to set up a script that DOES erase the entire source (whoops Destination ;-) every time the script fires? I don't think so...despite the programs insistence that this IS what it is going to do. Certainly no other backup program I've ever used (including previous versions of Retrospect) implements a copy/duplicate/mirror in this manner. Maybe I'm just having problems reading the manual. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aiharris Posted October 26, 2009 Report Share Posted October 26, 2009 Super Duper may be a better option for you. I personally need the opposite, a documented trail of a file existing from day A to B, but not after C etc. Adam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsobel Posted October 26, 2009 Report Share Posted October 26, 2009 Interestingly enough, if you do a disk cloning (Copy) operation and select the "Move files" option (found under the Options-tab) Retrospect will indeed erase your whole source disk, without any warning. This happens even if your source is the startup disk, and the disk on which the Retrospect Engine resides. Nothing is mentioned about this option in the (almost nonexistent) documentation, and I expected it to control whether the cloning would be disk sector-by-sector or by files, but no... It gladly started erasing my startup disk, and of course crashed half way through... Luckily, I could easily recover using Time Machine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted October 26, 2009 Report Share Posted October 26, 2009 if you do a disk cloning (Copy) operation and select the "Move files" option (found under the Options-tab) Retrospect will indeed erase your whole source disk, without any warning. In Classic Retrospect the "Move" option had wording to describe that the deletion of Source files occurs only after the completion of the Duplicate _and_ Verification. At what point did you observe the program begin to erase your Source volume? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsobel Posted October 27, 2009 Report Share Posted October 27, 2009 In the middle of the backup. My system started to behave oddly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fasix Posted October 27, 2009 Report Share Posted October 27, 2009 Sadly I can get the copy function to work as I want (making an exact duplicate of a disc, but only copying the new/changed files and removing the files removed from the original drive) on my small test setup (with 2 folders and 5 gb of files). But when I use the same setup with my 500 gb of data it doesn't work. It copies approx. 400 of the 500 mb of data EVERYTIME. Does anyone have an idea as to why that is? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyclopath Posted November 3, 2009 Report Share Posted November 3, 2009 The "move" functionality is certainly something I've used in the past (version 2.0?). Great for selecting "all image files older than one month" and archiving them to tape....and then deleting the originals from the (was it only 400mb?) disk attached to the microscope/camera in our shared optics facility. Perhaps some clown has rewritten the code from the ground up so that it "moves" (deletes from source) the files before verifying that they made it to the destination? Or perhaps the "copy" phase was done, and the progress bar at 50% was indicating that the "verify then delete" phase had begun? Either way, if you combine the "move" option with version 8.1's reported failure to follow file selection rules with any predictability, you've got a wonderful recipe for disaster. I suddenly miss the repeated warnings in big red letters that one had to click through in earlier versions of Retrospect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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