I *think* I did this successfully!

[Sooz]

Thanks for the link and directions, Jon, and for the added input and directions, Jim!  Special thanks for your unending patience with me!  I can only hope that other, more technically-challenged individuals can come by and learn from my posts.

I've renamed the Seagate Ext HD to "TM Ext HD Backup" -- it's good to not confuse me so I figured that name would work for me!  

Then, I followed directions at the link that Jon included in my earlier, separate post and I *think* (hope) that this will work, and that TM will back up every 24 hours, onto this Ext HD named for TM.

My next "I need help" plea is to verify that I need to take these steps first:
1. plug in my second External HD (this one is royal blue) to the back of the hub, and name it much like I named my new one 2. I'm pretty sure I'll have to upgrade SuperDuper because now I'm running OS X El Capitan, ver. 10.11.6, so that's what I'll do.
3. The I-need-help-now-I-think:  How do I make sure my Mac is backed up onto my new (royal blue) external HD using SuperDuper?  Since I have not upgraded SuperDuper, this may be moot if it guides me through the process (with pictures).

Thanks!
Smiles--and maybe a bit of chocolate to reduce stress, too!
Sooz

[Xairbusdriver]

First, open SuperDuper. Click in the "SuperDuper!" menu (should be just to the right of the black Apple icon).
Second, click the "About Superduper..." to determine what version you now have. Write it down on a piece of paper approximately 2 inches square or larger. The latest version is 3.1.4 (v106).
Third, if your version number is smaller than 3.1.4, click the item labeled "Check for Update...". You will now, if you haven't already, see a window with download info and instructions.

If your version is 2.8 or earlier, note the request that you go directly to the Superduper site to download the latest version.

If your version number is larger than 2.8, there may be an Update button at the bottom of the window. It doesn't show in mine. Theoretically, simply pressing the return key will automagically start the download in that situation. I'm not going to try that since I no longer use SD.

[Sooz]

QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ Feb 20 2018, 02:20 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

First, open SuperDuper. Click in the "SuperDuper!" menu (should be just to the right of the black Apple icon).
Second, click the "About Superduper..." to determine what version you now have. Write it down on a piece of paper approximately 2 inches square or larger. The latest version is 3.1.4 (v106).
Third, if your version number is smaller than 3.1.4, click the item labeled "Check for Update...". You will now, if you haven't already, see a window with download info and instructions.

If your version is 2.8 or earlier, note the request that you go directly to the Superduper site to download the latest version.

If your version number is larger than 2.8, there may be an Update button at the bottom of the window. It doesn't show in mine. Theoretically, simply pressing the return key will automagically start the download in that situation. I'm not going to try that since I no longer use SD.

Wonderful step by step directions, Jim. Thanks!!!

Okaaaaay, located my tiny piece of paper, it's 2 inches x 1.25 inches, even has a sticky strip on the back!  
Wrote down the info that my SD is 2.7.5.

Went to shirtpocket and downloaded newest version (but first, I named my royal blue external HD "SuperDuper iMac backup" (it's easiest for me to be a concrete thinker about naming things ha ha), version 3.1.4.

Clicked on SD and selected that my Mac will be backed up to the SD iMac backup external HD and now it's doing it's work --already done with Prepare to Copy Files, and it's now on Copy Files, and then, I'm waiting for item 3: After Successful Copy...which says to update prebinding on SD iMac backup and also says Make SD iMac backup bootable. It worked it's magic, said Done, which I clicked, then I scheduled it for backing up Mon thru Fri at 3:00 a.m.

Am I doing well??

[jchuzi]

Congratulations! Everything looks good.

You'll want to test the SD clone when it's finished. To do this, you'll have to boot from the clone and see that everything is working.

Restart. As soon as you hear the chime, press and hold Option. Release the key when you see a choice of startup disks on the screen. You should see your normal internal drive (Macintosh HD, unless you have renamed it) and the SD clone. You may also see, for a few seconds, a network button that will try to load. When it either finds a network or none, it will stop loading. At that point, click the SD icon and press Return.

Don't be alarmed if startup takes considerably longer than usual: This is normal for a clone the first time that you boot from it. Subsequent boots will be much faster, provided that you haven't updated the clone. When you update it, startup will again be slow the first time. To get back to your normal boot, simply restart normally.

As to TM backups, TM backs up every hour.

[Xairbusdriver]

Congratulations!

QUOTE

I scheduled it for backing up Mon thru Fri at 3:00 a.m.

I'm assuming you left your Energy Saver set to "Sleep" rather than "Shutdown".

[Sooz]

Okay, I am feeling like the most technically-challenged person on the planet.  Put me in a kitchen with flour, sugar, eggs, butter & a bit of vanilla, and I'll shine...but a computer?  Yikes!  

I now have SuperDuper!3.1.4 but the icon on my desktop is this:
[attachment=3513:yeah_rea...his_icon.png]

When I double click my desktop icon for "SuperDuper iMac backup" to open it, it does look like it backed up everything.

When I click on SD! in Applications, I get this (I changed the time for it to backup)--do I need to do anything about the bottom part? I don't think so because I already did it...but since my brain just isn't wired for this stuff, y'know... I'm not confident.
[attachment=3514:When_I_c...ications.png]

Oh, and can I just drag the .dmg for SD! to the trash?  I also seem to have SD! and an alias SD! What's that all about?

When I open Disk Utility, I get this...I'm not sure, but it doesn't look right to me...
[attachment=3515:What_did..._fix_it_.png]

And for the icing on the cake, when I select the Ext HD named SuperDuper iMac backup, and click on Get Info, I get this:
[attachment=3516:When_I_c...get_this.png]

Is all as it should be or do I need to consider xanax instead of chocolate??  

Thank you for your endless patience and encouragement!!!!!!!!
Sooz

[jchuzi]

Everything looks OK to me except the third one (Disk Utility window). You should have apps (I think) and I don't know what "Other" means. Before you do anything else, boot from the SD clone and run a couple of apps (surf the web, for example). Don't change any files because you'll lose the changes (unless you know how to manually copy them to the internal). It's possible that DU doesn't see things correctly. In my High Sierra system, DU simply sees everything as "Used", without a breakdown into categories. It does the same for my internal drive!

My guess is that everything is OK. Don't change any settings in SD; you don't have to.

Where did you install SD? You should have it in your Applications folder within Macintosh HD. I don't understand why you have a .dmg. unless you're running it from the there. Did you actually install SD? If not, double-click the .dmg file and do so. Then, you can drag the .dmg file to the trash to eject it.

After installing SD, you may have to reset your preferences. I'm not sure of this, but check it out.

[Xairbusdriver]

Image one: That's simply an icon representing the external drive you bought, there should be another one named "TM Ext HD Backup". It should not have the same colors as the SD drive, Apple makes it mostly green with the same TM 'circle' icon that is the trademark for Time Machine. Other external drives usually have the generic yellowish icon. There's not really any point in double-clicking any drive icon as all that does is open a Finder window to display what's in the drive.

Image two: I don't use SD any more, so I can't recall what "Smart Backup" does, exactly. OTOH, U don't understand why it shows five backups on 2/21 yet it shows the last backup before you bought the external drive. That is simply not logical. It appears that the last time you actually used SD was 6/5 last year?

OTOH, the Get Info image shows that the drive was "Modified" on 2/15. That may be factual, if SD found nothing had changed on your internal drive since that date.

Image three: What version of Disk Utility are you running? Mine is Version 15.0 (1511.3.1)  16.3 (1579.1) and, as Jon mentioned, it does not indicate types of files (Apps, Photos, etc.), it only shows Used, Purgeable and Free. Sorry for the confusion. I thought you had updated the OS. I think you are still using 10.11.6, El Capitan. The version on that OS does, indeed, have the "types" display. In other words: Image three is  normal.

BTW, it appears that you have not used the "Journaled" formatting. It's not absolutely required and your main (internal) drive should use that.

Image four: Again, looks normal. However, could you give us a screen shot of you internal drive in either DU or the Get Info window. It should show roughly the same amount of disk space used as shown on the SD backup (~91GB).

Lastly, click the 'eject' button next to the .dmg labeled item in the left-hand section of a Finder window under the "Devices" area. If you don't see a "left-hand section", you can use the Finder->View->Show Sidebar menu item to... show the Sidebar!

[attachment=3517:TS_eject_drive.jpg]

If you don't see a list of Devices, click the "Devices" label area to display it:
[attachment=3518:TS_Devices_area.gif]

You can also just drag the item to the Trash, of course. I prefer not to put things in the Trash as a general habit. Only drag things to the trash if you intend to Empty the Trash as soon as possible. Too many things have been put in the Trash as a 'temporary' storage place and then erased when the person forgot to put it somewhere more useful. At our house, we rarely take stuff out of the trash once we put it in there!

[Sooz]

QUOTE(jchuzi @ Feb 20 2018, 12:33 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Congratulations! Everything looks good.

You'll want to test the SD clone when it's finished. To do this, you'll have to boot from the clone and see that everything is working.

Restart. As soon as you hear the chime, press and hold Option. Release the key when you see a choice of startup disks on the screen. You should see your normal internal drive (Macintosh HD, unless you have renamed it) and the SD clone. You may also see, for a few seconds, a network button that will try to load. When it either finds a network or none, it will stop loading. At that point, click the SD icon and press Return.

Don't be alarmed if startup takes considerably longer than usual: This is normal for a clone the first time that you boot from it. Subsequent boots will be much faster, provided that you haven't updated the clone. When you update it, startup will again be slow the first time. To get back to your normal boot, simply restart normally.

As to TM backups, TM backs up every hour.

Thanks, Jon. I'll have to do this in the next day or two.  One of my close friends had her sister and BIL pass away tragically a few days ago--we're all still reeling.

[Sooz]

Hi, Jim, and thanks for your input.  I'm running El Capitan as of last week, and have not moved up to High Sierra yet.

I didn't know that, about the generic yellowish icon for my other Ext HD. I was expecting some kind of pretty picture or something.

QUOTE

I don't use SD any more, so I can't recall what "Smart Backup" does, exactly. OTOH, U don't understand why it shows five backups on 2/21 yet it shows the last backup before you bought the external drive. That is simply not logical. It appears that the last time you actually used SD was 6/5 last year?

I don't understand this either, and my brain is already fried from emotional stuff re my close friend and her recent sudden losses.

My Disk Utility is version 15.0 (1411.3.1)

I'll have to check the other stuff that you wrote about at another time. Thanks!

[jchuzi]

Smart Backup copies only the files that have changed since the last backup. It's a lot faster than re-doing the entire clone from scratch.

[Xairbusdriver]

I'm wondering if she is running SD from the dmg. The image showing the 'activity' claims the last backups were made well before she even got the drive. I suspect that is data that may be on the dmg, since it can't be written to. She asked about what to do with the dmg, also. I think she is also never shutting down, only sleeping the Mac, so the dmg will stay there until it is manually ejected (as you suggested).

[jchuzi]

QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ Feb 22 2018, 08:47 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm wondering if she is running SD from the dmg. The image showing the 'activity' claims the last backups were made well before she even got the drive. I suspect that is data that may be on the dmg, since it can't be written to. She asked about what to do with the dmg, also. I think she is also never shutting down, only sleeping the Mac, so the dmg will stay there until it is manually ejected (as you suggested).

That's what I was wondering too.

[Sooz]

Hi again, Jim and John and Paddy and others,

I got the .dmg to go into the Trash and I emptied it. Success!  

Yes, Disk Utility is in Utilities within the Applications folder on my hard drive, and SuperDuper! is in my Applications folder on my hard drive.

Now, however, I have a SuperDuper! icon in my dock, and also on my desktop. The one in the dock has a little dot under it that shows me it's open or working or whatever.    Can I just put the one on the desktop in the Trash or should it stay on the desktop as well as in the dock?  
[attachment=3519:SD__in_d..._desktop.png]

Jon, should I still test the SD! 'clone'?  

Also, should I just let the computer fall asleep when I'm done with it, or should I continue choose "Sleep" under the apple?

Here's what my Energy Saver shows:
[attachment=3520:Energy_Saver.png]

"BTW, it appears that you have not used the "Journaled" formatting. It's not absolutely required and your main (internal) drive should use that."
^^^^ I have no clue what journaled formatting means.  

I don't know what this is (or why it looks like something extra to me)... can I just ignore it??
[attachment=3521:Read_only_.png]
[attachment=3522:Read_only_SD.png]

Here's an up to the minute screen shot...
[attachment=3523:SuperDup...ight_now.png]

Thanks again for all your help!!!!
Sooz

[jchuzi]

That's quite a lot to digest, Sooz!  Here's what I think happened:

It looks to me as if you installed SD in two places, namely the desktop and your Applications folder. Quit Super Duper (the dot under the dock icon should disappear, and unless you opted to keep it in the dock, the SD icon will also disappear from the dock). Now, trash the desktop icon (unless you have quit SD, you won't be allowed to do this). SD should still be in your Utilities folder within Applications. If so, you can empty the trash.

The screen shots that you posted using Disk Utility seem to show the SD disk image (that is, .dmg), which the computer reads as if it were either another hard drive or a DVD (CD). If that's the case, you can ignore it.

You should definitely test the clone that you made with SD. I had an instance (and, if I recall, it was in El Capitan) where my computer refused to boot from the SD clone. It would partially start up and then spontaneously shut down. I went through several emails with Dave Nanian, the developer of SD, but we never solved it. I then switched to Carbon Copy Cloner and everything worked. Later, I redid clones with SD in Sierra and High Sierra, and everything worked as advertised. Chalk it up to a bad day for the clone gods.

For your Energy Saver preferences, it would be a good idea to check the last box to Enable Power Nap. That way, Time Machine will briefly wake the computer in order to make its scheduled backups. When TM is finished, the computer will go back to sleep.

For the question of letting the computer fall asleep or doing it manually via the Apple menu, that's your choice. Personally, I tend to sleep my computer manually whenever I leave it, but that's just my preference. It's really up to you.