Fixing Time Machine backups
Time Machine was failing, always after getting about 450MB copied. This got me worried that I was getting disk errors again. I used Tech Tool Pro (a nice, albeit expensive, upgrade to the Tech Tool Deluxe that comes with Apple Care) to try to fix it. I ran every diagnostic and repair I would while still booted from the main drive. No joy.
Through this all, SuperDuper was happy to keep my bootable HD clone updated on another volume of the Firewire drive where I keep Time Machine backups.
When I bought Tech Tool Pro, I used its tool for creating a boot drive right on your main drive, and I booted to that. This little boot drive has diagnostics along with a complete OS, so when you’ve booted to it, you can do other repairs to the main drive.
I let Tech Tool fix any volume and catalog issues it found, and while I was booted that way, I defragmented files and free space (even though I’ve read there’s no particular benefit to it).
After rebooting the the “real” drive, I let SuperDuper update the HD clone again (no issues), and am 7 GB through a fresh new Time Machine backup, with 22GB left to go.
