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Time Machine and mounted sparse bundle disk image - file by file backup?

I think I had this system working in Leopard, but upon upgrade to Snow Leopard it seems to have broken. Does anyone have any idea how I can get Time Machine to back up the contents of a mounted sparse bundle disk image in real time - file by file within the disk image? For example, I have a 2GB sparse bundle disk image that i keep all of my bank statements/files/records in. It auto-mounts on boot and stays mounted. I use the disk image to keep it password-protected, so if I unmount it it is fairly safe. In Leopard, I would exclude the .sparseimage file from backup, but it would still backup the mounted image itself on a file-by-file basis, so I could enter Time Machine and explore the image folder by folder, file by file (say I deleted an old bank statement by mistake, I could go into time machine and recover as if it were a normal file/folder).

In Snow Leopard, after a clean install, and creating a new sparse bundle disk image and excluding the .sparsebundle file, I can't seem to get this to work even though the image is mounted. Is there any way to trick Time Machine into backing up the mounted image as it would any other folder? I know I can back up the .sparsebundle file incrementally but in order to recover a lost document I'd have to remount the old bundle and that seems rather roundabout.

Thanks,

24" 2.4GHz Intel iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.1)

Posted on Sep 18, 2009 11:37 AM

20 replies

Nov 25, 2009 2:34 PM in response to 0x

Perhaps a combination of techniques can be used here. I'd suggest some (CAREFUL) experimentation after backing up first.

In Terminal, try utilizing launchd such as other items in ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ and examine keys such as KeepAlive (relating to com.apple.backupd) and/or WatchPaths (relating to /Volumes/backupname) may facilitate activity. After creating that XML, you could set rsync to smart update the changed files.

You'll have to read the man pages for launchd and rsync to flush this out, or someone may post it. If I'm on the wrong track, perhaps this will at least jog some ideas for you.

Dec 1, 2009 2:06 PM in response to bgwynne

FYI, I can also confirm that Time Machine used to backup the contents of mounted disk images in 10.5.x, and that this no longer works in 10.6-10.6.2.

That said, I believe that the Apple engineers are aware of this problem. I spent a significant amount of time on the phone with phone support and was eventually connected to a specialist who confirmed that the issue was reproducible on his machine. He then forwarded a description of the problem to the engineering team, and called me back a week later, informing me that the engineers confirmed their awareness of problem and were working on it.

Feb 28, 2010 1:17 PM in response to bgwynne

Has anyone found a way to make this work? I just upgraded to Snow Leopard and found out I'm having the same problem. Since this thread is quite old, maybe someone has fond the solution since the last post...

Feb 28, 2010 1:52 PM in response to Eric Desnoyers

Not yet. I'm hoping 10.6.3 fixes it....

Mar 1, 2010 8:28 PM in response to Peter Nardi

I just partitioned my HD and created a new volume this way. This volume mounts on my iMac, can be allowed to ignore ownerships (which was a problem for me) and is backed up by Time Machine (in the method described by the thread starter).

I don't know if you can encrypt the data on a whole partition, though, (which is not something I'm interested in) but otherwise, it works!

Time Machine and mounted sparse bundle disk image - file by file backup?