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guidedog

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I backup my system using SuperDuper! - no problems for many months.
Recently I found that SuperDuper is referring to the folders it backs up with a 1 after the name, e.g. my folder under Devices is called FreeAgent Daily Backup but SuperDuper now sees that as FreeAgent Daily Backup 1.
This also applies to my weekly backup.
The only places I see this "1" folder is either by Finder going to /volumes or in Disk Utility where it is shown as the Mount Point for the real name.
OS X appears to have generated an ALIAS but I have no idea how/where/when.
I cannot remove this ALIAS because even when logged on as Administrator I'm told I do not have authority.
When I look at Get Info in Finder it shows as locked.
It isn't causing a problem but I do not like such loose, unexplained activity.
Can you advise how this may have come about and how to delete it?
 
The first time the volume was mounted, the system assigned it the name "FreeAgent Daily Backup". At some point, the device on which the volume resides was improperly disconnected and then reconnected. Because it was not properly disconnected, the folder "FreeAgent Daily Backup" still existed in /Volumes even though it is no longer connected to the drive. Thus the system had to use a new, unique folder name "FreeAgent Daily Backup 1" to assign to the volume when it was reconnected.

To resolve this, look in the /Volumes/FreeAgent Daily Backup folder to see if it contains any stray files which didn't make it to the external drive... move them if you wish and then delete that folder. Then restart the computer and in the future be sure to eject the volume prior to disconnecting the external drive (or powering it down.)
 
Thanks BuggyNSlow. Some points:
1) I have nothing I know of that would disconnect these drives. They are used solely for SuperDuper backup.
2) When I look at those folders under /Volumes I do not have permission even to see the contents. I can look into the latest alias as well as the original name that remains in Finder.
3) This business is getting silly - my daily backup is now on ...3 while me weekly backup is on ...2
Whatever I try to do with these alias I am told I do not have permission even as administrator!
 
If you see both "FreeAgent Daily Backup" and "FreeAgent Daily Backup 1" in /Volumes then at some point either your system believed that the volume was disconnected (whether it was or not) and it later reconnected with the new name -or- perhaps your system is loading more than one filesystem from the volume (seems very unlikely but it is possible. Try Get Info on the volume icons on the Desktop and look at the Format field to see if they differ?)

You might also check the dates of the two folders in /Volumes and see when the issue occurred which might offer a clue as to why it did?


In any case, eject/unmount the external and make sure that both folders are gone in /Volumes (move them out to the Desktop rather than deleting them in case they still hold files) then restart and allow the drive to mount normally and all should be back to normal.
 
Many thanks for your help BuggyNSlow.
Here's what I ended up doing versus what I attempted and caused my cries for help.
At first I thought deleting the "FreeAgent Daily Backup 1", etc. from /Volumes folders was what to do. But it turns out what I should have deleted was simply "FreeAgent Daily Backup" from /Volumes. Doing this and deleting the weekly folder too (followed by a restart) has put everything back in order.
I have not done anything to cause this problem but perhaps the reason can be found in this link http://db.tidbits.com/article/9620 where the blame is placed on developers and Apple.
 
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