Backing Up, The Sequel

The full backup of my MacBook Pro was finally completed last night a little after 9:00 PM.  The estimated time it would take when it began was “about 2 days” and it was dead on 48-hours.

Today I started to backup just the music files from my PowerMac G5 desktop computer but after the backup began I decided I that I did not really need to do that just yet.  I would see about merging the two iTunes libraries (MacBook and G5) first and clicked on Stop Backup.  After messing around with my music files on the MacBook for a while I decided to be safe and run a partial backup (only backs up what has changed since last backup) in the event I somehow managed to delete my music files.  This would take nowhere near the 48 hours it took for a full backup.

I clicked on Back Up Now and was starting to do something else when I noticed an error message had popped up.  It said that the backup could not be completed because some kind of “parsebundle file was already in use.”  I had no idea what this meant (I knew that I was not intentionally using anything with a name like that).  I Googled the error message and one of the first hits sounded like a winner.  I clicked on the link and a step-by-step set of instructions appeared.  Great!  I began to follow the instructions until I reached step #7 where it read, “NOTE.  This is a destructive process.  Your backup files will be deleted and you will not be able to retrieve them.”  Why in the world would I want to do that?  That WAS NOT a solution to the problem!  That’s like saying “I surrender.  I give up so you may as well just shoot me now!”  What kind of HELP is that?  I sure don't want to go through another 48-hour back up.  I will continue to seek assistance and hopefully won't be forced to toss out the baby with the bathwater.