Mac Gems Weblog: Super(er) Disk Cloning

#1 Macworld.com

Veteran

Group: Members
Posts: 1,900
Joined: 06-February 04

Posted 24 April 2006 - 02:30 PM

SuperDuper 2.1 is even better than the version that won an Eddy Award. In other words, it's pretty good. [more]

#2 Nobody

Power User

Group: Members
Posts: 58,347
Joined: 18-October 07

Posted 24 April 2006 - 03:19 PM

Is SuperDuper better than Retrospect? I mean, on reliability and performance, not considering price. I have always used Retrospect and it seems rock-solid to me! A bit awkward interface sometimes, though. Thanks.

#3 msealey

Member

Group: Members
Posts: 119
Joined: 02-September 04

Posted 24 April 2006 - 03:32 PM

I've been using SD for about six months. It really is the very best! And tech support is second to none.
It's different from Retrospect, which can file or burn or archive, compress changes.
SD - when using 'Smart Copy' (essentially a delta between your source and target bringing the latter to the state of the former) can back up and make bootable in about 5 mins for 30 GB.
If the next Dantz upgrade is costly or hasn't much to recommend it, I'll probably ditch it in favour of SD, which is all you need - if it's not important to keep previous snapshots.
Well-priced, robust, attractively-designed and simple to use yet very powerful, I'd recommend SD in every way!

#4 rmcellig

Member

Group: Members
Posts: 56
Joined: 04-March 01

Posted 24 April 2006 - 03:37 PM

I second that comment. Superduper is fantastic. I have been using it for a few months now to back up my main drive to two seperate Firewire drives. It's flawless and support is beyond reproach. It's fantastic!!

#5 AndrewRodney

Member

Group: Members
Posts: 262
Joined: 19-July 05

Posted 24 April 2006 - 04:04 PM

Yes SuperDuper is awesome and deserves all the praises given. I've been using every back up application I could get my hands on since my first Mac way back in 1988 (back then I think it was DiskFit). I've used Retrospect and while it's powerful, it's overkill. SD is elegant, so easy to use my mom could figure it out and rock solid. Worth many time its price. A gem.

#6 Dan Frakes

Advanced Member

Group: Moderators
Posts: 4,599
Joined: 14-April 03

Posted 24 April 2006 - 04:59 PM

In reply to:

First, I should be clear that Retrospect is a true "backup" utility, whereas SuperDuper is a cloning utility. The difference being that Retrospect can perform incremental backups, saving a copy of every version of a file; SuperDuper will clone your drive's current state, so if you've made changes to a document on the source volume, the older version on the clone will be replaced by the newer version the next time you back up the source volume. Retrospect can also back up to CD, DVD, or tape. So there are advantages to using something like Retrospect.
That being said, in my experience, SuperDuper has been the most reliable backup software I've used. Part of this is because it doesn't use a proprietary format -- plug a SuperDuper-created clone into any Mac and it's accessible. But just as significant is that SuperDuper also seems to handle OS X's permissions and metadata better than any other utility. (Check out this article about the various backup utilities for OS X and how well they handle metadata: http://blog.plastics...ftware-harmful/ ) I've run into problems restoring data from Retrospect backups -- both in terms of file metadata and recreating a bootable volume.
I still use Retrospect for versioned backups of particularly important files where I might need to go back and view an earlier version. But for my day-to-day data security, I've migrated to SuperDuper.

#7 SeanoVox

Member

Group: Members
Posts: 92
Joined: 29-August 04

Posted 24 April 2006 - 06:12 PM

Can't I do this with OSX's Disk Utility app. Open the App, on a drive, and select the Restore tab, drag and drop source and destination drives and press restore. it makes a perfect copy of your drive. I did this last year when my wife's iBook HD was failing i bought a new 2.5" drive w/usb enclosure and used this method to back up the internal drive onto the new drive. then booted off the external drive to make sure it worked. it was fine. so i cracked open the cases (iBook and USB enclosure) and put the new drive (with all the copied data) into the iBook. closed it up and rebooted from the new internal drive. No you cant do incremental backups but you can clone it with free software from apple.
Sean

#8 moose_n_squirrel

Veteran

Group: Members
Posts: 3,187
Joined: 16-September 04

Posted 24 April 2006 - 06:24 PM

Sure, you can clone with Disk Utility, but other utilities are used for their additional features that Disk Utility does not have. Incremental updates are very important to me, so I can't use Disk Utility. It's the difference between a 90-minute full clone and a 15-minute quick backup. Disk Utility can't do the short version. Carbon Copy Cloner can do incremental updates, and Super Duper has many more options than CCC or Disk Utility, that's why people use them instead of Disk Utility.

#9 tomtom

Member

Group: Members
Posts: 886
Joined: 06-January 06

Posted 24 April 2006 - 11:12 PM

Good review.
I use Intego Personal Backup X4 for making clones and have found it excellent for PPC discs.
It now has most f not all of the functionality of Super Duper. "What will happen" is less explicit and is not immediately visible since the developer assumed that this can be tucked away after the first use. However, there are short explicit warnings about each Clone or Backup scenario. For example before a clone starts, the authenticated user is warned that files on the cloned volume that do not exist on the source volume will be deleted. .
As a matter of interest, what is or will be your backup strategy for a Windows volume - presumably a backup using a windows utility?

#10 Jamus

Member

Group: Members
Posts: 115
Joined: 27-August 04

Posted 25 April 2006 - 05:26 AM

Great app. The only problem I ever had come up with it was when I attempted to clone various RAID drives. It failed when cloning mirror and striped RAID disks to a disk image. That may be fixed by now though I have not had the time to test it again.
Other than that it has been a great app and hope to purchase a full license soon.

#11 stiix

Newbie

Group: Members
Posts: 13
Joined: 25-February 03

Posted 25 April 2006 - 07:10 AM

I want to be sure I understand the following paragraph from your article:
(Clones are also useful when rebuilding your Macas I found out this past weekend after a power surge wreaked havoc on my system. You can erase your main hard drive, install Mac OS X on it, and then use OS Xs Migration Assistant to import all your user accounts, files, and applications from the clone.)
If I have to erase my main hard drive, for whatever reason, I need to install OSX and then use Migration Assistant.
Why can't I use SuperDuper to clone everything back onto my hard drive?

#12 ncrbrd

Newbie

Group: Members
Posts: 7
Joined: 25-April 06

Posted 25 April 2006 - 08:07 AM

You might have a look at this extensive comparison of Mac backup/cloning utilities. SuperDuper is the only one unreservedly recommended. Many others, including stalwarts like Retrospect, come in for some unexpected criticism:
http://blog.plastics...ftware-harmful/

#13 Dan Frakes

Advanced Member

Group: Moderators
Posts: 4,599
Joined: 14-April 03

Posted 25 April 2006 - 01:09 PM

ncrbrd: I linked to that article in a post above /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

stiix:

In reply to:

If I have to erase my main hard drive, for whatever reason, I need to install OSX and then use Migration Assistant.
Why can't I use SuperDuper to clone everything back onto my hard drive?

You could... unless, like me, you didn't realize your system was hosed until after you ran your daily clone backup /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif (In other words, the OS on the clone was then hosed, too. So I just erased my boot volume, installed OS X, and then restored all my files and apps from the clone.)

#14 Albertr

Member

Group: Members
Posts: 837
Joined: 19-April 03

Posted 26 April 2006 - 03:25 AM

The absolute best feature if Superduper is the support. You email to them and the answer is almost immediate. By the way, I used to use pricey Retrospect too. I dumped it when they gave me lip instead of helping they claimed that I had called a year before and they would have to charge me, I hung up and tried Superduper. Easy to use, great support, exactly what everything should be. I put two companies in the bin not deserving my support: Smartdisk sale as "Got you!" and Retrospect loosy support. If ever an application needs good support, a Back up app. is it!