[JHolmesJr]

I run 10.4.11 and want to upgrade but Im held back by the fact that SD is not yet compatible with leopard. I dont see much point in backing up my Tiger HD, then doing an Erase & Instal and then not being able to use SD for an indefinite period. I know I can back up on Time machine but the reason I forked out for a registered copy of SD was to have a bootable clone as backup at all times. Does this logic make sense? Anyone else in the same boat--what would you suggest?

Thanks

[Tom_Diola]

Yes the day it came out. I had a spare external drive and have been 'kinda' using Time Machine (although I think Time Machine is cheezy and looks like an episode from Star Wars introduction).
Check out: http://www.shirt-pocket.com/blog/ they seem to be near completion.

[dmod415]

I run 10.3.9 ;<) and no, I haven't upgraded (nor do I plan to in the near future).

Pantherfan

[JohnVL]

You're right, but you need not wait. If you have a firewire drive that you've used SuperDuper! on and is bootable, you can make a backup with Disk Utility. I was in exactly the same boat until a week ago when someone on one of these forums reminded me of Disk Utility. I have Leopard and Disk Utility made a fine bootable backup. I no longer am impatient for SuperDuper, although SD does give more backup options.

Hope this helps,

John VL

[daneb]

The only thing I used Super Duper for was backing up, which Time Machine now takes care of. The one HUGE disadvantage to Time Machine, however, is the lack of creating a bootable back up of a disc. I don't see Apple ever creating TM support for that feature.

[Tom_Diola]

JohnVL - Clarification please: Are you saying to use an external HD that was previously created with SuperDuper that was used in Tiger to use disk utility on that disk for a backup? I'm slightly confused with your post.

[JohnVL]

Hi Tom. Let me go back and make it clearer...

I have found that Maxtor external firewire hard drives can be made bootable by both SuperDuper and Disk Utility. I also own a Western Digital HD that cannot be made bootable but Maxtor works for me (I have two).

Previously in Tiger, I used SuperDuper to make a clone of my regular computer. SuperDuper allows incremental backups which is less time consuming and very convenient. (BTW, I store this clone at work in case the house has a fire or is vandalized).

But with the arrival of Leopard, SuperDuper was no longer compatible. I waited for quite a while without a bootable backup before reading on this forum that Disk Utility will also make a bootable backup. I have now just forgotten about trying to use SuperDuper (until a free update becomes available for Leopard) and used Disk Utility to make the bootable backup on my external Maxtor firewire hard drive.

I like the drive to be bootable so that if I ever need to, I can boot from it and use it to clone back to my computer to restore everything. I did that a couple of times (such as when I had installation problems with Leopard) and it is invaluable. Using that method you don't have to reinstall software, preferences, etc.

Hope this helps,

John VL

[Tom_Diola]

I guess I'm missing it but in Disk Utility I don't see a way to make a bootable disk ...

[JohnVL]

It's easy. Click on the destination back-up hard drive, then on the "Restore" tab. From the upper left drag into the window the source and then the destination. I would also click on the "Erase Destination" tab, too. Then, if I remember correctly, you just press "image".

One "scary" thing is that after 10 seconds or so the destination disk takes on the same name as the source disk. What I do in order to prevent confusion, after the backup is completed I rename the backup "Maxtor Backup" or something like that.

Hope this answers your question.

John VL

[Tom_Diola]

Oh. The downside to this is the time it takes. The upside to SuperDuper
is you can do incremental backups which take on average like 12 mins.
For now I use TM. I'll switch to SD when they get it done.

[JohnVL]

I just start it before I go to bed and in the morning it's finished and I take the backup to work and store it safely in a locked cabinet. Peace of mind.... :-)

[JHolmesJr]

I'm back-- bit the bulllet and installed Leopard finally. Worked like a dream....zero'd the laptops drive using disk utility on Leopard disc, then did a 1st time install, used set up assistant to get all my stuff over from the bootable backup I had made with SD! and voila...so far so good, everything seems to work (touch wood). Now I just hope SD will come out with their update soon.

BTW just a quick one, did the software update and got a question, do I really need the update for remote desktop...I dont even know what that term means ?

Cheers

[Tom_Diola]

I'm disappointed with Super Duper. I didn't pay much for it so I'm not out that much. I keep checking in at the blog site but they keep saying another few days ... Just about the time they get that done 10.5.2 will come out and then what?. It's sad because Time Machine is awful to look at and doesn't do what I want it to do. Maybe they're get Time Machine to do what we want it to do instead of what they think we want it do. . . .

[JHolmesJr]

Well...the update is out. So i downloaded it and ...

Rather then risk a smart update (didnt know how SD would handle the transition from tiger to leopard), I did a erase and back up and it all seems fine.

What was ironic was that the SD update took quite a while to develop but it downloaded onto my machine in less than 30 sec.