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Oct 13, 08 - 01:57 pm Comment from: Wandering joe

Never heard of it. Maybe I'm deaf dumb and blind, but I'll give it a try now.

I agree. I've been using SuperDuper in addition to Time Machine for some time. I use SD to make a periodic bootable clone of my entire machine for emergency recovery and safekeeping, and TM to keep hourly backups of all my working documents. Developer support for SuperDuper is outstanding IMO, and even the free version will likely do most if not everything you need.

if you have a big enough external drive, you can store both SD and TM backups on the same device - they won't interfere with each other - however of course for max safety sake you're better off keeping them on separate drives

My iMac is backed up automatically every night by SuperDuper to an external drive. Back up, or be sorry one day.

http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

Oct 13, 08 - 02:08 pm Comment from: Wandering joe

"Back up, or be sorry one day."
Yeah, I found that out after i knocked over my iMac, and the HD died :-(

Oct 13, 08 - 02:23 pm Comment from: alansky

...if you have a big enough external drive, you can store both SD and TM backups on the same device - they won't interfere with each other —bc

SuperDuper is an excellent, very reliable backup utility. I've been using it for years and it never fails.

One caveat: SuperDuper backups need their own partition (or their own external hard drive) in order to be bootable. I use one large drive for both Time Machine backups and my SuperDuper clone by simply partioning my external drive.

To check whether your SuperDuper clone is really bootable, restart your Mac while pressing the Option key and select the bootable clone as the startup drive. If your SuperDuper clone doesn't show up in the list of bootable volumes, then the clone is not bootable.

For Time Machine users, check out TimeMachineEditor, a simple freeware utility that allows you to schedule TimeMachine backups less frequently than the hourly default. Some people like the security of hourly backups; but considering that most Mac users didn't backup at all before Time Machine, hourly backups might be overdoing it for many users.

There are two advantages to making Time Machine backups daily instead of hourly: (1) you avoid the hourly spinning beachball when Time Machine is activated; (2) Your Time Machine volume doesn't fill up nearly as fast.

I'm a huge fan of SugarSync. It's saved my bacon a couple of times, and I prefer offsite backup for added security.

For the uninitiated, SugarSync is like the best of Mozy and the best of DropBox, and its prices are competitive.

Oct 13, 08 - 02:32 pm Comment from: maccam

I have used SuperDuper for several years. It is a great application. Do smart backups onto a firewire drive, and you will always have a bootable back up of your working hard drive.

Don't forget Carbon Copy Cloner - which is another great, solid drive cloner.

I store a 35,000+ iTunes Library on an external drive which is cloned by Super Super every Saturday night. I then use Time machine for backing up my internal drive. Both have saved me recently.

Oct 13, 08 - 02:54 pm Comment from: El Guapo

@Wandering joe
Maybe I'm deaf dumb and blind

and are you a pinball wizard?

@alansky,

I do not notice any beach ball or other delay with my Time Machine backups. Half the time I don't even register that it's doing a backup.

And I want to second Carbon Copy Cloner. Which is donation-ware. I.e. free to try with all features. But please, if you find it useful, donate. Bombich, maker of CCC, added ads to the latest version to keep it up and running. They're not very intrusive, but still...

Oct 13, 08 - 03:14 pm Comment from: iamdj

Been using SD since Time Machine came out. Never had an issue. They work great together.

Oct 13, 08 - 03:18 pm Comment from: mms

I've been using SuperDuper! for a couple years now. It's been great, however, we found that when after using it to clone a Leopard bootable volume, there were problems with some of our certain critical Java applications. These issues did not occur when using Carbon Copy Cloner.

SD is great for backing up your media library. I have a single 500gb with all my music, movies & tv shows. I use SD to mirror the drive onto another 500gb every week or so. Clean interface & easy to use.

SuperDuper is good but it's design means it can fail if your drives are nearly full. It has happened a lot to me and the author nows about it but has decided at the moment it's acceptable (all software has design limitations). Basically if you add new files and delete others the backup can fail if it adds the new files, filling the backup drive, before it deletes the old files. So in essence the "Smart" feature, while very useful, is not smart at all. It would be smart if it did a quick pre-scan determining the best order to add and delete files (and it may be faster in the long run if it determines optimal locations for the files).

For example, imagine a drive that has a 300MB free. Since the last backup you have added 600MB but deleted 800MB. The backup will fail if it copies more than 300MB before it deletes any of the 800MB. So even though the backup drive should end up with even more free space than it started with, the backup may fail. In most cases the only fix is to manually go in and remove large files. Not very 'Smart'

Still, it is a very nice program.

I use it to do nightly scheduled bare-metal backup on a Mac Server. Being able to boot from the backup is a real plus. I was using CarbonCopyCloner until it started having very flakey problems with not being able to initialize the backup drive in unattended schedule mode. Why SD can do this while CCC cannot is a mystery.

..its all VERY NEANDERTHAL and pathetic compared to imaging software on Windows (but isn't that the case for majority of speciality/niche software on Macs) - i wonder why their isn't Acronis "True Image" for Mac (but IS for Linsux) (differential,incremental BUs with endless formats for drive independant booting) - which SH!TS all over the Mac efforts mentioned here just like Nero sh!ts all over the Mac alternatives ...eg.....er....Toast ...LMAO what a piece of dog turd utility (can't be any demand for a decent burning software as its too technical a concept compared to Mac OSX)!!!

Which of course brings us to the next point that Mac users have no idea how to use burning OS independent unmodified data/media to make cheap off site back ups. There's no point in storing back ups in the area near to the computer as if that goes up in smoke chances are great that ALL those back ups will be lost too....DUH!

it just shows how DUMBED down Mac systems are made when you use imaging to back up the WHOLE drive OR a drive full of media (libraries) when its only part of the drives data that constantly changes which needs and is suitable for imaging (which is very slow , consuming much more time, energy + STORAGE space compared to burning or transfering to external drive the larger the volume of data). With stuff like music, film/tv you back up the same whole lot ( + the few extra acquired over time) with every image - a complete waste of time and energy - only a NON-IMAGED (ie postion change irelevant UNLIKE imaging) INCREMENTAL back up is needed.

To quickly capture + efficiently store the small specific part of the drive that only requires imaging to increase time + efficieny of comp use you need to be KNOWLEDGABLE/competent in using PARTITIONS - so thats 99.9% of Mac users ruled out then as the complete absence of response to the mention of the concept of Partitioning in this thread evidents. :D

Oct 13, 08 - 05:34 pm Comment from: oh no my shorts

@ oh Dear OH DEAR!

Take a look at Dantz (now EMC) Retrospect. Retrospect Express is a decent backup solution that's often bundled for free with external USB drives.

The full-blown Retrospect is a multi-server, multi-user enterprise backup solution that has few peers. It will back up SQL Servers, Exchange Servers (with single-mailbox restore), will create bootable disaster recovery CDs for mission-critical servers, and will back up to literally any media you can think of, including DLT, AIT, LTO, optical, SAN or other.

Retrospect originated and still runs on the Mac platform. You can get client agents for Mac, Windows and Linux. It was ported to Windows in the late 90's. I beta-tested the Windows port but had been a Mac user of Retrospect and its predeccesor, DiskFit, since the 80s.

There's no lack of quality software for the Mac. You just have to have the capacity to look a little harder. Your efforts will be rewarded.

Oct 13, 08 - 05:35 pm Comment from: oh no my shorts

@ oh Dear OH DEAR!

BTW -- SuperDuper does incremental backups.

@ oh Dear OH Dear

I use Macs and some Windows boxes. The Macs are far superior.
I disagree that Windows has better solutions as you stated above.
You are either not telling the truth or not very intelligent or both.
In any case, you are unimportant.

Oct 13, 08 - 10:30 pm Comment from: Ferf Muckmeyer

SuperDuper is the best cloning solution for Macs, bar none, IMHO. I use it every night.

@oh Dear OH DEAR!:

Maybe if you tried the fscking software you'd know there is a feature called "Smart Update" that changes the contents of the cloned drive ONLY with changes to the source.

Oct 13, 08 - 10:49 pm Comment from: Cubert

@ oh Dear OH Dear,

Lay off the blow, dude.

Oct 13, 08 - 11:00 pm Comment from: Cubert

What do Senators McCain and Obama think about this issue of cloning of which we speak?

Oct 14, 08 - 04:19 am Comment from: maccam

@oh Dear OH DEAR!

Make a bootable image of your PC drive on an external firewire drive; carry the drive to another PC; plug it in; restart the computer; hold down a single key; choose the firewire drive as boot disk; then work with your own setup on a (any) different PC.

Oh wait you can't!

Oct 14, 08 - 08:02 am Comment from: Sixvodkas

Poor, sad little "oh Dear OH DEAR!" just got his @zz spanked in a public forum.

Would you like to try again, pathetic, ineffectual "oh Dear OH DEAR!".

If you're up to it, there are more than a few here willing to rub your nose in it.

Fool.

Oct 14, 08 - 10:32 am Comment from: alansky

@oh Dear OH DEAR!:

You are a certified RETARD!!! Just follow the drops of poo to the next Sarah Palin rally.

Super Duper is fantastic and has saved my bacon when a hard drive failed! Didn't even know the drive failed, at first, as the Mac just booted with the clone.

I currently have 4 1TB drives in my MacPro set up as two 2TB software RAID arrays. One is a nightly Super Duper clone of the other.

I also have a 500GB eSATA drive (the original drive that can with the MacPro) that I use for TM, just backing up the files I work on day in and day out. This way I can safely make code changes and try new ways of coding with the safety that if I really mess things up there is always a copy from an hour,day,week,month... ago.

This set-up works out great for me.

@alansky said:
"One caveat: SuperDuper backups need their own partition (or their own external hard drive) in order to be bootable. I use one large drive for both Time Machine backups and my SuperDuper clone by simply partioning my external drive."

this is NOT TRUE. SD backups are bootable even if on same partition as TM backups.

In the case of my MacBook Pro, I have a single external drive which I keep at work, and carry the MBP between home, office and travel. I'm using SuperDuper v2.5, with both SD and TM backups on a single external drive, within a single partition. I CAN boot from the SD disk clone, no problem. - I even just double checked to make sure! The option key press at reboot to choose the external drive works normally, as expected.