Backing up has never been so easy

If you haven't already received and instaled your copy of Tiger, let me take this opportunity to remind you that you are only as good as your last back up. Upgrading to a new OS without having a full backup (preferably bootable) of your data is foolish and unneccesary in this day and age when mass storage costs less than a buck a gig. What you spend on an external hard drive is far less then what you will spend on data recovery if something goes wrong (and if you don't have a recent backup, you are pretty much assuring yourself that something will go wrong.)

David Lerner, co-owner of the illustrious Tekserve used to sign his emails "May you have a thousand backups and never need one." I couldn't agree more.



One of the easiest ways to back up is to make a simple clone of your entire boot volume and/or other partitions or drives where you keep critical data. Unix geeks are familiar with the "ditto" command, but mere mortals will be happier with a GUI-fied point and click process.

If you can't wait for Tiger and Carbon Copy Cloner to get along, you might give SuperDuper a try.

Like CCC, SuperDuper makes it a cinch to clone a perfectly bootable OS X volume. Shirt Pocket Software offers a free "Clone Only" version, but "that's only scratching the surface of SuperDuper's full capabilities. The registered version allows access to even more copy scripts, including the fantastically useful checkpointing features that will let you roll back to a known state without losing any user-specific information."

So what are some of SuperDuper's advanced features?

For less than $20, SuperDuper goes well beyond mere duplication. "Its unique Safety Clone feature lets you install potentially risky drivers or system updates without fear of creating an unbootable or unworkable system — or losing access to your critical personal data." There's also the Smart Update feature which "updates a clone to exactly reflect any changes on the original in just minutes!"

Version 1.5.5(74) was just released and it adds Tiger support, as well as special handling of OpenBase (used by StickyBrain and some other programs) in the Safety Clone.

SuperDuper is an incredibly useful piece of software. It doesn't hurt that it's virtually idiot-proof, with excellent documention, superb support and a visually attractive interface. I have been using it for several months and it didn't take long for it to become one of my most valuable utilities. I've got a hunch you'll feel the same way.

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