At long last, a Leopard-compatible SuperDuper!

Here is an update. Apparently, there is not a carbon API or BSD API / command to change the creation dates or modification dates of symlinks. (There is an API to change these dates for regular files). In other words, Apple does not let you do it easily (if at all).

So it does not look like it is possible to preserve creation dates and modification dates of symlinks on backups (or clones of disks) unless you do a bit for bit copy. Unfortunately, you cannot do a bit for bit copy (or block copy) on mounted system drives.

So it looks like we are all going to have to settle on imperfect clones of our system drives.

Please ignore my last post. SuperDuper DOES copy ACL's in the unregistered version. But the option in the "Advanced Copy" options will remain greyed out until you enable ACL's on the Source Drive (with the fsaclctl command).

Today, I did a number of tests with both Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper. Both did a great job at copying files. Extended File attributes, BSD Flags, ACL's etc were copied.

But both appear to have the same one bug. The creation and modification dates of symlinks were NOT preserved on the destination drive. (The creation date and modification date for regular files were preserved). I filed bugs with both CCC and SuperDuper.

WARNING -- It does not look like the unregistered version of SuperDuper will do for FULL backups of your drives.

One of the advanced options is GREYED OUT -- "Copy ACL's". ACL's are Access Control Lists and are part of each file's metadata.

In my view, if you don't copy the ACL's, you are NOT making a identical clone of the source drive.

I hope that this is just a bug that will be fixed in the next release.

> It's not whining to point out the truth. Almost 5 months to get out a working superduper is pathetic.

It's painful if you're a user waiting for the update, but it's not pathetic considering the kind of low-level work David has to do to make sure that a clone is truly complete and bootable. Small teams/one-man-shows don't have the resources to work on the schedules that larger ones do. And even when a team is large and has practically unlimited resources, there's no guarantee that everything will be ready to be laid at your feet for approval.

I was frustrated as well by the time it took to get SD ready for 10.5, but I don't fault Dave for that. I used CCC and waited for the day when I could do smart updates again (20mins vs 4hrs, for those saying CCC does the same thing for free. The time difference is decidedly not 'the same thing' to me).

Here's to SuperDuper Tuesday.

#20 Michael Rose -- You are misinformed. Carbon Copy Cloner v3.0 uses a completely different mechanism to clone drives that the older Carbon Copy Cloner v2.1. (The outdated article you quoted compares Carbon Copy Cloner 2.1 with SuperDuper. Not a fair comparison).

Carbon Copy Cloner uses the Apple Restore (asr) command to make bootable clones. Apple's restore (asr) command is a low-level tool developed by Apple and built-in to Mac OS X. Apple Software Restore is a highly regarded tool for performing disk to disk clones. It can either make block level clones (i.e. the copy is the same bit for bit) or file level clones. Carbon Copy Cloner supports both modes. I suspect Super Duper also uses asr now as well.

If you want to use asr at the command prompt in Terminal to make a bootable clone, just type:

sudo asr -source / -target /Volumes/Backup -erase -noprompt

This bootable clone will be just as good as a clone made by Super Duper or Carbon Copy Cloner.

For more details, see
http://www.bombich.com/mactips/image.html

http://www.bombich.com/software/docs/CCCHelp/content/clone.html

Carbon Copy Cloner supports scheduling and smart updates.

As others have pointed out, Carbon Copy Cloner is donationware. You pick the amount you want to donate.

There is also CloneTool Hatchery which is freeware. Or just use "asr" command in the Terminal to make perfect clones of your drives.

There is an advantage using SuperDuper. You can backup to your Time Machine Volume. But is that worth $27.95? That is your call.

Wooo! Thank god!

I was waiting for this.

Anyone know how exactly you set up the SD backup to be on the same partition as the Time Machine backup? It is not covered in the user guide and the SD forum is down. The user guide says you have to make a sparse image if you are going to put a back up on a partition that contains other data, but it sounds like that might not be the case now?

i don't get why some people are complaining here. i've been using the older version of SuperDuper on Leopard for months now and it worked fine.

SD has saved my butt more than once now. it's easy to use and very effective at what it does.

I've used CCC for four years, and it's always made bootable clones, had great synchronization features, and it's free. 3.0 makes a block-level clone, syncs over a network and was Leopard compatble weeks ago. Can someone tell me exactly what SD has over it? I sincerely want to know.

Thank Jebus it's finally done. I don't trust Time Machine yet, but SuperDuper has saved my ass twice. That's all I need to know.