Filed under: Software, Odds and ends
SuperDuper! 2.6.2 now even more so!
Many Mac pros are unnaturally fond of SuperDuper!, the accurately-named backup utility from Shirt Pocket Software. The application is inexpensive (free, actually, if you don't want advanced features -- the best US$27.95 you've ever spent, otherwise), powerful, and easily makes fully-bootable backups of your Mac.The latest version of SuperDuper! has just been released. Version 2.6.2 is now available and has a ton of new features and fixes. Here's the scoop from the revision history:
- Significant copy speed improvements (up to 2 times faster!)
- Preserves compression when copying
- Fixed extra copying under Snow Leopard
- Scheduled copies in old format are now disabled and we prompt the user to recreate
- Scheduled copies work on Japanese systems and with more Unicode/composed character drive names
- Backup-on-mount should work on 10.4.11
- Adjusted SDUtil path to improve robustness when application is moved (now symlinked/refreshed)
- Minor copy tweaks
- Reworked SL status to use 1000B = 1MB, 1024B = MiB for Leopard and earlier.
- Fixed crontab escaping if user has tcsh as their default shell
- Fixed issues with explicit Spotlight disable/enable under 10.5+
Thanks to Scott for the tip!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
saketini99 said 8:49PM on 10-13-2009
I can personally attest to how super SuperDuper is... about a week ago my iMac died and I've been running it off the bootable backup I made on an external firewire drive. It's been a week because I'm waiting for the supposed refresh of the iMac line... any day now right? RIGHT?!?!?!?
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Sev said 8:59PM on 10-13-2009
it crashed every time i tried to use it...
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Cowicide said 11:04PM on 10-13-2009
sigh... ok? which OS are you using, etc.? details or your words mean... nothing.
Sev said 11:07PM on 10-13-2009
Snow Leopard, latest SuperDuper! etc. Everything is up to date. I'm not looking for help, just giving my two cent. I don't really need that app, I was just trying it out.
Cowicide said 4:25PM on 10-15-2009
> I'm not looking for help,
I didn't think you were. But to say an app crashes on a public board without giving any detail is unhelpful to the rest of us and just a waste of time/space on the board.
Joseph said 11:10PM on 10-13-2009
I know my mac pro is fond of superduper.
It is part of my backup routine. I schedule a clone on a weekly basis, that runs in tandem with my time machine backups to give me the best of both worlds. If i accidentally delete something, i just time machine it. If my primary disk fails or if an update breaks me, i just choose a new boot drive.
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christian said 5:00AM on 10-14-2009
Which one is best? Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper? Anyone having experiences with both?
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homagetogorto said 8:40AM on 10-14-2009
What convinced me to go with SuperDuper is that it's the only one that actually backs things up correctly. (Or was at the time.)
http://blog.plasticsfuture.org/2006/04/23/mac-backup-software-harmful/
If the link doesn't come through, google "mac backups harmful".
Great program. I do a weekly clone to an OWC On-The-Go drive that I store in a fireproof media safe.
Arnoz said 6:43AM on 10-14-2009
Having tried both for a few times I definitely like SD! more. Easy, quick (at least I didn't find it slow before, now I'm going to try the x2 speed) and bootable image have always worked without a problem.
CCC is probably not bad but I pretty much think SD! is the best Mac app I've purchased.
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Yakov Hadash said 7:28AM on 10-14-2009
CCC does incremental updates for free, so it wins.
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Hawkman said 7:47AM on 10-14-2009
I'm nit-picking, but I assume the guy means 1000kB = 1MB, not 1000B. :) That's a big changelog for a point-point-X release.
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Don Perreault said 8:33AM on 10-14-2009
Had drive failure this week. I backup daily and I rotate full backups using 2 different backup disks and 2 different backup apps, SuperDuper & Carbon Copy Cloner. Long story short the CCC backup disk was the newest so I tried doing a complete clone from the CCC backup to my StartUp drive and it completed successfully but much of the data was old and I mean weeks old, never mind the missing data. Now remember, I backup every day rotating the disks and software, so I couldn't see how this was possible. CCC created a folder called lost + found and placed a bunch of node files in it. I was baffled, so I got out my SuperDuper backup disk and cloned that to my StartUp drive with success. Rebooted, everything looked good, I lost a bit of work I completed the past couple days but felt much more comfortable with the SuperDuper backup. I am sticking to SuperDuper, the developer team is very responsive and friendly but most importantly it is reliable.
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Galley said 9:13AM on 10-14-2009
I use SuperDuper! to back up my 700GB iTunes library monthly.
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Rick said 9:27AM on 10-14-2009
Been using SD! for years, has always worked fine. Highly recommend it.
Once took a trip to Europe with gf. Rather than bring two laptops, we cloned hers with SD! to a small external. Whenever she needed to go online, we booted the laptop from her drive. When we got back home, we cloned the hard drive back to her Mac, and she was completely up to date.
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THJ said 9:45AM on 10-14-2009
That's a brilliant idea. I could clone my personal machine before going out of town, then use it to boot my work laptop, would not have to worry about mixing home/work data, and any sightseeing pictures and whatnot could already be loaded in iPhoto. Clone the drive back after returning, and you're back up to date. Genius.
Scott LaPlant said 9:55AM on 10-14-2009
I use this excellent piece of software every weekday - it's saved me on two occassions and helps me to sleep better at night. Honestly, the best, "must have" piece of software every mac user should have.
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mikehild said 3:15PM on 10-14-2009
When is this user going to finally be banned? I'm sick of all his Spam posts.
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Toby said 5:38PM on 10-14-2009
I prefer SuperDuper myself, enough to have bought it.
But the real question is - what magic allows them to double the speed of copying in a microversion update? I'm guessing that they're now multithreading rsync (or whatever "the cloner" is). A quick look at the Shirt Pocket blog suggests that 3X faster might be closer to actual performance. Impressive if true. I'll go do some backing up now!
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Mark said 5:57PM on 10-14-2009
I'd like it if SD! could do offsite FTP based backups. I was planning to use a program called Twin (mentioned by TUAW some time ago - http://www.tuaw.com/2009/05/15/first-look-twin-1-0-for-mac-os-x/) but I was disappointed to see that it went from being a $39 app (when originally reviewed) that I would have bought in a heartbeat to a $70+ app, a price point where another external hard drive as a second backup makes more sense instead.
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oshawapilot said 6:05PM on 10-14-2009
I'd like it if SD! could do offsite FTP based backups - I have a large amount of offsite disk space available and the extra security involved in having your backups off site is huge.
Yes, I know it can't be a bootable "clone" this way, but it could be offered as an alternative option that would add value to SD!
I was planning to use a program called Twin (mentioned by TUAW some time ago - http://www.tuaw.com/2009/05/15/first-look-twin-1-0-for-mac-os-x/) but I was disappointed to see that it went from being a $39 app (when originally reviewed) that I would have bought in a heartbeat to a $70+ app, a price point where another external hard drive as a second backup makes more sense instead.
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