SuperDuper! vs TimeMachine

My MBA has limited hard disk (SSD) space. My plan is to use an external hard disk for backup. TimeMachine wants to do its hourly snapshot; however, I have it turned off and plan on doing updates manually. I have read that SuperDuper might be a better solution for my manual backups. I would appreciate comments from anyone having experience with both apps especially with Lion on a MacBook Air. I would like to be able to do a complete system recovery in the case of a SSD failure.

Thank you.

Mike

I use both. The only difference is I don't use SuperDuper, instead I use Carbon Copy Cloner. I use CCC to backup every two days and Time Machine every three days. If I'm doing an important update like an update to OS X, I run both CCC and TM before doing the update.

I too use both. But I use SuperDuper. It works very well. I typically only use SuperDuper about once per week but I let Time Machine back up per it's normal routine.

Like Chscag said I always back up to both just before doing any major operating system updates. I also have a third hard drive that I use as a Sandbox. SuperDuper allows a Sandbox to be created as well. I'm finding I don't use it very often simply because I don't make many critical system changes or adding a lot of new software and it's sitting off most of the time.

The process that I have works very well for me. I had one opportunity to use the SuperDuper backup process and it worked without a hitch.

It also seems to me that SuperDuper works better for restoring the whole drive whereas Time Machine is easier to restore individual files.

Regards,

Pat

chscag said:

I use both. The only difference is I don't use SuperDuper, instead I use Carbon Copy Cloner. I use CCC to backup every two days and Time Machine every three days. If I'm doing an important update like an update to OS X, I run both CCC and TM before doing the update.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the comments.

Why do you run both CCC & TM?

Advantages of CCC over SuperDuper?

Regards,

Mike

Why do you run both CCC & TM?

Advantages of CCC over SuperDuper?

Click to expand...

CCC clones your installation and renders the external hard drive bootable. Time Machine is primarily a backup program. Both can be used to restore file by file or folder by folder.

CCC is donation ware, SuperDuper is shareware. Both are almost the same and do the same thing.

Pat,

Thank you for your advice.

Would you use a different strategy for a MBA rather than a MBP?

Why SuperDuper rather than CCC?

Can TM, CCC, & SD use the same Mac partition? I have my external drive split between a Mac and Windows partition. Will that cause any problems for system restores?

Regards,

Mike

I think either solution will work fine as far as CCC or SuperDuper go. I think they both work well. I have 1 drive that I only use Time Machine on. I have another drive that I use SuperDuper for. The last thing you want to do is have both backups on one drive but it will work. I had 1 drive partitioned to use SuperDuper and TM. BUT if the drive fails you have now lost both of your backup solutions. Not a good thing. So I split them up to two different drives. It just makes sense. I don't think the solution changes because of the MBA. Just get drives that are large enough.

I would use Time Machine right away and get another drive when you can. It has to be formatted properly as well.

I had a couple spare drives laying around so it was no problem for me. OWC has drives and other places as well.

I hope this helps a bit.

Regards,

Pat

Thank you both for you advice - very useful information.

Mike

One other thing, for the TM backup I use a 1 TB drive. My MBP hard drive is 500 GB so I can get quite a few backups on the drive. TM will delete the oldest backup automatically once the drive gets full. For the SuperDuper backup I just use a 500 GB drive because in most cases if I use the SuperDuper I am dong a full restore for some reason. I use TM for individual file restore most of the time. I don't think TM makes a clone/copy of the drive as CCC or SD does.

Some of the more seasoned guys can probably help a bit more in that regard. I'm pretty new myself. My early on problem was self induced. I now operate differently and have had zero problems with my system. I really like it.

Regards,

Pat

For those that might be interested, I have used SuperDuper twice to revert my system back to a previous state (learning curve to configure my system gets carried away at times). It works perfectly! I now see why I need both.

Mike

I don't know about CCC but have come to rely on SuperDuper quite heavily. It has saved me large amounts of data a couple of times and is a real lifesaver for upgrades.

Just clone your boot volume and put the clone aside for safety to do your upgrade. If you have problems with the upgrade later on just swap volumes and you're back to where you started. Even better, you can boot from the upgrade volume from time to time to apply updates and fixes then swap it in as your primary boot when it's working to your satisfaction. Or if you want to upgrade your drive to something larger or faster just clone your boot over and you're ready to go. It works very well.

I use it and TimeMachine together for two reasons. I've had a TimeMachine sparse go corrupt on me in the past and was very happy to have a secondary backup. TimeMachine really excels if you need to find and replace individual files - like a missing song or video in itunes.

SD is the go for me, having used all three, SD registered, TM and CCC by donation ware. The SD registered version has a handy Smart Backup tool, which will back up your operating system as you wish, say weekly, fortnightly, monthly or whatever. Also the registered version is yonks times faster than the free version.

I quickly saw the value in the smart backup of the registered version and got it. It has become my main backup tool with TM around in case I need to find a file from an earlier time.

Mike