restore/CCC/or superduper

Hi Bruce;

I use SuperDuper and it works great for me. I have heard that any of them will get the job done though.

Allan

Hi Bruce,

Welcome to Discussions.

We use both CCC and SuperDuper. Both work fine.

Richard

And I use both SuperDuper! and Silverkeeper and am perfectly happy with both.

Matthew Whiting

Hi Bruce, welcome to Discussions.

I had trouble in the past with CCC, I find SD to be stable, accurate and easy to understand and use. I have it configured to back my HD up automatically. It saved my bacon when my main computer went down, I used the clone SD made on my external FW drive, plugged it into another computer and was happily working away in seconds. Of course, the trick is to remember to do the backups.
Good luck,
Miriam

I use the Disk Utility Restore function, works fine. I then keep things synced up with the shareware Chronosync, which is very flexible and very fast.

Be aware that unless you jump thru some odd hoops you will end up with three files (etc, tmp and var) visible in your clone that are invisible in the original install--they are links to things inside the invisible private folder. Doesn't bother me and doesn't do any harm.


Francine
Schwieder

I use SuperDuper! and recommend it highly. Not only is it very stable and easy to use the support for it is phenomenal, the best I've evere encountered.

The creator keeps a forum going with people asking questions. And if you can't find the answer there you can ask your own question and get a quick response, or e-mail him and still get a quick response.

I've had him get back to me on both e-mail and the forum within a few hours. Once I had a major problem, went to the web site and discovered it was caused by the latest Tiger update, he had a patch for SuperDuper! ready to download which fixed the problem easily. And in less than 5 minutes from the moment discovering the problem to it being fixed.

I have recently added external firewire hard drive in
hopes to totally back up (bootable external) of my
main internal hard drive. Which of the above is most
recommended? I have already partitioned the external
into two parts - one of which is same size as the
main internal.
Thanks in advance for your insights and help.
~bruce

I just installed "Silvekeeper" for free. On my OS 10.4.4 eMac with a Acomdata 80G external HD.

I erased Acomdata HD. But did not do longer( complete erase/write over methods )

This left 8 files on the drive even tho La Cie says to leave no files on the drive. The drive was already formated as Mac OS Extended( journaled ) tho La Cie recommends Mac OS extended.

It was simple operation to clone my 16G's of info.

I could not then unmount the HD icon. I got window saying it was in use please quit all applications. Thre were not applications open so I had to restart eMac as usal then I able to properly dismount the ext. HD.

Next I rebooted and selected ext. HD for to restart from to test if it woulk work properly. Yes! It did, however, it had me go through he whole process of filling out registraion to apple, user name, time zone, etc....like my external system was a whoel new system install.

Once I got through all that I went to accounts and there were my two usuals accounts and the new one I was force to create.

No real problems tho and all info appears to have been transferred.

Silverkeepeer is best value unless you want addtional fancy stuff.

Ran

Restore? never heard of it, my experience

Retrospect - swiss army knife, may be very complicated for some, Dr. Smokes favorite.

Carbon Copy Cloner - donationware = cheap = free, does straight clones well, manually with some schedualing, very easy, very good help forums

Superduper - interface a bit confusing, calls home (potential security risk), limited schedualing, free for basic cloning, costs for more options, decent forum help.

Deja Vu - System preference pane, easy to understand, auto-clones and auto-backups even when logged out and over a network. Powerful but not complicated. Did I say the app is a locked preference pane? Safe from meddlers.

Xupport - swiss army knife utility has other features and cloning as well, manual.


I prefer Carbon Copy Cloner for manual cloning because I know it does some optimization and that's usually when I do manual cloning.

For auto-cloning and auto-backup I prefer Deja Vu, see Apple's site here.

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/systemdiskutilities/dejavu.html


For good tips on how to clone well see my pages

http://homepage.mac.com/hogfish/Personal6.html


(dada disclaimer, nada compresation de myself for recemedationo comprendo? bueno! hasta la vista baby!)

Hi, Bruce.

If you had to choose between those, I'd pick SuperDuper. However, for advice on the backup and recovery solution I employ, see my "Backup and Recovery" FAQ.

Good luck!

😉 Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

---
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:

I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

I looked a Carbon Copy Cloner, Dejavu and SuperDuper!

Carbon Copy Cloner did not work at all. Don't know why, but for something as important as backing up data, I'm willing to spend some cash on a program I am comfortable with.

I liked the user interface of Dejavu but I did not feel as comfortable with it as I did SuperDuper! It lacked a status indicator and did not feel like a robust program. The date and time of the most recent backup was displayed on the main menu- a big plus. I also liked that it was integrated into the system preference pane.

However, SuperDuper! seemed easier to me and I felt more confident about it, and it was the first program that created a successful bootable backup copy which I tested and verified. I look foward to seeing some upgrades such as: preference pane integration, a widget status indicator, and wake the computer from sleep.

Dejavu I'm sure would be a good program as well. Pick one and stick with it.

I have a second internal hard drive used as a backup.

Bean

Beantrees

However, SuperDuper! seemed easier to me and I felt
more confident about it, and it was the first
program that created a successful bootable backup
copy which I tested and verified. I look foward to
seeing some upgrades such as: preference pane
integration, a widget status indicator, and wake the
computer from sleep.

I've said it so many times and in so many places in here people are probably sick of it, but I love SuperDuper! Not only very easy to use, if there is ever a problem or just something you don't know how to do the support for it is phenomenal, the best I've ever seen for a product. I keep mentioning it because it was so extraordinary it really blew me away.

I use a lot of little third party software and have seen every kind of support possible, from people who never, ever get back to you (who lose me as a customer) to those who hassle you in e-mail for something that is their fault then stop responding when I get mad (Unsanity, who I will never use again, period. They could come up with the greatest product ever that can't be duplicated anywhere else and I won't buy it.) To those who are pretty good, but SuperDuper! has been an exceptional standout.

Nor has there ever been a problem with the software except once a weird problem came up and an error message would stop the back up in the middle of the procedure. I went to the web site and found a message dealing with it. Apparent something in the newest Tiger upgrade conflicted with something in SuperDuper! and within a week of the release he had the solution posted for downloading on his web site.

I've said it so many times and in so many places in here people are probably sick of it

Yes, we are

See here for a definition of guerrilla marketing


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_marketing


Leasing your brain out should come with some sort of compensation, and if your getting compensation, according to the Apple forum rules you must state it.

"See here for a definition of guerrilla marketing which the developer is using"

Wait a minute. Are you suggesting that in any way, those of us, amongst whom I count myself, who recommend SD are agents, wittingly or unwittingly, of the developers of SD?
I'm sorry, but if you're serious. I resent the implication. I used Retrospect and found it dreadful, I used CCC for a while, it gave me lots of trouble, I switched on my own to SD, found it to be a useful application and haven't hesitated to recommend it. I recommend it because it works, not because I've been brainwashed. If I find your suggestions on your web site useful I would recommend those too. Does that mean you have brainwashed me?

The people who answer posts on this forum do so because they want to help people solve their problems. Any suggestion that I am doing it to further some hidden agenda is insulting.
Miriam

I'm not in any way affiliated With SuperDuper! (can't even remember the guy's name). I get no money or compensation from them in any way, or from ANY software or computer manufacturer in any way. Everything I say is merely my opinion, I can be wrong, or some product may only be great for me and no other person on the planet, but I hope a recommendation will be helpful to other people.

I just think people who do something well should get recognition for it, and most people like to tell other people when they've found something good.

And I appreciate it when someone else on these forums mentions a product they like so I can check it out.

For instance, I'd be curious if many people use a note pad program and have any they highly recommend. I've found most to be either too simple or far too complicated (and expensive because of it).

I currently use iOrganize and it's OK but I wouldn't mind something better.

I paid $20 for SuperDuper! two years ago. Since then it has been cloning my HD without fuss and with no problems. It has been completely reliable. Oh no! I've been brainwashed too. ds store, you are being silly now.

Matthew Whiting