[Michael_K_Sr]

Quote:

I want to make a clone of my HD to another HD so that I can swap out HDs in my MBP and begin using it as if it were the same HD I just swapped out, but with more space. Will SuperDuper allow me to do this? What setting is it that does this? Thanks!

Yes. Select your source drive and your target drive and select Backup all files. You can click on the Options button to see the various options available but the "Erase and copy" option will be the only one available unless you've paid for a software license.

[Carlo Medina]

Thanks Michael. What worries me about this is that before I upgraded to Leopard, I did exactly that with my 10.4.10 HD (to an external FW HD). When I did a "Get Info" on both drives right after the "copy all files" there was like a 3GB difference between the external and my Mac HD. Shouldn't they be a lot closer than that? I understand they say some unique system files don't get copied over, but 3GB worth of it? Thanks!

[Michael_K_Sr]

There a number of reasons why the sizes could be different, although 3GB seems a bit much. In any case, SuperDuper creates a running detailed log that you can check under the Window menu in order to see exactly what is and isn't being copied.

[DaveF]

Michael is exactly right about how SuperDuper differs from TimeMachine. I'll add a few more comments that I ignorantly left out earlier.

Time Machine creates rolling backups of your data. It provides both a backup of your data and an easy way to recover files. If your hard drive crashes, you can recover from your TM backup. Two limitations are 1) backup is not bootable. You reinstall Leopard then recover from the TM backup. 2) The rolling backup process aggregates short-term steps as they "age". Hourly backups are aggreated into dailies; daily to weekly, and weekly to monthly. You don't have uinchanging snapshots, which is the conventional view of a backup system.

A program like SuperDuper! creates snapshots of whatever you backup. And you can create a bootable copy for immediate recovery. The limitations are 1) less frequent snapshots (daily or weekly versus TM's hourly 2) Less easy (I think) to recover individual files 3) $28 cost.

My opinion is that people will benefit more from TM's ability to immediately (and with panache) recover older files than they will from having a bootable backup. Most people don't need a bootable backup.

And this is why a really conservative person will have both TM and SuperDuper. Best of all features with no trade offs, except cost to have more storage space.

I think TM is great and think every Leopard user should turn it on without question. But I need to see how the long-term backup aggregation works to decide if I also want SuperDuper to complement it.

[Ronald Epstein]

Well, thanks to some gentle arm twisting by this group, I now
have two hard drives dedicated to my Mac.

I did a full backup using SuperDuper on my first drive.

The second I am using for Time Machine. The only concern I have
is that I have to leave the hard drive running constantly. Is it okay
to leave a powered external drive running day after day? Doesn't
it deteriorate the lifespan of the unit?

[DaveF]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein

The second I am using for Time Machine. The only concern I have
is that I have to leave the hard drive running constantly. Is it okay
to leave a powered external drive running day after day? Doesn't
it deteriorate the lifespan of the unit?

It's not apparent why that would be. People leave computers powered all day, thus leave their internal hard-drives powered long-term with no deterioration of the unit. Also, my wife's new Seagate external sleeps when her Mac sleeps. My drive, an internal drive plugged into a generic external case, seems to have its fan on always but only run the drive for actual disk activity.

So, if you're going to have troubles, at least you'll have a lot of company when all of us external-drive owners also suffer similarly

[Daryl L]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein

Well, thanks to some gentle arm twisting by this group, I now
have two hard drives dedicated to my Mac.

I did a full backup using SuperDuper on my first drive.

The second I am using for Time Machine.

If your external drive was large enough (maybe 160GB or larger) you didn't actually need a second external drive. You could have just split it into two volumes (partitions) using one volume for time machine and the other for Superduper.

Quote:

The only concern I have is that I have to leave the hard drive running constantly. Is it okay to leave a powered external drive running day after day? Doesn't it deteriorate the lifespan of the unit?

Most external drives nowadays sleep after a few minutes of inactivity reducing wear.

[Daryl L]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein

Dave,

I have to pick just one method of backup.

I have one external drive available and just need one program
that will back up easily and restore my computer after most any
catastrophe.

Time Machine? Carbon Copy Cloner? Super Duper?

Pick one. I'll use it.

Well, here's my opinion of backups at this time. Given you want to do it just before an Erase and Install of Leopard.

My first choice would be to use Disk Utility (DU). By using DU I would feel more confident everything is copied right since no programs or system files (the OS) are running when creating a cloned startup backup.


1. Put in Leopard disk and restart holding down the C key during startup to boot from the disk.

2. Once it's started choose Disk Utility on the menu bar. Hilight your the drive you want to clone (source drive/volume), click the Restore tab.

3. Drag the source drive/volume to the source field, drag the drive/volume to make a clone on to the destination field and check "Erase Destination" (make sure nothings on the destination drive/volume you need to keep.

4. Click Restore.

After it's done you'll have an external bootable clone, then you can test it. If it works commence to do an erase and install of Leopard.

My second choice (at this current time) is a tie between Superduper and CCC. As long as you restart holding the Shift key down to boot into safe mode having minimal processes running as possible (recommended in SD's help). It seems SD can backup Leopard okay but not compatible to smart update. CCC is suppose to be fully compatible, I'm just not sure now compatable since the latest released was before Leopard was released. Once SD is fully compatible I'd choose SD before CCC (I just feel more comfortable with SD).

My third choice would be Time Machine. Not bootable.

[Carlo Medina]

Daryl (et al.)

Does that Disk Utility method work if one wants to replace a HD inside a Macbook Pro?

For example, can I boot up using Leopard CD, clone that to an external drive, make sure the external drive is bootable, then replace the Macbook Pro HD with the new one, boot up from the Leopard CD, choose the external drive and clone it to the blank internal HD on the Macbook Pro and have it copy everything from the old internal HD to the new one?

I'm hoping the next time I fire up the MBP with the now-cloned internal HD it will boot up as it did before the HD swap?

Thanks!

PS - I'm using this route because I don't have a firewire 2.5" SATA external HD to clone from one internal laptop HD to the one, hence why I'm using an external HD to clone to, then back (it's a 3.5" external HD).

[Daryl L]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carlo Medina

Daryl (et al.)

Does that Disk Utility method work if one wants to replace a HD inside a Macbook Pro?

For example, can I boot up using Leopard CD, clone that to an external drive, make sure the external drive is bootable, then replace the Macbook Pro HD with the new one, boot up from the Leopard CD, choose the external drive and clone it to the blank internal HD on the Macbook Pro and have it copy everything from the old internal HD to the new one?

I'm hoping the next time I fire up the MBP with the now-cloned internal HD it will boot up as it did before the HD swap?

Thanks!

PS - I'm using this route because I don't have a firewire 2.5" SATA external HD to clone from one internal laptop HD to the one, hence why I'm using an external HD to clone to, then back (it's a 3.5" external HD).

I believe that should work just fine.

[Ronald Epstein]

Playing around with TIME MACHINE.....

I have several days backed up and I can scroll through the
different desktops.

However.....

The RESTORE function is grayed out. If I had to, how can I
select RESTORE?

[DaveF]

I think you first select a specific file or files to restore. Then you can click the Restore button.