Our Verdict
Last June , I wrote about SuperDuper 1.5.5 ( ) , which I ’ve found to be the best way of life to make a bit - for - snatch - identical clone of a Mac OS disco biscuit bulk . A clone is a bang-up approach to backing up your strong campaign : Should anything should ever occur to your main drive , you just reboot from the clone and you ’re up and run in no time . ( ringer are also useful when rebuild your Mac — as I find out this past weekend after a power surge make for mayhem on my system . you could erase your main hard drive , install Mac OS X on it , and then utilise OS X ’s Migration Assistant to import all your user accounts , file , and practical program from the clone . )
Unfortunately , because of unseeable single file and permissions take , you ca n’t but drag the contents of one book onto another to get a serious transcript , as you could in Mac OS 9 and to begin with . SuperDuper does the caper right , and does so via an easy - to - usance interface — it can even update an existing dead ringer with just the latest change to the original drive . It also include a number of advanced features that make it useful to internet administrators and IT personnel department . Macworldliked SuperDuper 1.5.5 so much we give way it a 2005 Eddy Award .
I boost you to take my original review , as it explains exactly what made SuperDuper 1.5.5 a “ must - have ” utility . It also provide some context for today ’s Mac Gems review ofSuperDuper 2.1 ( ) , which focuses on the improvements .
SuperDuper 2’s main window.
SuperDuper 2.1 has all of the great features that made version 1.5.5 so good ; it ’s gentle to utilise for the most canonic social occasion while offering a Seth of advanced characteristic not found in other similar usefulness :
( I discussed these features in detail in my original review . )
However , my one significant complaint about SuperDuper 1.5.5 was its lack of scheduling support ; as I noted last year :
The only major feature film escape is the power to schedule transcript / clone operations — for example , I ’d like to be able to tell SuperDuper to mechanically clone my hard drive every night at midnight .
SuperDuper 2.1 addresses this shortcoming via a new “ Schedule ” clitoris :
SuperDuper 2 ’s principal windowpane .
SuperDuper 2’s scheduling window.
After setting up the hope copy , clicking this Schedule clitoris give you a ready to hand scheduling windowpane for that exceptional circle of written matter options :
SuperDuper 2 ’s scheduling windowpane .
Choose the week(s ) and day(s ) on which , and the clip at which , you desire the automatic copy to occur . As with the master SuperDuper window , the programming windowpane provides you with a “ What ’s going to fall out ? ” sum-up that explicate exactly what is fit to happen — and , in this case , whenit will encounter . Click OK to add the agenda . You ’ll then see SuperDuper 2.1 ’s Scheduled Copies windowpane , which shows all scheduled copy as well as the last metre each undertaking was melt down and the next metre it ’s scheduled to run .
SuperDuper 2’s Scheduled Copies window.
SuperDuper 2 ’s Scheduled Copies windowpane .
On top of that major lineament addition , SuperDuper 2.1 includes a few other betterment . For starters , SuperDuper ’s user interface has been reorganize to make it even prosperous to use . For instance , the basic option — the eccentric of copy and what to do when the copy is finished — are listed in the General tab of the Options screen , whereas more advanced choice — shell script execution , as well as disc simulacrum and Installer package job — have been move to an Advanced tab . And although I antecedently praised SuperDuper 1.5.5 ’s software documentation as being comprehensive and graspable — lamentably rarefied when it comes to backup software program — the documentation include with SuperDuper 2.1 is even better thanks to the improver of task - based didactics that intelligibly explain how to perform various procedures .
Finally , SuperDuper 2.1 is a Universal double star , so it act upon natively on Intel - based Macs . ( Although , as noted in the manual , you should n’t employ SuperDuper to clone FAT32 - formatted drives — for case , a FAT32 partition you ’ve created via Apple ’s Boot Camp to run Windows on your Intel Mac . SuperDuper was n’t project for FAT32 drives . )
Whether you use it to make one - off clones for IT oeuvre or to make scheduled , bootable copies of your Mac ’s hard drive for backup purposes , SuperDuper is the best clone - based backup public utility company I ’ve seen — and the backup utility to which I trust my own data . Its clear interface , outstanding lineament go down , informative support , and — most importantly — fail - safe performance have made it an essential part of my Mac toolbox .
