Clone using SuperDuper! taking extremely long time

[0wls]

I am trying to clone my mac for the first time using SuperDuper! on its own partition on my WD My Passport 3.0 external drive from my 2012 Mini.

When I first tried, it slowed to under 1mbps. I knew something was wrong, so I stopped it and updated the firmware. Once I was up and running again, I tried again. It started out great, around 130mbps, but within a minute, it was down to 4mbps. Now it's 2mbps. I only have 150gb or so in use, and no big files. Just basics like photos and songs.

This is not right, correct? To make my first copy of Time Machine, it only took about 30 minutes on the same drive earlier this evening. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[tech4all]

Since you said it was faster with Time Machine, maybe you could try Carbon Copy Cloaner and see how long it takes to backup. While CCC 3.4.7 isn't the latest version, it is free to use and works fine with Mavericks (although you'll get a message saying other wise when it starts up).

If CCC operates at normal speed, then the issue could be Super Duper.

 

[0wls]

Thank you! SD ended up speeding up after about 40 minutes and finished quickly, but I am going to download CCC and see if it's better anyway.

 

[CrickettGrrrl]

Thank you! SD ended up speeding up after about 40 minutes and finished quickly, but I am going to download CCC and see if it's better anyway.

Just wanted to know if you were prompted to update SuperDuper! when you first opened it yesterday?

I'm asking because I used SD! on Friday to clone a friend's HDD (150GB with only 96GB used) and after I updated SuperDuper! the cloning took 3-1/2 hours (!!!)

It started off somewhere at 1mb/second and toward the end crept up 10mb/sec. All-in-all, your slow speeds were way better than mine. --And I've cloned this HDD a year ago and it didn't take this long.

 

[Weaselboy]

Thank you! SD ended up speeding up after about 40 minutes and finished quickly, but I am going to download CCC and see if it's better anyway.

I previously used SD and found it very slow when the clone starts off. If you watch it, it "walks the whole drive" before it copies any files. It appears it does this then makes a list of what to copy, then AFTER that starts copying. Where CCC seems to check folder by folder what needs to be copied and starts copying so it is much faster.

I was trying to use SD just to regularly copy my ~/Documents and ~/Music folders and there was no way to stop it from scanning the entire drive for changes even if you only wanted to copy a couple small folders. I corresponded with the dev. and he explained this is the designed behavior. I ended up dumping SD because of this.

 

[0wls]

Just wanted to know if you were prompted to update SuperDuper! when you first opened it yesterday?

I'm asking because I used SD! on Friday to clone a friend's HDD (150GB with only 96GB used) and after I updated SuperDuper! the cloning took 3-1/2 hours (!!!)

It started off somewhere at 1mb/second and toward the end crept up 10mb/sec. All-in-all, your slow speeds were way better than mine. --And I've cloned this HDD a year ago and it didn't take this long.

No I wasn't! Sorry that the update seems to have affected your speeds.

I previously used SD and found it very slow when the clone starts off. If you watch it, it "walks the whole drive" before it copies any files. It appears it does this then makes a list of what to copy, then AFTER that starts copying. Where CCC seems to check folder by folder what needs to be copied and starts copying so it is much faster.

I was trying to use SD just to regularly copy my ~/Documents and ~/Music folders and there was no way to stop it from scanning the entire drive for changes even if you only wanted to copy a couple small folders. I corresponded with the dev. and he explained this is the designed behavior. I ended up dumping SD because of this.

Thank you so much for the information. I only ever change a few folders on my computer and in no major ways, so that's really important for me. I don't want to be going through this every time when I just want to have a few files changed.

 

[BrianBaughn]

This sounds like a SuperDuper issue, but I'll just throw this out there...be aware that HD reading/writing can be slow if the process hits bad sectors on the drive.

 

[Felasco]

One solutions to such issues is to schedule the backup for bedtime. Who cares how long it takes if you're sleeping while it works?

 

[Boske]

SuperDuper! speed

I use Superduper! since 2004 and has no issues at all; also not with Maverick. And it saved my but more than once. Their service is also outstanding.