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Super Duper and incremental backups

F

FartlesS

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 6, 2008
3
0
My Ibook's G4 hard drive died a few months back. Before that happened I dragged my Home folder into my backup external drive, which is full of random files, and saved the day. Now, I have changed the Ibook's harddrive, but DID NOT restore the old Home folder into it. Thinking this could happen again, I just recently acquired SuperDuper to do backups.

My questions are the following...
Is it possible to update the old home folder in the external HD with the new files in the Home folder in the Ibook?

Can those backups be of just new files without erasing old files (incremental backup??)
and... How can I do all these?

Oh and any other suggestions for maintenance/usage of SuperDuper appreeshd!

I know I'll think of some more...
Cheers
 
OK, assuming you have the paid/registered version of SuperDuper, there are probably ways to do what you want with some scripting but-- I would like to suggest that using Carbon Copy Cloner (freeware/donationware) would make this a far simpler and much more straightforward process.

If you start up CCC, when you select your "source" drive for the clone, a complete list of all the files/folder on the source immediately appears in the left hand window- each item independently selectable/de-selectable.

SO- If you de-select all the items in the list except for your home folder, only it will be backed up to your destinatiion drive (assuming you did not change the name or anything after it was dragged). Setting the options as in the top right of the attached pic will just update any files in the home folder backup that have changed or are new since the last time it was backed up- resulting in a literal "clone" of the home folder on your boot drive.

However that being said, since there are potential permissions issues with a folder that was originally just dragged over, I would suggest that a cleaner way to do it would be to delete the home folder off your backup and then copy it using the same options settings as below in Carbon Copy Cloner. That will create a fresh, clean, complete copy of the home folder with correct permissions on the backup drive instead of trying to update an existing one. You can then run this same setup in CCC later to then update the home folder backup periodically to keep your backup up to date.
 

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Hmmmmm... so I guess I just wasted 27.95... But I'll try CCC then. Thanks for your advice! Cheers
BTW any other ideas just as welcome!
 
What do you think is better for creating a bootable backup and continue to update it over time? Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper. I almost bought a license but I wanna see a free alternative..
 
Rapmastac1 said:
What do you think is better for creating a bootable backup and continue to update it over time? Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper. I almost bought a license but I wanna see a free alternative..
Click to expand...

Both will create a bootable backup that can be updated over time. I started with Carbon Copy Cloner, but then decided to purchase a SuperDuper! license, because I find SuperDuper! to be less CPU-intensive. It may be a perception bias on my part, but I'm happy with SuperDuper! for now.

They are both almost identical except for the interface.
 
patrickmacrumor said:
Both will create a bootable backup that can be updated over time. I started with Carbon Copy Cloner, but then decided to purchase a SuperDuper! license, because I find SuperDuper! to be less CPU-intensive. It may be a perception bias on my part, but I'm happy with SuperDuper! for now.

They are both almost identical except for the interface.
Click to expand...

I started with CCC - and had problems on 2 different machines, using difference hard-drives - spent at lot of time trying others and researching.

Concluded that SuperDuper was the better product - it works like a dream (for me at least).

Also installed it on my Fathers Macbook to clone to external drive - even he can back-up his machine with a couple of clicks, to create a bootable clone of his internal drive.
 
Ok guys... I'll try Super Duper 1st see how it works for me. Thnx again to all
 
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