SuperDuper backups

[pyrodex]

After reading numerous threads on backup solutions I think I am going with a TC/SuperDuper combo. I was planning to do SuperDuper at like Sunday night while I sleep and then do TC rest of the time. I have a few quick questions:

I've heared of a few people mentioning spotlight causing problems with SuperDuper. Anyone have any recommendations here on running SuperDuper at its best setup to do a complete clone of my drive

Also I was planning to attach a FW800 1TB drive to the system for SuperDuper, since this is an exact copy of my laptop and it will be a 320 or 500GB drive does that mean I can use the remainig 500GB or so for extra data or does SuperDuper use the whole drive? Would it be best to buy a drive the same size as my internal drive at that point then?

 

[Horst]

A few things: Only the initial , first backup/clone with Superduper is time-consuming, the Smart-Updates are a matter of minutes.
Just look at the options (button in SD window), it's straightforward.

SuperDuper needs as much HD space as the used part of the HD you are backing up, plus a few GB ; you can use a partition of any HDD for the SD clone.
Of course, if you are now using 100GB of a 300GB drive, you might want to use a 300GB HDD/partition for SD, just to be safe.

Without a partition, SD will use the whole harddrive, keep in mind files are always written all over a HDD, or a certain partition.

 

[jhkingsr]

I use a Time Machine/SuperDuper backup strategy on my iMac. It has a 320GB hard drive so I use a 640GB drive in a firewire Icydock enclosure with two 320GB partitions. One for TM and one for SuperDuper. Very convenient and works out great.

 

[pyrodex]

A few things: Only the initial , first backup/clone with Superduper is time-consuming, the Smart-Updates are a matter of minutes.
Just look at the options (button in SD window), it's straightforward.

SuperDuper needs as much HD space as the used part of the HD you are backing up, plus a few GB ; you can use a partition of any HDD for the SD clone.
Of course, if you are now using 100GB of a 300GB drive, you might want to use a 300GB HDD/partition for SD, just to be safe.

Without a partition, SD will use the whole harddrive, keep in mind files are always written all over a HDD, or a certain partition.

How do the files show up on a SuperDuper partion? So if I use a 1TB FW800 for SD backups but want to store other files/folders there it won't interfere with the SD backup.

 

[Horst]

How do the files show up on a SuperDuper partion? So if I use a 1TB FW800 for SD backups but want to store other files/folders there it won't interfere with the SD backup.

Double click your HD icon, that's what you are going to see when you open a clone .

Do not store any other data on a clone partition, it sort of defeats the purpose, and will be deleted anyways when you update the clone.

You know what a HDD partition is , no offence ?

 

[pyrodex]

Double click your HD icon, that's what you are going to see when you open a clone .

Do not store any other data on a clone partition, it sort of defeats the purpose, and will be deleted anyways when you update the clone.

You know what a HDD partition is , no offence ?

I don't have my mac YET, I am trying to learn as much as possible before I do get to help pass the time waiting for apple to build it. If you say don't store any other space on there then I most likely won't. I wasn't sure if SD put it in a .img file or some directory just for that.

Yes Know what a HDD Partition is, I've run a hackintosh for a while now and just purchased my first real mac.

 

[sickmacdoc]

Yeah, the reason that it was noted not to put other files on there is that SuperDuper (or the free Carbon Copy Cloner which I prefer even though I use both the paid version of SuperDuper and it) literally does make a "clone" of your drive with all the same directory structures duplicated. If you open a window to your original drive and another to your clone they should be identical. The next time you do an incremental update on the clone anything you store in addition on it will be erased (unless you specifically tell the backup program to not erase files not found on the source which is an option for at least CCC).

 

[pyrodex]

Yeah, the reason that it was noted not to put other files on there is that SuperDuper (or the free Carbon Copy Cloner which I prefer even though I use both the paid version of SuperDuper and it) literally does make a "clone" of your drive with all the same directory structures duplicated. If you open a window to your original drive and another to your clone they should be identical. The next time you do an incremental update on the clone anything you store in addition on it will be erased (unless you specifically tell the backup program to not erase files not found on the source which is an option for at least CCC).

Thank you, that is the answer I was looking for then. I guess I'll have to either store extra stuff on my custom made linux nas or buy a 2nd drive to put on the system. Could anyone recommend a decent FW800 drive that is small but with a good deal of space on it? I used to use those WD USB drives but they kept dying on me (the 2.5" drives inside of them).