macnn
02/14/2008, 4:30pm, EST
Thursday, February 14th
First Look: SuperDuper! 2.5
Sometimes backing up your crucial files is not enough. Ordinary backup programs may copy your files and Time Machine can retrieve files that you may have changed or deleted. Unfortunately, if your Macintosh hard disk completely fails, backups and Time Machine can only recover your data, but they won’t help get your Macintosh back up and running in a hurry. That’s where SuperDuper! comes in to save the day. Instead of just copying individual files, SuperDuper! clones your entire hard disk, preserving your complete Macintosh program settings and files. SuperDuper! can even share an external hard disk with Time Machine. Now Time Machine can protect individual files while SuperDuper! protects your entire hard disk.
SuperDuper! copies entire hard disks
If your hard disk fails, SuperDuper! lets you boot off your external hard disk so you can copy the contents of the external hard disk back on to your Macintosh hard disk. Within minutes, you can restore your Macintosh to its original pre-crash state complete with any custom settings you may have made.
For greater protection, you can schedule SuperDuper! to backup and clone your hard disk at regular intervals, such as at 1:30 AM Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. By scheduling backups automatically, SuperDuper! protects your data at your convenience.
Scheduling can automatically back up your hard disk
To encourage people to try and buy SuperDuper!, the publisher offers a trial version of the program that provides basic hard disk cloning capabilities absolutely free with no time limitations whatsoever. If you pay the modest $27.95 price, you’ll get access to the program’s more advanced features that lets you customize SuperDuper!’s behavior by writing your own scripts.
The biggest limitation of SuperDuper! is that it only works with external hard disks connected through a FireWire cable (on PowerPC Macintosh models) or through a USB or FireWire cable (on Intel Macintosh models). If want to backup your files on CDs or DVDs, you’ll have to use another program. Despite this minor restriction, SuperDuper! is a must-have program for anyone who needs to safeguard their data.
Filed under: software, upgrades/storage
Other story tags: First Look, backup, Time Machine
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SuperDuper! is totally different. It is great for backing up complete system snapshots and is thus well suited to rapid recovery from hardware failure.
Ultimately, power users need both. Casual home users are best served by the utter simplicity of Time Machine, and users who rely upon systems for income need SuperDuper!