10.5.1 - can't boot from clone
 

I've just made my first clone under Leopard. However, I can't boot from it; the cloned disk (a Lacie USB external) appears in the "Startup Disk" preference pane, and I can highlight it and select "Restart". The system reboots, I hear the chime, and see the Apple logo. This is where the system stops working... I can see the circular "loading" symbol, but nothing happens. I am running 10.5.1. Should I just hold out for the new version of SuperDuper, or does anyone have any suggestions in the meantime?

You might want to use carbon copy cloner until the Leopard version of SuperDuper is ready.

You can also use the OS's built-in Disk Utility. There are several threads on the forum that address SuperDuper! Leopard incompatibility and interim solutions.

CCC worked
 

I tried to clone using CCC, and rebooted without issue. Too bad the software that I paid for is lagging behind the freebie software! Thanks for the help.

Would there be any point in returning to SD after moving to CCC? I would just chalk up my $27 to a bad investment ... but I can't wait forever to do a backup!

Yes, there's going to be a point. SD!'s going to be both faster and more accurate, as always.

CCC is not really free
 

It is donation-ware, so if you like it, you really should throw the guy a few bucks. I sent him some money for CCC version 2, and it broke somewhere in Tiger so then I bought SuperDuper!

For me, Time Machine and SuperDuper are mutually exclusive. TM can't work with my AirDisk, but SD did a fine job* up until the Leopard switch.

For me, SD works better for the way I think and work. If I think I might want to regress to an earlier version of a document, I do "save as" and keep a series of versions. I don't need no Time Machine for that.

I can't see how SD will work with the TM database since it will be large and ever-changing so Smart Copy will copy it every time.

I would hope (if it would make things easier) that there could be a Leopard-compatible version for use specifically WITHOUT Time Machine enabled.

C'mon, Dave, let's get 'er done!

* To be happy with SD on AirDisk, do your initial backups to disk images on your external HD with it connected by FireWire (or USB 2 if you must), then use the AirDisk for the incremental Smart Copy operations.

SD is a great piece of software...

Let me tell you all what problems I'm having with SD and Leopard.

When I boot up and hold down the OPTION key I see the external drive that SD backed up to, and when I attempt to select it to boot from it, all I see is the gray Apple screen with the circular thingy spinning, and nothing happens.

Also, in Startup Disk, I do NOT see the drive available to boot from.

Question. I am perfectly content continuing to make backups on schedule, even if I can't boot from them for the time being, the question I have is, will this method still work for retrieving data, photos, documents, etc., if my main Mac HD fries? I know I can't restore from it (I think) as a result of the compatibility issues with Leopard, but at the very least, will I be able to get my data from the external drive? I can see it when I explore the drive...

You should be able to manually copy the files back, yes.

Interim backup with Leopard
 

Rather than chance an elongated delay with SD!, just for yucks, I used Time Machine.

It took 3 hours, 20 minutes to backup 39 gig of data on my internal hard drive .. cheap insurance, but over 3 times as long as SD!, when I had Tiger on the internal hard drive.

I'm safe for the moment, but no way am I going to tolerate 3+ hours with Time Machine ... yes, I do realize I can run TM in the background, but I chose to let it go unhampered by any activity in the foreground .. I actually took a long nap, and that's constructive activity in my book anyway .. I guess that could be called "activity", motionless activity.

John Love

SD And Time Machine
 

I'm using Time Machine, but that once an hour backup always seems to come on when I'm doing something else, and it slows the heck out of everything. It's nice to have the backup, but it's nice to not have things slow down once an hour.

The differences in Leopard affects Chronosync also. My 3.5.5 version couldn't seem to detect obviously changed Eudora mailbox files under Leopard when that worked perfectly under Tiger (newest version not yet tested). There are surely a lot of changes / bugs/ whatever in Leopard.

Right, John. It's not designed to run at "top speed" - rather, it uses "low-priority" I/O to try to not significantly impact what might be going on normally. So, kind of expected.