Will SD clone EVERYTHING?

[eric72]

I've been using CCC for the last 4 years. And for the most part, am happy with it. It does the job, and can make a bootable clone that I can clone back to my startup drive. The only problem I have with CCC is that it doesn't copy every application related files. An example is Adobe software, and some third party Photoshop plugins. Everytime I copy back the clone to my startup drive, some PS plugins and Adobe software gives you a message that you will need to reinstall the software.

Although, this isn't a major issue, it is inconvenient. Because you have to delete all related files for these softwares (or else it won't reinstall properly, and ultimately not work properly), you'll have to track them down, then delete them, then reinstall the software. Easy enough, but does take some time to do. Making "convenient" not so convenient.

My inquiry is, will SuperDuper clone EVERYTHING? That when I clone back to my startup drive, everything will work exactly as it did when I first backed it up?

Much appreciate.

[dnanian]

We'll do the same thing as CCC here, and it has nothing to do with not copying files. Adobe and the plugins are copy protected, and the software attempts to prevent you from doing what you're doing.

You should contact Adobe, and the manufacturers of the protected software, and complain about their hostile treatment of their honest users.

[eric72]

Thanks. I thought it would something along that line. I'm going to give SD a go anyway. From all the stuff I've been reading, it sounds a little more intuitive than CCC. Cheers.

[dnanian]

Appreciated, Eric. Please do contact Adobe and the other software vendors, though. If they don't hear the complaints about this kind of baloney, they'll never change their ways.

[eric72]

The sad thing is, I'm sure they know of this issue already. I don't think they will do anything about it. Legit owners of their products can easily uninstall, and reinstall (it just takes extra time) the software. But for people with pirated copies, it's a little more complicated. That's why I think that they won't do anything about it. All they can really do is make it more difficult for non-legit owners.

But I will contact them, and see what they have to say. Guess it wouldn't hurt to. Who knows, maybe they have a work around for legit owners of their products.

[dnanian]

They know it bothers some people, and legit owners can uninstall and install a limited number of times. But they don't know how many people it bothers unless they're told.

The pirates are going to pirate, regardless. This probably prevents "casual" piracy to some degree (e.g. a whole family using a single user license)... but mostly just bugs everyone.

[Moussaka]

Really? I have CS3 Design Premium and the apps seem to load up without any reinstall messages when I booted with the new drive. I even opened up some files and that seemed to work okay, too. Of course, I haven't tried every little function yet, so maybe there'll be some nasty surprises in store for me there.

Thanks for the heads up. Would have been bad to take the laptop with the new drive installed on a trip somewhere and then it tells me to reinstall Adobe when I don't have the disk with me. Now I know I better take the adobe install disk with me everywhere until I'm sure everything I usually do with it still works without a reinstall.

[dnanian]

It depends entirely on how they've implemented their activation. Sometimes it starts up and works fine. But if more aspects of the Mac are different (memory, disk, etc), it might not. If they've relaxed things recently, that's all for the better.

I just can't promise that activated/protected applications will work after a copy, due to the nature of what they're trying to prevent.