Smart Update doesn't seem to work

[Mr Chew]

I have two separate External Firewire drives, partitioned the same way. My goal is then to back up my HD using SuperDuper to each FW drive in rotation. At current I have the backup partitions named different things, so one session would be: Macintosh HD->Backup1, on the second drive it would be Macintosh HD->Backup2. When I startup SuperDuper it always complains it can't find the previous backup volume (either Backup1 or Backup2) because I'm switching back and forth. When I then select the correct, currently attached backup volume, and select smart update, etc., it never works, it just copies the entire hard drive anew. Any suggestions to make smart update actually smart?

[dnanian]

Well, Mr. Chew, a Smart Update looks at the contents of the drive, not any "record" of what was done. So, it should always be "Smart" when updating a drive. Are you sure it's copying -- as opposed to examining -- the whole drive?

As far as the volumes are concerned, it will indeed prompt for the last drive attached. But you can avoid this by saving each drive setup as "settings" (File > Save), and then double-click the proper settings to open SuperDuper! rather than just starting the app. (You could also schedule each drive on alternate days and let us take care of that part.)

Does that help?

[arnaud]

Originally Posted by dnanian

Well, Mr. Chew, a Smart Update looks at the contents of the drive, not any "record" of what was done. So, it should always be "Smart" when updating a drive. Are you sure it's copying -- as opposed to examining -- the whole drive?

Something in a smart-update puzzles me (yes, again !) : it checks all the files on a volume, and not only the folders mentionned for the copy.
(Even though, in the end, it's only copying the modified or new files).

Why should it check 450 000 files on the drive, even though I have many less on the folders I am "smart-updating" ?

Thanks for your answer

[dnanian]

Because that's how it's designed, Arnaud. SuperDuper! is primarily designed as a full volume backup program with the occasional exclusion/exception, as opposed to the other way around.

[arnaud]

You're right but that would speed up the smart-update (when updating only a few folders and not the whole drive)

Is is something you would consider in the next updates, or not at all because that's not the "philosophy" of SuperDuper! ?

[dnanian]

We're always considering lots of things, Arnaud, including this...