adding archival backup to SD

[ChrisRyland]

Please, please, please consider building a drop-dead simple archival backup feature into SuperDuper.

I know I've asked before, and you said it's Not Currently Your Mission.

But I believe such a product (or maybe make a new product and call it SuperSuperDuper, charging $100) would sell well, and would still be very easy to use: backup would be a volume, at whose top level is a directory with subdirectories for each backup date; each such subdirectory would correspond to the state of the backed-up volume at that point (and all files contained within would be hard-linked to any other unchanged files from previous backups, so you're really only storing the incremental changes, not the whole volume each time).

To restore, just find the file in question (in the Finder) under the most recent directory that's still in the state you wanted.

Boom, you're done.

[dnanian]

Thanks for the suggestion, Chris. While you might find a volume comprised of a lot of hard links "easy to use", I'm not sure less experienced users would agree... not only that, but this volume wouldn't be restorable using normal means.

But, I do understand some users want similar functionality. We'll have to see how requests, and potential solutions, work out moving forward.

[ChrisRyland]

Originally Posted by dnanian

Thanks for the suggestion, Chris. While you might find a volume comprised of a lot of hard links "easy to use", I'm not sure less experienced users would agree... not only that, but this volume wouldn't be restorable using normal means.

I don't think you're quite seeing the simplicity of it, perhaps due to my terminology.

First, yes, don't call it a backup--that might confuse some people. It's an archive, not to be confused with a backup, and not to be depended on for a full restoration.

But, once you accept that it's a time-based archive, you can "go back in time" to any backup point, and descend one level into the state of the backed-up volume at that time. Once you're there, there are no links to worry about, just the exact hierarchy of the backed-up volume at that point in time. (The hard links are just an implementation detail of which the end user does not have to be aware at all.)

[dnanian]

No, I do see the simplicity of it -- in fact, I know of tools that do exactly this. I really do understand exactly what you're talking about.... whether it belongs in SuperDuper!, though, is another question. (And it does have to be explained, in documentation and operation... really. It can't be magic: that's very much against my philosophy.)

[ChrisRyland]

No, I didn't mean to make it seem like "magic", just that the machinery involved was nothing more than normal Unix file system semantics.

And, yes, maybe it belongs in a new product called SuperArchive!

I know even if it costs $100 I'd buy at least 5-10 copies. (And I wouldn't stop buying SuperDuper! either--they're really different beasts. It'd be nice if it were all one product, just so I wouldn't have to deal with two distinct UIs, but if that's necessary to keep things simpler, so be it.)

I'll stop pushing now, and see if anyone else chimes in with support or suggestions.

[dnanian]

Yes. I do understand what you're trying to do, and I have looked at these various methods in the tools that do them. The question to my mind is: what percentage of people want this, and does that justify either adding the complexity of adding it to SuperDuper or creating (designing, writing, testing, documenting, marketing, supporting) another similar product.

Believe me, the effort involved would not be covered by 5-10 copies, even at $100 each.

Anyway, it's something that's under consideration: I am aware of the technique. Thanks!