Backup User Files confusion

[mss]

Maybe it's just me, but the instructions on use of the "backup user files" using smart update seems misleading. I had a SuperDuper generated bootable clone of my main hard drive on a second drive. I've set a schedule for this to backup every couple of weeks. I decided to set up a second backup of just my user files to that same drive, thinking I was just going to replace just changed user files...NOT erase my entire backup drive with just my user directories.

Did I set something up wrong or is this the expected behavior. I was used to doing this with Synchronize Pro. I'd rather not backup the entire drive all the time in order to have a system backup that I can go back to if a major OS update goes bad. But I do want to routinely back up my user directory.

Thanks!

[dnanian]

Well, this specific case is covered in detail in the User's Guide, and it's also explained in the "What's going to happen?" section of the UI: Smart Update makes the destination exactly match the selections from the source, and it's just like an erase-then-copy, but faster.

As such, pretend you erased the drive and then copied your user files... and that's the result.

You should always use "Backup - all files". It won't copy files that haven't changed.

[mss]

Yeah, I know I should have read through the manual. It was so easy to set up though... But I get it.

It would be nice though to be able to just do a smart backup of the user directory (copy and erase only files that have been added, changed or deleted) to a bootable drive leaving everything else untouched. For example, if I first backup just my user files, and then update my main drive to, oh say, OS 10.5.2 and it hoses everything, I can quickly boot off the backup and get back to work. Synchronize Pro X does this but the interface is kind of clunky, keeps forgetting what drive to copy to under Leopard, and dang, SuperDuper is so much easier to use.

[dnanian]

That's what a Sandbox is for, so you might want to take a read over that, too...

[macmath]

Hello.

I, too, would like the functionality of being able to do a Smart Update on the Users data only, without cloning or erasing the OS non-Users files. Or, for that matter, the ability to do a Smart Update on any subset of your data without cloning or erasing the rest of the files.

Three days ago I cloned my drive onto an external drive (using a Smart Update of all files) not realizing that since I had booted my stable system two days prior, something had happened which would allow it to boot but not progress to the login screen. Thus, I had damaged a booting system. It wasn't SuperDuper!'s fault, of course.

I don't use SuperDuper! so much to keep an identical copy of my internal disk as to keep an identical copy of my Users data (and my TeX installation, together with a few other scripts I've installed in /usr/local/bin/). I like to have a bootable external drive, however, so that I can boot from it now and then to run DiskWarrior or do other repairs (not too often). Of course, I could partition the external drive to have one with a pristine System to boot from and the other to have cloned data. That is what I guess I'll do.

Thank you for SuperDuper!. Please do not think of the above as a whine and that I think you owe it to me. I'm happy with SuperDuper! as it is and I think you've done more than enough for the registration fee.

[dnanian]

Thanks for the suggestion!