migration using SD vs Time Machine

[ramblinwreck001]

Hi,

I've got a 2007 era iMac that will be replaced this weekend with one of the 2011 models. In the past few years, I've used Time Machine and Super Duper side by side on different external drives, one for TM and multiple for SD clones (and I've been glad on more than one occasion that I've had each rather than just one or the other!).

My question is this: When the new Mac prompts me to copy over information from my previous machine, is there any particular advantage to pointing it to a SuperDuper cloned drive vs my Time Machine drive, or vice versa?

Assuming both are up to date prior to the migration, would one yield "better" or "more reliable" results, or have less chance of something going wrong?

I've seen the "I've got a new Mac: should I SuperDuper! to it?" FAQ entry but I think that is addressing a slightly different question than the one I am asking, though please correct me if I am wrong, or if my question is answered elsewhere.

Thank you.
Chris [a happy SuperDuper customer for ~3 years]

[edit: Just adding that both machines will be Snow Leopard, no Lion issues/questions here...]

[ramblinwreck001]

It looks like the new Mac, upon initial boot up, will present me with a screen:



Obviously if I want to transfer information to my new mac from my TM backup, then I choose the "From a Time Machine backup" option.

However, if I were to want to transfer information to my new mac from my SD clone, would I choose "From another Mac" (with SD cloned drive attached to new machine via FireWire), or a different option?

Thanks
Chris

[edit: Actually I found the answer to this question here: http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/SetupAsst.html - to use the SD cloned drive I would select the "From another volume on this Mac" option. So only the original question is still outstanding, though I now realize the original question could be extended even further - why use an external drive (SD or TM) at all when I can hook up the new machine directly to the old machine. ]

[dnanian]

You can use either one, Chris. If you have problems with what you've selected, you'll have some backups that could be used to supplement or replace the one that's failed.