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  #1  
Old 09-12-2004, 01:03 PM
snpollack snpollack is offline
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A Few SuperDuper! Questions...

Hello. Your program is really great. I haven't used Carbon Copy Cloner in months.

During the course of using your product, I amassed a few questions, which I'll enumerate below.

(1) My system is configured as follows. I have a dual 800MHz G4 QuickSilver machine with 1.5GB RAM. I have two internal drives, one is the original "master", an 80GB Seagate, and one is a drive I added, a 120GB Seagate "slave". I also have two external FW drives. One is a 200GB LaCie d2 single FW interface, and the other is a 200GB d2 triple interface. On the internal master drive resides most of my data, including everything but music and movies (about 30 GB at present, counting Apps, System, Library, Users, etc.), and I am using the slave as a backup clone. One of the external d2's holds the data I can't fit on the internal drive, namely media (music and movies), which is currently about 90GB. I am currently backing that stuff up on the other d2. I am wondering if you think this is an optimal backup strategy, or if in your wisdom, you see a better solution.

(2) I would like to make a second backup of my Users folder (about 10 GB) onto the d2 drive I use to backup my media files, but I can't find a SmartUpdate way to do it without interfering with data already there (i.e., backing up /Users interferes with the /Music and /Movies data and vice versa). I don't want to use the Copy Different/Copy Newer functions, since they don't delete the stuff I might have deleted on the original drive. The only option I see is to partition the drive, one partition for /Users (from my Master drive) and another for /Music and /Movies (from my #1 external drive). Do you see any other solutions? LaCie's SilverKeeper does offer folder level backup options and I was wondering if this might be a realistic future addition for your program.

(3) While copying (Smart Update) my /Users folder, I notice SD! scrolling directory names at the bottom of the window. What I don't understand is why, when only copying /Users, do I see other directories being "explored" such as /Applications, /Library, /Volumes, etc.

(4) After cloning my master drive to my slave drive (the first time, using erase first, then copy), I did GetInfo on the drives. The cloned slave drive reads 20GB less than the master drive. However, when I explore the constituent folders in each drive, and check the size of these, everything appears to be there. What accounts for this large discrepancy? Could it be invisible/system files? If so, shouldn't they be copied in a clone. 20GB seems like a lot of data to be "superfluous".

(5) I like the feature to allow saving configuartion settings to a file, and being able to read them back in. It makes things more convenient, and lessens the chance of making a mistake when manually setting the configuration options each backup session. However, it would be useful to have a delete function for old, unwanted settings files. Currently, I have to manually delete the file in the Application Settings folder (no big deal, but just giving a suggestion for a trivial feature, nonetheless).

(6) It would be nice to have a technical section to your documentation to explain to those with some interest exactly what your program is doing when it works its magic (without, of course, giving away any trade secrets).


Thank you for your excellent program and wonderful support.

Stu Pollack
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  #2  
Old 09-12-2004, 05:10 PM
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dnanian dnanian is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by snpollack
Hello. Your program is really great. I haven't used Carbon Copy Cloner in months.
Thanks, Stu!

Quote:
Originally Posted by snpollack
During the course of using your product, I amassed a few questions, which I'll enumerate below.

(1) My system is configured as follows. I have a dual 800MHz G4 QuickSilver machine with 1.5GB RAM. I have two internal drives, one is the original "master", an 80GB Seagate, and one is a drive I added, a 120GB Seagate "slave". I also have two external FW drives. One is a 200GB LaCie d2 single FW interface, and the other is a 200GB d2 triple interface. On the internal master drive resides most of my data, including everything but music and movies (about 30 GB at present, counting Apps, System, Library, Users, etc.), and I am using the slave as a backup clone. One of the external d2's holds the data I can't fit on the internal drive, namely media (music and movies), which is currently about 90GB. I am currently backing that stuff up on the other d2. I am wondering if you think this is an optimal backup strategy, or if in your wisdom, you see a better solution.
Well, in general, I'd suggest keeping your backup on an external drive. If you're dealing with drives that are about the same age, remember that their MTBF is going to be about the same, too. The last thing you want are both drives being "active" for the same number of hours!

So, I'd probably suggest backing everything up to the external drive, and using the slave as your 'extra' drive (for the movies and music), and then using the externals as your clones.

Quote:
Originally Posted by snpollack
(2) I would like to make a second backup of my Users folder (about 10 GB) onto the d2 drive I use to backup my media files, but I can't find a SmartUpdate way to do it without interfering with data already there (i.e., backing up /Users interferes with the /Music and /Movies data and vice versa). I don't want to use the Copy Different/Copy Newer functions, since they don't delete the stuff I might have deleted on the original drive. The only option I see is to partition the drive, one partition for /Users (from my Master drive) and another for /Music and /Movies (from my #1 external drive). Do you see any other solutions? LaCie's SilverKeeper does offer folder level backup options and I was wondering if this might be a realistic future addition for your program.
Take a look at the FAQ entitled "How do I update an image?" This'll explain how to create an image file that you can use for this kind of backup -- one that is generally even better than using a "folder root".

Quote:
Originally Posted by snpollack
(3) While copying (Smart Update) my /Users folder, I notice SD! scrolling directory names at the bottom of the window. What I don't understand is why, when only copying /Users, do I see other directories being "explored" such as /Applications, /Library, /Volumes, etc.
To provide the flexibility needed to allow wildcards in file specifications (and to go as fast as possible), SuperDuper! doesn't make two passes over the data, once to get a 'tree' of files (which are pruned by the selections), and then a second to actually back things up. We evaluate both passes on the fly, which is why you're seeing directories go by that aren't getting copied -- they're getting evaluated, in one pass.

Quote:
Originally Posted by snpollack
(4) After cloning my master drive to my slave drive (the first time, using erase first, then copy), I did GetInfo on the drives. The cloned slave drive reads 20GB less than the master drive. However, when I explore the constituent folders in each drive, and check the size of these, everything appears to be there. What accounts for this large discrepancy? Could it be invisible/system files? If so, shouldn't they be copied in a clone. 20GB seems like a lot of data to be "superfluous".
Well, it depends a lot on what was going on. You can see, by looking at the copy scripts, exactly what we're skipping. Perhaps you had a lot of temporary or VM swap files? We don't know of any cases where files aren't being copied, and as you might guess, we check for this all the time...

Quote:
Originally Posted by snpollack
(5) I like the feature to allow saving configuartion settings to a file, and being able to read them back in. It makes things more convenient, and lessens the chance of making a mistake when manually setting the configuration options each backup session. However, it would be useful to have a delete function for old, unwanted settings files. Currently, I have to manually delete the file in the Application Settings folder (no big deal, but just giving a suggestion for a trivial feature, nonetheless).
Yeah, we didn't want to provide a whole lot of UI for something that could be done pretty easily in the Finder. Part of our philosophy is to minimize this kind of thing. But, we've got some ideas here that might make it in there later on...

Quote:
Originally Posted by snpollack
(6) It would be nice to have a technical section to your documentation to explain to those with some interest exactly what your program is doing when it works its magic (without, of course, giving away any trade secrets).
What, specifically, are you looking for?


Quote:
Originally Posted by snpollack
Thank you for your excellent program and wonderful support.

Stu Pollack
Thanks, Stu -- my pleasure.
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  #3  
Old 08-12-2009, 09:24 PM
BigJim BigJim is offline
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Firewire connection?

My G5 has a Firewire port, which I've not used .. because I don't have a Firewire cable. SuperDuper really emphasizes cloning via the Firewire port.

OK, here're the "doh" questions: is all I need to enable this connection just a cable that fits the Mac's Firewire port? Do such cables terminate on the other end with a plug that fits Apricorn's Hard Drive Adapter, so I can use that device to clone PATA and SATA HDs? That's it?
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  #4  
Old 08-12-2009, 10:53 PM
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dnanian dnanian is offline
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I don't know whether your Hard Drive Adapter supports FireWire, but if so, yes - it should accept the other end of the cable. There's no real trick here.
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  #5  
Old 08-13-2009, 05:38 PM
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sjk sjk is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dnanian View Post
I don't know whether your Hard Drive Adapter supports FireWire
I've never found any lower-cost universal HD adaptor that does.
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