SuperDuper Hard Drive Backup for the Mac

by **bdahm** Sun Jun 28, 2020 6:25 pm

I Can’t believe I haven’t recommended this before, though I have certainly mentioned it. One of the first pieces of Mac software I actually paid for after acquiring my first Mac back in 2004 was Super Duper, a backup utility.

What SuperDuper does that is different from a traditional backup is that it takes a snapshot of your entire HD, which includes all the system files as well as the data files. It creates a clone of that HD. As such it doesn’t contain versions of files, just the latest copy. In the Windows world a program called Ghost did essentially the same thing.

My main objective was to be prepared for the worst case scenario, a hard drive crash. I needed to be able to recover quickly. What Super Duper does is create a bootable clone of your HD at a point in time. If something happens, a crashed HD or even if you should install a piece of software that infects or otherwise creates havoc on your machine, you can reboot your Mac and run off the backup drive. The bottom line is that you are back up and running in a matter of minutes. You’re right back to that moment when you created the backup. If you had a HD crash, once you get a new one, you can restore the Super Duper backup to the main drive.

There is a caveat, though. Since that backup is a snapshot in time, whatever you did since that backup will not be there. Just how often you backup is something everyone has to decide for himself. If you need a running backup including various file versions, that’s what TimeMachine is for. Of course, nothing says you can’t do both.

I’ve been fortunate (knock on wood), but I’ve never had a HD crash on any of the three Mac Minis I’ve owned nor the MacBook Air nor even the I-Book. That doesn’t mean that SuperDuper has been a waste of time or money. I always do a SuperDuper backup whenever there is a major system or other software upgrade. That way if the upgrade goes sideways or what I install ends up messing up my system, I can easily and quickly drop back to where I was before things went south. I’ve had to do that any number of times.

You can download and use SuperDuper for free. The paid version, still less than $28, will provides some additional features such as automatic scheduling of backups and Smart Backup, which only updates or deletes what has changed since the last backup (sort of an incremental backup) thereby speeding up the time it takes to complete the process. I opted for the paid version from the start, because the software was highly recommended and because I wanted to support the continued upgrade and development of this product. It has been a good investment.

Hard drives are dirt cheap these days and so there is no excuse for not doing them. TimeMachine is built into the system and you can pretty much set it and forget it. If you want something a little more focused, and something to stave off a catastrophic hard drive failure SuperDuper fits the bill.

https://shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

-Bill

by **bdahm** Thu Jul 02, 2020 9:07 pm

One more compelling reason to use SuperDuper to create a cloned backup is as a defense against potential ransomware attacks. These are attacks whereby a hacker invades one's system and encrypts the entire hard drive. The victim then gets a notice that unless a certain amount of money, often hundreds of dollars, is provided, usually in bitcoin, the key to decrypt the contents of the computer will not be provided. These attacks are virtually impossible to recover from without the key and causes the contents of the hard drive to become unaccessible. There have been numerous ransomware attacks against businesses and individuals essentially crippling them. With a cloned backup it is a simple matter to reboot and restore the entire system to a previous state before the attack.

-Bill

SuperDuper Hard Drive Backup for the Mac

SuperDuper Hard Drive Backup for the Mac

Prevent Ransomware Attacks