SuperDuper 2.5 Backup Utility

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The Bottom Line

SuperDuper 2.5 is one of the easiest backup tools to use for creating a bootable clone of your startup drive. It offers step-by-step guidance, and verifies what will happen before it starts a backup.

SuperDuper is indeed super, and well deserves a place in your collection of backup and recovery tools.

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Pros

• Creates bootable clones of your startup drive.
• Smart Update feature performs incremental updates to a bootable clone.

• Can create Sandbox clones, for testing new system and applications.
• Supports scheduling, to automate the backup process.
• Lets you create custom backup scripts.

Cons

• Creating custom backup scripts can be intimidating.
• No time estimate given during backup.
• Restoring files is performed using the Finder and not Super Duper.

Description

• Requires OS X 10.4 or later.
• Includes 60-page user guide.
• Free trial available.
• Works well with other backup tools, such as Time Machine.
• Sandboxes are perfect tools for beta testers and developers.
• Can use disk images as backup destinations.
• Supports network backups.

Guide Review - SuperDuper 2.5 Backup Utility

There’s no need to fear, SuperDuper is here! With apologies to Underdog, Shirt Pocket Software attempts to be the superhero of Mac backups by taking what for many is a difficult problem (making a bootable backup of a startup drive), and turning it into a simple, repeatable process that encourages you to keep your data backed up.

For the most part, Shirt Pocket Software has succeeded in creating an easy-to-use backup application that not only creates bootable clones, but can also perform incremental updates, called Smart Updates, to an existing clone.

This feature alone drastically reduces the amount of time it takes to keep a bootable backup current. Keeping the clone current is one of the most often overlooked aspects of creating backup clones.

A nifty feature that will appeal to bleeding-edge Mac users, who spend their days downloading and test-driving new applications, plug-ins, or beta software, is Sandbox. Sandboxes are special bootable clones that share either your User data, or your User data and the Applications folder, with the startup drive. Sandbox can effectively isolate your normal system while you try out new system software, updates, and drivers, or test beta applications.
Other thoughtful features include the ability to schedule backups, so you don’t have to remember to manually back up your system on a regular basis. SuperDuper does have a quirk or two; what superhero doesn’t? It uses an ‘include all’ format that assumes that every file and folder should be included, and requires you to create or modify backup scripts to exclude files that you don’t want to include. It sounds more difficult than it really is, but for a first-time user, modifying existing backup scripts can be intimidating.
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