CNET Editors' review
SuperDuper is a popular, powerful, and easy-to-use app for quickly creating a fully bootable backup (or "clone") of your hard drive, whether you're recovering from a mishap or just migrating between machines. Even better, SuperDuper is free if you don't want to pay for its more advanced features, including scheduling, scripting, and "Smart Updates" (which save you time by making incremental updates to backups using only recent changes).
SuperDuper's interface sets out to make backups painless. Less technical users will love its friendly, plain-language approach--for example, explicitly explaining what will happen when you press a button. More-experienced users such as admins and QA testers will find plenty of more sophisticated features, from premade and customizable scripts to the ability to easily maintain multiple OS versions across different drives. SuperDuper comes with a full user guide, responsive support, and access to active forums.
Data loss is inevitable, and every Mac user should have a reliable backup system. SuperDuper makes the process easy, effortless, and almost enjoyable.
Publisher's Description
From Shirt Pocket:
Carbon copies. And a whole lot more. The 2005 and 2006 Eddy Award winning SuperDuper is the most advanced, yet easy to use disk copying program available for OS X. It can, of course, make a straight copy, or "clone" - useful when you want to move all your data from one machine to another, or do a simple backup. In moments, you can completely duplicate your boot drive to another drive, partition, or image file. Clones, though, don't work very well when it's time to recover from an unexpected system disaster - like a bad driver or OS update. Unless you take specific steps, restoring a drive image restores everything on the drive, overwriting both the system and user files. If that's what you want to do, great. But it's usually not, since all the work you've done since the backup would be lost. Clones for safety.
What's new in this version:
- SuperDuper now prevents the destination from being manually ejected during copy
- Proper error message now issued when a destination ejects itself due to hardware errors
- Resolved AppleScript dictionary compatibility issues under 10.4 that prevented scheduled copies and some shutdown actions from running
- Overly aggressive copy verification under Leopard no longer cause copies to fail on highly active files
- Setting permissions on read-only disk images no longe... See all new features
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All versions:
4.7 starsout of 235 votes
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Current version:
4.7 starsout of 19 votes
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My rating:
Write review
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"Never have a problem with SuperDuper!"
Version: SuperDuper 2.6.4
Pros
Love this software
Cons
none that I can think of.
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"Simple to use and everything worked great!"
Version: SuperDuper 2.6.4
Pros
Easy to understand. Good progress visibility while performing different tasks. Comes with good documents.
Cons
As a first time user I was a little confused on weather I should use the back up all or the restore option when I reloaded my new hard drive. While it was not completely specific, it seemed clear to use backup all. (I think it would have worked either way, not sure)
Summary
SuperDuper is Super Duper!
Replaced hard drive on my Macbook pro. early 2007 Macbook Pro 15" 2.1Ghz Core Duo 120GB Snow Leopard. Used a Hitachi 720GB usb external to back up all the data using SuperDuper. I did not format or load the new data on my New Seagate Momentus XT 500GB 7200 Hybrid drive, before I installed it in my laptop. My laptop would not recognize it with the drive enclosure I had available.
I installed it, turned on my machine with the Hitachi drive attached and it booted up just fine. (First did what it said success by SuperDuper). I was able to erase / format the new seagate drive. Then with about 4 clicks copied all of the data back exactly to the Seagate from the Hitachi and once it completed, I allowed the drive to index. Then turned it off removed the Hitachi bootable drive the SuperDuper created from my original 120GB. Started the machine and the Seagate drive booted up fine, I have all my data, passwords etc.
I really like this software utility. I have already recommended it to friends. -
"Works very effectively"
Version: SuperDuper 2.6.4
Pros
Works as advertised
Cons
None that I can think of
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"Backs up with a bootable clone."
Version: SuperDuper 2.6.4
Pros
Once backed up, the monitor changes feature really saves time rather than doing a complete new backup.
Cons
A bit of reading to learn how to set up timed back ups.
Summary
I'm glad I use Super Duper as well as Time Machine-they each perform a different function that is valuable.
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"Basically Flawless"
Version: SuperDuper 2.6.4
Pros
basically flawless
Cons
none significant for the average home user
Summary
Can't go wrong with this one. Inexpensive and works flawlessly. Clones your drive quickly and, thereafter, incremental clones are performed in a matter of minutes making this a painless backup strategy. Versatile in that there are several other automated and manual backup strategies to choose from should you be so inclined.
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"Best backup & clone software on the market for a Mac!"
Version: SuperDuper 2.6.4
Pros
Easy to set up. Many more options that I can detail. I use it daily to backup my hard drive AND make it bottable after. It has saved my bacon many times and works flawlessly. I run it just before I leave and it backs up my computer and shuts it down.
Cons
I can't think of any at the moment. I'm not even related to, nor know the author, either.
Summary
This is 'the best on the market' for Mac owners to protect all the data on their hard drive. EASY to set up and use. Nothing against other software, but I like SuperDuper much better than Carbon Copy Cloner and others. I highly recommend SuperDuper!
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"Perfect Back-up software"
Version: SuperDuper 2.6.4
Pros
Makes a clone of the internal hard drive - including system
Cons
No cons - an invaluable piece of software
Summary
SuperDuper quietly sits there and makes a total backup of everything, every day.
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"It works as advertised. Fast and effective."
Version: SuperDuper 2.6.4
Pros
After your first back up, it clones your drive in about 15% of the time than Retrospect does. I have tested the cloned drive and it works. I have used the cloned drive to migrate data from one Mac to another and it works.
Cons
It seems to take a long time from the time when the program is finished and you click on the "OK" button. Clearly there is a process running in the background but I can't tell what it is. This is a minor issue at most.
Summary
This is the clone utility to use if you want a fast, accurate and operational duplicate of your boot drive. I absolutely rely on it.
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"A must buy product"
Version: SuperDuper 2.6.4
Pros
Low cost, good support, very useful product, does what is says, easy to learn.
Cons
I never had problems with the product.
Summary
If you can afford an external HD, this product is a must buy considering the low cost and the time you will save if your main HD goes down. You can create an automatic schedule to backup you HD. You can easily test the backup HD by starting from it. You can also check it by using programs like DiskWarrior or Techtool which will tell you if the backup is good to go. I have tested the product over and over with different versions of Mac OS and it works fine. It saved me a few times.
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"Great backup program and potential time saver."
Version: SuperDuper 2.6.4
Pros
Makes a bootable backup on a schedule you set. A complement for Time Machine, not a replacement.
Cons
None that I have found.
Summary
SuperDuper makes a bootable backup, unlike Time Machine, although not as often, so use both. If you need to repair your hard drive, boot from your SuperDuper clone rather than an installation disk or DiskWarrior disk--the clone is far faster and you can run Apple's Disk Utility, DiskWarrior, or any other repair program from it, saving gobs of time. Well worth the modest purchase price.
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