MacExcellence

SuperDuper for Leopard has arrived!

Thu, February 07, 2008

I have been waiting for this day. Since I realized that Time Machine was not granular enough for me in the least, I have been waiting for this day.

Team SuperDuper (better known as Shirt Pocket, helmed by David Nanian), have released the Leopard-compatible version 2.5 of the premiere backup solution for the Macintosh: SuperDuper! Heroic System Recovery for Mere Mortals (as says the website.)

If you had told me a few years ago that there would be anything to trump EMC Retrospect (née Dantz Retrospect) I would have thought it improbable at best, if not impossible. And while SuperDuper does trump Retrospect, it’s by default, not necessarily by design.

Unlike many such instances, however, I don’t find myself holding my nose at using SuperDuper. It’s powerful, delivers on its promise of fast, accurate, stable and schedule-able backups. But there are definite drawbacks. For instance:

• You need to be logged into the user account that created the schedule. In Retrospect, a user could log out and Retrospect would still ‘poll’ the machine and back it up. Of course, this points to a major architectural difference of the two solutions, which is…


• Retrospect server utilizes a ‘pull’ methodology. Its server (Retrospect Server) polls the network for Macs to back up, and ‘pulls’ the data to the backup destination. SuperDuper is a ‘push’ client. It ‘pushes’ the backup data from whatever Mac it’s running on to whatever machine you designate as the backup destination.

There are arguments for and against both methods. I’m not married to either one, really. They both have their strengths and weaknesses.

But there is one crucial bullet that I left off the little list above, and it’s perhaps the most important point of all: SuperDuper works where Retrospect ceased being reliable ages ago.

So here’s my implementation, and here’s why I’m happy about the return of SuperDuper: Time Machine simply cannot handle my backup. I don’t know why; won’t even theorize. But here’s my backup scenario:

I have my 150GB (91GB used) internal/boot drive that I want completely backed up to a bootable state. Both Time Machine and SuperDuper will do this. However, in addition I’ve got a bit more data that needs to come along for the ride. It consists of my 90GB (50GB used) Jobs drive (client work and all,) my 450GB media volume (250GB used) that contains Stock art, Fonts, client media, Video, etc., my 140GB Music Volume (127GB used), and my 420GB Vault volume, which contains every download from every source ever (yes, I need to go through it) as well as Cold Storage job and client files, e-books of all kinds, and large installer files that I want to keep close at hand. You know—a vault.

All totaled, I have about 1.2TB (890GB used) that need backing up. My backup drive is a 1.3TB JBOD. After a full backup, I have enough space for a handful of incrementals before it's full. It a sad little affair entering the Time Machine, with all of its fanfare and razzle-dazzle, only to see four measly days down there at the lower right corner to choose from. Or to see that sea of gray (don't choose me!!) window frames, specifically not beckoning you to click on them. 5 days of Time Machine backup just makes you feel sad.

But, SuperDuper is cool. Not only can I now have my SD backups coexist with my TM backups (that's SD=SuperDuper and TM=Time Machine — not to leave anyone behind) I can do the following: Time Machine can handle my Boot Drive, Lilith, and my Jobs drive, jobs (I know—but it fits), since they are the ones that I would most likely ever need a file from three days ago right NOW (enter whizzy TM interface and wormhole). For the other stuff, I can let SD do its thing, saving neat, tidy disk images that expand as needed. All on my backup drive, Major Backup (as in Major Healy, Major Nelson, etc. Not as in “Wow. MAJOR backup, dude!")

SuperDuper, for the uninitiated, allows you to stipulate out with a fair degree of sophistication files that you don't want backed up, a stark contrast with TM's brute force approach.

All said and done, I'm extremely pleased to see SuperDuper back in the game, with a couple of new features to boot. Until the day arrives that there is real competition back in town for the Mac backup market, this Independent Consultant will continue to recommend—wholeheartedly—Super Duper. It's an excellent tool.