SuperDuper! Review | Macmonde

Let’s be real, the idea of ​​cloning your Mac’s hard drive can be both awesome and intimidating. This takes it to the next level of technological prowess, and you want to be sure that the archive you create on an external volume is perfect, that it is easily accessible later, and that it is easy to recover data in a snap. eye, especially if the original hard drive fails, emitting the famous “click of death” or mechanically turning into non-functional slag. That’s where the Shirt Pocket SuperDuper is! is coming (version 3.8 at the time of this review).

Long a favorite of the Mac tech community, SuperDuper! has been a reliable solution in case your hard drive crashes and data needs to be recovered from it. While not as flashy as some of its competitors, the software was known for being easy to install and constantly updated whenever a new piece of hardware or a new version of macOS was released. . This has persisted to this day, because SuperDuper! is simple to download, install, assign full drive permissions and work with.

SuperDuper! 3.8, which costs a one-time payment of $27.95/£26.95 for a registered copy (you can use it for free, but you have to pay to unlock scheduling, smart updates, and some other features).

It supports APFS and HFS+ file formats and can be as simple or customizable as your needs deem appropriate. Beyond simply cloning from one volume to another, the application supports scheduling, and an included volume of basic scripts lets you specify which files are copied, including Unix-specific items such as user folders, shared users, shared users and applications, backup. files, and more. It’s also easy to restore volumes from one volume to another, which is a welcome relief from Apple’s somewhat tedious restore options in macOS’s Disk Utility app.

Foundry

Foundry

Foundry

All this is easily tracked thanks to an excellent user interface that easily lists the number of files copied, the effective copy speed, the data evaluated, the elapsed time and the amount of data that has been moved from the source volume to the target volume and which alleviates the problem. the current concern whether the cloning/recovery process works or not.

Beyond the basic application scripts, there is an excellent level of customization to work with. Users can edit current scripts or write their own, as well as choose between methods like Total Backup and Smart Backup (Total Backup wiping the target drive while Smart Backup moves updated files). It’s also easy to dive into the app’s options and configure events like permission repairs before a copy begins, scripts to run after the copy is complete, and for your Mac to eject the target volume, shuts down, sleeps or exits SuperDuper. ! once copying is complete.

Foundry

Foundry

Foundry

As excellent as SuperDuper! Perhaps, there is still room for improvement. First of all, SuperDuper! I can’t backup to network volumes yet, which is a bit disappointing. This may be a feature in development for 4.0, and given that we live in more of a NAS and cloud-based world, it would be great to see. And while SuperDuper! does a remarkable job reading and writing APFS and HFS+ formats, there is currently no FAT, exFAT or NTFS support, which would certainly be useful when using and configuring Windows and Linux volumes. Granted, this could also be in the area of ​​licensing and securing legal rights, which is an entirely different minefield to navigate outside of standard maintenance updates and patches. This, along with a few links to video tutorials on each function, could only make the app even easier to use and could easily be configured for the 4.0 launch.

Purchase advice

To the extent that I would love to see SuperDuper! Adapting full support for network backups and support for FAT, exFAT and NTFS in version 4.0, Shirt Pocket has always prided itself on providing incremental, reliable updates rather than sweeping changes. This, in turn, created SuperDuper! in one of the best local clone and restore apps available for Mac. It would make sense for Shirt Pocket to exploit its current strengths and the fact that SuperDuper! only requires Mac OS Shirt Pocket has never been one for spectacular marketing hype, stunning upgrades and massive changes, but it has always delivered solid updates, fixed bugs when they appeared, supported the new protocols introduced by Apple and communicated well through their technical support and marketing, which is saying something.

In a computing world where every company is trying to be the Swiss army knife your Mac needs, SuperDuper! focuses on its feature set, performs like a reliable champ, can be easily customized and scripted, and offers something great at a good price, which is to its credit.