SuperDuper! Evaluate | Macworld

Value When Reviewed

$27.95

Finest Costs At this time: SuperDuper!

Let’s face it, the concept of cloning your Mac’s onerous drive may be concurrently superior and intimidating. This enters the following degree of tech prowess, and also you need to ensure that the archive you’re creating on an exterior quantity is spot on, may be simply accessed later, and is straightforward to get well information from in a pinch, particularly if the unique onerous drive is failing, making the notorious “click on of loss of life” sound, or mechanically spinning itself into non-functional slag. That is the place Shirt Pocket’s SuperDuper! is available in (model 3.8 on the time of this overview).

Lengthy a favourite of the Mac techie group, SuperDuper! has been a dependable go-to within the occasion that your onerous drive was failing and information wanted to be recovered from it. Whereas not fairly as flashy as a few of its opponents, the software program was famend for being simple to put in and constantly up to date each time a brand new {hardware} component or model of macOS got here out. This has continued to at the present time, as SuperDuper! is easy to obtain, set up, assign full drive permissions to, and get to work with.

SuperDuper! 3.8, which retails for a one-time cost of $27.95/£26.95 for a registered copy (you need to use it without spending a dime, however it’s essential to pay to unlock scheduling, good updates and another options).

It helps the APFS and HFS+ file codecs, and may be as easy or as customizable as your wants see match. Past merely cloning from one quantity to a different, the applying helps scheduling, and an included quantity of fundamental scripts lets you specify recordsdata which can be copied over, together with Unix-specific parts similar to consumer folders, shared customers, shared customers and functions, backup recordsdata, and extra. It’s additionally simple to revive volumes from one quantity to a different, which comes as a welcome aid over Apple’s considerably tedious restoration choices throughout the macOS’s Disk Utility utility.

Foundry

Foundry

Foundry

That is all readily tracked with a wonderful consumer interface that readily lists the variety of recordsdata copied, efficient copy velocity, information evaluated, time elapsed, and quantity of knowledge that has been moved from the supply quantity to the goal quantity and quiets the ever-present fear as as to if the cloning/restoration course of is working or not.

Past the applying’s fundamental scripts, there’s a wonderful degree of customization to work with. Customers can edit present scripts or write their very own, in addition to select between strategies similar to Whole Backup and Sensible Backup (Whole Backup erasing the goal drive whereas Sensible Backup strikes up to date recordsdata over). It’s additionally simple to dive into the applying’s choices and arrange occasions like permission repairs earlier than a replica begins, scripts to execute after a replica has accomplished, and on your Mac to eject the goal quantity, shut down, fall asleep, or stop SuperDuper! as soon as the copy is completed.

Foundry

Foundry

Foundry

As wonderful as SuperDuper! may be, there’s nonetheless some room for enchancment. First, SuperDuper! can’t again as much as community volumes but, which is a little bit of a letdown. Maybe it is a function being developed for model 4.0, and on condition that we’re dwelling in additional of a NAS and cloud-based world, this might be wonderful to see. And whereas SuperDuper! does an excellent job studying and writing to APFS and HFS+ codecs, there’s at the moment no FAT, exFAT, or NTFS assist to talk of, which might undoubtedly turn out to be useful when working with and establishing Home windows and Linux volumes. Granted, this may additionally transfer into the terrain of licensing and securing authorized rights, which is a completely totally different minefield to navigate outdoors of normal upkeep updates and fixes. This, and a few hyperlinks to video tutorials as to every operate, might solely make the applying that a lot simpler to dive into, and will simply be arrange for the model 4.0 launch.

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In as a lot as I’d like to see SuperDuper! adapt full assist for community backups and FAT, exFAT, and NTFS assist in model 4.0, Shirt Pocket has all the time prided itself on coming by means of with incremental, dependable updates versus sweeping modifications. This, in flip, has made SuperDuper! into one of many best possible native cloning and restoration apps accessible for the Mac. It’d make sense for Shirt Pocket to play to their present strengths, and the truth that SuperDuper! solely requires Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) or later to put in and run and has all the time run effectively on each Mac I’ve ever put in it on speaks volumes. Shirt Pocket has by no means been one for the dramatic advertising hype, astounding upgrades, and big modifications, however has all the time come by means of with stable updates, pinned down bugs once they surfaced, supported new protocols launched by Apple, and communicated effectively by way of their tech assist and advertising, which is saying one thing.

In a computing universe during which each firm is attempting to be the Swiss Military Knife your Mac wants, SuperDuper! hones in on its function set, performs like a dependable champ, may be readily custom-made and scripted, and provides one thing wonderful for a great value, which is totally to its credit score.