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Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper?

Ace2617

Ace2617

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 16, 2016
161
42
Hey everyone,

Recently, I upgraded the RAM in a mid-'12 MacBook Pro from 4 GB to 16 GB. Next on my list is to swap the 500 GB HDD with a 500 GB Samsung SSD.

I've never done it, but I've seen how to do it. I'm not concerned with the actual process of extracting the HDD and putting in the SSD, I'm just here to seek some opinions: Which should I use to copy the HDD over to the SSD, Carbon Copy Cloner, or SuperDuper?

Any insight?

Thanks everyone
 
I never used Super Duper. With CCC I did a system clone several times without problems. You can do this by a (compressed) disk image or by cloning directly to an external drive or partition (much faster). You can then boot a clone and install/clone again to your new SSD from there. I've found it helpful to repair permissions afterwards, that's it. CCC does my daily backup schedules, too.
 
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Pakaku said:
I see no reason not to use Disk Utility's restore feature :¬)
Click to expand...
In general I prefer built-in solutions. Years ago I successfully used Disk Utility for cloning.
Maybe things have changed and maybe it was just happening to me, but when Tiger was released I had serious trouble to restore with that method. That time I switched to CCC, never had any trouble anymore and I was able to clone without rebooting, too. Getting back files from a Time Machine Backup was also a big trouble for me the time a friend switched from Leopard to Snow Leopard.
CCC makes intense use of rsync. AFAIK it's a custom compiled version different to the Mac OS X built-in rsync, because that version has (had) some bugs, too. For backup tasks I have a better feeling to use a solution that never disappointed me.
 
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This question has been asked and answered many, many times. Interestingly, the answers are always the same -- people recommend what they use.

Both CCC and SuperDuper work fine for backups/restores. Some will argue in favor of one over the other but they both do the job successfully. Personally, I use SuperDuper but can't give any justifications for why it's better than CCC. I've had two occasions where I needed to totally restore a drive following a crash and it worked perfectly.

The most important point is that you actually use the software to make frequent backups. If possible, hook up an external drive permanently and schedule the software to take a backup periodically. Connect another external drive and use it for a TimeMachine backup. Using SD or CCC along with TimeMachine should provide good recovery options in the event of a crash.

Oh, yeah... one more thing. Keep a periodic backup at an offsite location, too.
 
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Another happy user of CCC. Always works well. I know some people who prefer SuperDuper but I don't know how it is different from CCC? If they both offer a trial, why not kick the tires of them both so to speak?
 
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Either CCC or SD will work well.

CCC has "the edge" these days, because it can clone over the recovery partition as well.

CCC has one other advantage in its favor:
If (during a backup) it encounters a corrupted file or files, CCC will "keep on going", trying to clone all the -good- files, then give you a report when its finished.
I believe SD will abort the clone.
But CCC will do as much as it can.

I consider either CCC or SD to be a SUPERIOR choice to Time Machine for backing up.
There's NOTHING comparable to a bootable, cloned backup when one is experiencing "a moment of extreme need", such as an "I can't boot!" experience.
We see posts in this forum almost every day from folks in that situation. If they had a CCC/SD cloned backup, they probably wouldn't be posting...

For someone traveling with a laptop, again, a bootable cloned backup can be worth its weight in gold when difficulties are encountered on the road.

Why bother with Disk Utility's "restore" when one has access to either CCC or SD, which makes the process trivial by comparison?
 
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Agree with the above posters -- between the two, CCC is the better option.

However if you already have an existing Time Machine backup, you can restore that directly to the SSD. Of course if you don't have a TM backup then it's not worth the effort of making one if you can just clone instead. But there's another option there :)
 
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keysofanxiety said:
Agree with the above posters -- between the two, CCC is the better option.

However if you already have an existing Time Machine backup, you can restore that directly to the SSD. Of course if you don't have a TM backup then it's not worth the effort of making one if you can just clone instead. But there's another option there :)
Click to expand...

The reason I started using CCC for complete backup and restores when replacing drives, was because I didn't trust TM to transfer all of my settings and preferences. I found after such restores, I was forever putting things back to the way I liked them, especially non-Apple software.

Has this been improved? If I restore from a TimeMachine backup, will everything be the way I left it before the update?
 
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Mac 128 said:
Has this been improved? If I restore from a TimeMachine backup, will everything be the way I left it before the update?
Click to expand...

Yep! The only exception, and I mean the only exception to this I've ever encountered, is the Office licence code. It doesn't keep it, so it shows as being unactivated. Very occasionally Office will need to be 'repaired' as well -- just a permissions repair (used to) sort that out. Not sure if the issue persists with El Cap, as you can't repair permissions in that.

I'm not just talking personally as we've done it a fair few times at work. Everything else is fine. Adobe, Dragon NS, Chrome, bookmarks, keychains, user data, customisations... it's just Office that seems to ever have any beef. Generally speaking we haven't had a bad experience with restoring from TM. :)
 
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Fishrrman said:
I consider either CCC or SD to be a SUPERIOR choice to Time Machine for backing up.
Click to expand...

Actually, the best solution is to use both CC/SuperDuper and Time Machine:

Time machine is great for keeping a "history" of files and hourly backups - its the go-to solution for those 'No! No! I meant "Save As" not "Save"' or "Tell me I didn't just hit 'Empty Trash'..." moments.

CC/SuperDuper rule for those "Macintosh HD is pining for the fijords" moments.

If its worth backing up, its worth backing up twice!
 
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keysofanxiety said:
Yep! The only exception, and I mean the only exception to this I've ever encountered, is the Office licence code. It doesn't keep it, so it shows as being unactivated. Very occasionally Office will need to be 'repaired' as well -- just a permissions repair (used to) sort that out. Not sure if the issue persists with El Cap, as you can't repair permissions in that.

I'm not just talking personally as we've done it a fair few times at work. Everything else is fine. Adobe, Dragon NS, Chrome, bookmarks, keychains, user data, customisations... it's just Office that seems to ever have any beef. Generally speaking we haven't had a bad experience with restoring from TM. :)
Click to expand...

Office 2011 considers a new hard drive as a new device and the license code will have to be re-entered with any of the discussed methods, most likely. Not sure about other versions of Office.
 
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SuperDuper! has SandBox feature which is very nice for software testing. Faulty OS update/ security update? Just restart from original volume instead of Sandbox. :)

While it can't restore Recovery partition its not a problem for my needs. Easiest way to recreate Recovery partition is to make first clone with Disk Utility, afterwards SuperDuper works just fine.

Apple doesn't provide details of Recovery to Developers so its possible CCC might not be able to recreate it in a future OS version...
 
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Pakaku said:
I see no reason not to use Disk Utility's restore feature :¬)
Click to expand...
I agree. If you just want a one time clone to a new drive there is no reason to download and mess around with third party utilities when you already have the official tool on your Mac. DU even moves over the recovery partition.

I can see if a person wants to keep these clones updated as a sort of backup solution it would make sense to use something like CCC or SD.

I own and have used both and prefer CCC for two reasons. First, as others mentioned, CCC clones over the recovery partition. Secondly if you just want to copy over specific folders, SD is painfully slow at this. I had SD setup to automatically copy over my ~/Documents folder to an external drive, and each time SD runs it scans every folder on the source drive even though you only have the one folder set to copy. I emailed the dev. over this and that is the designed behavior. So I ditched SD and only use CCC now.
 
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My choice for the initial job is Carbon Copy Cloner. My choice in archiving and updating my backup is ChronoSync.
 
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Been busy the past few days but just getting caught up on all of the replies. Thanks everyone for your insight/opinions :)

This forum is always so helpful. Very much appreciated.
 
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I do the same as Weaselboy but in addition I do a clone immediately before a system upgrade or installation of a new app and with SSDs and CCC this cloning only takes a few minutes. If I have a problem after the system upgrade I boot from the clone and then copy the good clone back onto my original boot disk,
 
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