Hi from Cambridge UK

[WebbCMH]

Mainly using Photoshop, Lightroom and Capture One on my MacBook Pro for fashion photography and occasionally have some technical questions which I'm sure these forums will help me with. Initially I want to know when you right click on an external hard drive and the menu option 'Duplicate ' is shown - what exactly does that do?
Kind regards Conrad

 

[honestone]

Welcome to this place! You'll find quite a few helpful and knowledgeable folks here.

Regarding your Duplicate question (the same could apply to the "Copy" option via that same action), that action allows you to "duplicate" all the stuff on that drive/partition to another device (not sure if you could do that to another empty partition on the same device). But when you do duplicate that stuff to another device, depending on what you are duplicating, the resulting "stuff" on the different external device might not function the same. For example, I have two external devices, and each of them contain a Samsung 850 Pro 512 gig SSD. I have those SSDs partitioned into 3 devices: two of those devices I use for SuperDuper! backups for each of my Macs, and the other partition contains various files (mostly photos, movies, and TV series). Each of the SuperDuper! backups are bootable. If I were to duplicate either of those SuperDuper! backups to another device, they would not be bootable on the new device, and thus I would lose something critical, ie, not being able to boot from that "duplicated" SuperDuper! backup.

 

[WebbCMH]

Welcome to this place! You'll find quite a few helpful and knowledgeable folks here.

Regarding your Duplicate question (the same could apply to the "Copy" option via that same action), that action allows you to "duplicate" all the stuff on that drive/partition to another device (not sure if you could do that to another empty partition on the same device). But when you do duplicate that stuff to another device, depending on what you are duplicating, the resulting "stuff" on the different external device might not function the same. For example, I have two external devices, and each of them contain a Samsung 850 Pro 512 gig SSD. I have those SSDs partitioned into 3 devices: two of those devices I use for SuperDuper! backups for each of my Macs, and the other partition contains various files (mostly photos, movies, and TV series). Each of the SuperDuper! backups are bootable. If I were to duplicate either of those SuperDuper! backups to another device, they would not be bootable on the new device, and thus I would lose something critical, ie, not being able to boot from that "duplicated" SuperDuper! backup.

Thanks for that and just so I am clear - the SuperDuper backups include your OS and startup information from your internal hard drive which makes them bootable on your Macs? Are the SuperDuper backups essentially Time Machine Backups?

 

[honestone]

Yes, SuperDuper! includes the OS, startup information, applications, settings, etc. (Carbon Copy Cloner, another similar excellent product, does the same). Time Machine backups are not bootable, so I do not know how much more information SuperDuper! (or Carbon Copy Cloner) backups contain than ones done with Time Machine. But the HUGE difference is that SuperDuper! (and Carbon Copy Cloner) backups are bootable. To restart your Mac from such a bootable backup, it can be done in one of 2 ways:

1. While your Mac is starting up, hold down the Option key. You will then be shown a "horizontal" list of which devices are bootable. The SuperDuper! (or Carbon Copy Cloner) backup will be listed there. You just click on that icon, and your Mac will restart from it.

2. After your Mac has already started up (and even while you are using it), go to System Preferences, and click Startup Disk. You'll also see the SuperDuper! (or Carbon Copy Cloner) backup (s) there.

Previously, the drawback of using either SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner was that one could not schedule incremental backups, like one can do with Time Machine. But that shortcoming was remedied (not sure exactly when for either product, as I don't need incremental backups. Once a week is sufficient for my needs).

Here are links for SuperDuper! and Carbon Copy Cloner:

SuperDuper! - http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

Carbon Copy Cloner - https://bombich.com/

The differences between SuperDuper! and Carbon Copy Cloner are:

1. Cost: SuperDuper! costs $27.95, whereas Carbon Copy Cloner costs $39.99.

2. Carbon Copy Cloner also backs up the (hidden) Recovery HD partition that gets created on a new, fresh, clean installation of the Mac OS, whereas SuperDuper! does not. I was reading while Shirt Pocket software was testing V3.0 of SuperDuper!, that capability was being added. But I cannot tell if that is the case or not. But, for myself, that is not as issue, as 1) it gets recreated on a new installation of the Mac OS, 2) the excellent disk cleanup/maintenance/repair program Tech Tool Pro creates an eDrive which can do some more important tasks than the Recovery HD partition, and 3) there are other ways of re-creating it.

Earlier this month, I posted a thread about backups. Here is the link for it:

https://www.mac-help.com/threads/backups-backups-backups.223959/#post-1549569

 

[WebbCMH]

Yes, SuperDuper! includes the OS, startup information, applications, settings, etc. (Carbon Copy Cloner, another similar excellent product, does the same). Time Machine backups are not bootable, so I do not know how much more information SuperDuper! (or Carbon Copy Cloner) backups contain than ones done with Time Machine. But the HUGE difference is that SuperDuper! (and Carbon Copy Cloner) backups are bootable. To restart your Mac from such a bootable backup, it can be done in one of 2 ways:

1. While your Mac is starting up, hold down the Option key. You will then be shown a "horizontal" list of which devices are bootable. The SuperDuper! (or Carbon Copy Cloner) backup will be listed there. You just click on that icon, and your Mac will restart from it.

2. After your Mac has already started up (and even while you are using it), go to System Preferences, and click Startup Disk. You'll also see the SuperDuper! (or Carbon Copy Cloner) backup (s) there.

Previously, the drawback of using either SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner was that one could not schedule incremental backups, like one can do with Time Machine. But that shortcoming was remedied (not sure exactly when for either product, as I don't need incremental backups. Once a week is sufficient for my needs).

Here are links for SuperDuper! and Carbon Copy Cloner:

SuperDuper! - http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

Carbon Copy Cloner - https://bombich.com/

The differences between SuperDuper! and Carbon Copy Cloner are:

1. Cost: SuperDuper! costs $27.95, whereas Carbon Copy Cloner costs $39.99.

2. Carbon Copy Cloner also backs up the (hidden) Recovery HD partition that gets created on a new, fresh, clean installation of the Mac OS, whereas SuperDuper! does not. I was reading while Shirt Pocket software was testing V3.0 of SuperDuper!, that capability was being added. But I cannot tell if that is the case or not. But, for myself, that is not as issue, as 1) it gets recreated on a new installation of the Mac OS, 2) the excellent disk cleanup/maintenance/repair program Tech Tool Pro creates an eDrive which can do some more important tasks than the Recovery HD partition, and 3) there are other ways of re-creating it.

Earlier this month, I posted a thread about backups. Here is the link for it:

https://www.mac-help.com/threads/backups-backups-backups.223959/#post-1549569

Many thanks for the impressively detailed and useful answer I’ll look up that thread.
Kind regards Conrad