SuperDuper Story

 SuperDuper story

Yesterday, as we were setting up for the morning Zoom streaming session, I told Jim about my problems trying to fix a failed restore on my daughter’s computer. I had spent most of two days downloading various Mac OS operating systems, trying to get it to boot back up. All the downloads failed, citing missing or corrupted essential files.

I tried to download a new OS on my own computer to a flash drive, which I could then transfer over to her computer, but the download site immediately found my computer with an M1 processor would be incompatible with Darlene’s computer with a Pentium processor and greyed out the download button, preventing my download.

I tried several “safe” starts on her computer to type in Terminal commands, with no success. I think her hard drive is now a “brick.”

My next move will be to buy myself a new Mac mini with an M2 chip and give her my present computer. I have most of the photos and some of the documents she will want on her next computer. She lost those in the restore attempts she made before I tried to save it.

Anyway, during the discussion, Jim highly recommended a backup program call SuperDuper, which is simple, easy, and free, unless you choose to upgrade for a small fee. It creates a bootable disk on a flash drive, external disc, etc. with all your data, documents, and photos safely stored.

When I got home, I tried to go to SuperDuper.com with no luck. I also tried SuperDooper.com and SooperDooper.com. I gave up and Googled SuperDuper backup program and found it by a company named ShirtPocket. So I immediately went to the download site to start the program download.

I have never seen an attack like I met on the download site. Had to navigate through other popup pages from other backup programs trying to get me to click on their programs instead. When I finally got to the actual SuperDuper download page, it was plastered with ads, and fake download buttons for other programs. The worst was some program called Avast. You had to look and read carefully to avoid hitting the wrong download button.

I finally got the right program downloaded and installed, and printed out the instructions. I tried a flash drive I had first, but it was too small. I needed about 350 Mb for a full backup, and the flash drive wasn’t even close to that.

Then I remembered an SSD I installed in my OWC Dock under my Mac Mini. I have been using it to store some of my photos to make space for more photos on my iPhone. I checked it and found it was 500 Mb, but only had about 45 Mb used. So I partitioned that drive to a 400Mb drive with a 100 Mb drive with my photos, and had lots of room for a backup.

It all went well, and for the first time in a couple of months my machine is fully backed up. My Apple Time Machine locked up some time ago. I have forgotten how many years it worked, but you only get so many years, and then it quits!

I upgraded to the full version of SuperDuper, which has provision to set up regular backups. It only cost $28.00. Worth every penny!

My next move is a trip to the Apple Store down in Dallas at the Galleria for a new Mac Mini.