Dave’s fully aware of File Provider but has to figure out how he wants to handle it. There are a lot of issues, most notably how you deal with filling up the drive if you’re downloading cloud files just to back them up.
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If you’re running a restore, you need to start with the disk that has the data to restore as the source. So you’d select DoppleZephyr in the sidebar, select Zephyr as the destination, and use Restore Files as the script. I can’t show this because SuperDuper won’t let me select my Zephyr startup disk as the destination for a restore—macOS is booted from it. Here’s the relevant bit from the user guide.
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I don’t think that’s strictly true. If all you need to do is periodically create a clone, SD does that for 100% free.
I am showing my lack of understanding here …. but what is Apple’s ASR utility/ Do I have that on my Mac already?
It’s a command-line tool called “Apple Software Restore” that is included in macOS. Graphical tools like Apple’s Disk Utility and third party tools like SuperDuper! and CCC use asr behind the scenes to carry out certain functions. For people who are comfortable with using command-line tools in Terminal.app, it can be very powerful, but the vast majority of users are better off sticking with the graphical tools.
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CCC can make bootable backups using the legacy option. When bootability became flaky with the signed sealed system volume (SSD), Mike Bombich of CCC chose to relegate bootability to a legacy option, while Dave Nanian chose to keep it prime.
SuperDuper does not have any magic sauce to make a clone bootable…both have to use Apple System Restore (ASR) to copy the system volume. That is not smart updateable so both CCC and Superduper have to erase the system volume and make a new copy of it with ASR to make a bootable clone.
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As @josehill wrote, it is a command-line tool that is used (among other things) to make a bootable clone of a Mac’s signed System volume.
Apple uses it internally (I’m told) for writing the internal SSD images onto new Macs in the factory. This is why it has the capability to create the signed System volume snapshots that modern versions of macOS require in order to boot.
Apple does not support third parties using ASR in this capacity, and the result isn’t always bootable, depending on what kind of hardware you are using as the clone-destination, hence the warning about it being “unreliable”, and why CCC doesn’t recommend its use.
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And we should emphasize a point that Adam made: test your bootable backup to be sure it works. Getting your ‘dead’ Mac to see this disk is not as simple as it once was. And one of my backup disks is an older spinning drive, so waiting for it to load takes a long long long time!
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OK, I can’t promise to stay active here, folks, but I figured I’d stop by and reply to a few, since there are a few things to correct.
Perhaps SuperDuper! Classic was a “one trick pony” (I’d argue the point, but I’m happy to defer to your judgment), but I think you’ll find that SD4 is an entirely different beast. I support reading and writing anything that Apple supports, including reading and writing to network volumes, as well as copying to and from folders.
You may prefer CCC’s operation, which is fine, of course! But I think you may want to look at SD4’s capabilities before placing it in the same bucket as SD Classic.
With regard to being bad at helping, I’m truly sorry you feel that way. I literally work every day of the year and typically reply to users within an hour or two, and respond to every message sent in, personally. If you felt slighted somehow, you have my apologies…I do try to help people as best I can. (I did review all of our correspondence over the years, and I don’t see how I gave you the impression that I was “uninterested” in enhancing SuperDuper; what I said, back then, that I didn’t want to turn SuperDuper into “Synchronize Pro”; I also checked each response time, which was within an hour or two…)
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Apple has actually not said this. In fact, when Apple initially offered the SSV and didn’t support OS copying, encouraged by folks like me, they implemented the ability to do so, and continue to support it.
So it’s not doing what “they say you shouldn’t do” at all. In fact, it’s directly supported.
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I appreciate the comment, of course, but given that SD4 is a per-user license, covering an unlimited number of computers for each person, I don’t think I’m somehow being ungenerous here.
Yes, other household members would need their own license (or they could use it unregistered). But it’s hardly expensive…
None of this is meant to discourage you, or anyone, from buying and using CCC, of course. But we’re talking, in your specific case, about $130, total…an additional $80. Plus, basic use is free and comes with support.
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Just wanted to say thank you, @dnanian, for all your work on SuperDuper. It’s served me well for years and years, and I’m glad to see the new version still going strong.
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Issues that the CCC and Chronosync developers seem to have sorted out years ago. My startup disk “disk usage” never changes substantively when my CCC Cloud Storage backup runs, and I’ve seen it download several hundred GB in one event. [knew I’d seen this… CCC’s docs actually call out this eviction behavior directly]
I dinked around with the new SD interface again today and finally realized what I found so challenging. Adam put it precisely into words, “It’s highly effective, at least for people who aren’t intimidated by text.” I’m not dyslexic, but the lack of graphical components to indicate settings is disorienting. He’s really taking the “G” out of GUI 
To figure out how everything is configured, I find myself doing so much reading – there SO much text, and some of it, frankly, is gratuitous. Like the “Apple Intelligence” report? Come on, it’s just regurgitating the information that is immediately above it, and it’s taking ~5s to do it. Not helpful, just more noise.
I’ll stick with CCC in my household of 4 users, it’s a bargain, has way more functionality, and gets big updates every 3 years instead of every 19.
SuperDuper! and Carbon Copy Cloner—we have choices. What’s not to like?
@dnanian has always been very responsive to the [few] requests for support.
I use TimeMachine, SuperDuper!, and Carbon Copy Cloner so that I have three different backup systems. (Yes, I’m using backup in a rather nebulous manner here.)
Finally, I have a bootable SuperDuper! clone and have used it several times—and was glad I had that option.
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OK, so presumedly the description will read correctly once you’ve selected the appropriate drive as the destination - that makes more sense. The screen shot in the article was misleading (not blaming you, just pointing out the description was the opposite of a restore).
We used Superduper for many years - a long time ago - but changed to several multi user licences of CCC, probably just based on price at the time. I might take another look.
The other thing to know is that “Restore” is just a copy rule, whose point is to excluded any side-by-side Time Machine volume that might be present on the source. It’s mostly vestigial, at this point, but I retained it for compatibility.
My 2¢:
Very satisfied SD user for decades with many free updates since originally purchased. In fact I once asked Dave Nanian how he could provide free updates for so long and if there was a way just to support his work. To do that I opted to purchase a new license when v.3 appeared.
I have always been impressed with how responsive Dave Nanian has been to support questions, generally responding within the same day with a solution that worked. Compare that to being totally ghosted by other software support requests.
As to bootablility, this was covered at length in another thread. I’ll just add here that I have 3 SD backup disks that I have tested on my M2 Mini and I have been able to boot from them all even though the MacOS version on the backup has not always been kept up to date with that currently running on the Mini. (Fortunately I have not had to test booting my Mini from an external disk with a trashed internal boot disk!)
After reading Adam’s article I immediately purchased SD v4 with an upgrade discount.
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Sorry about that, but it wasn’t trying to illustrate a restore.
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From what I understand, if the internal drive has failed in an m-series Mac, it will not boot from an external drive… at all. Other recovery means will have to be used…
Definitely true. If the drive is well and truly dead, it can’t load the security policies from the internal drive, and it won’t boot.
But the backup is still fine…and “can’t boot” is totally different than “can’t be restored”. (Nothing, of course, is going to be able to restore to a truly dead internal SSD on an Apple silicon Mac.)
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