I guess format APFS will erase the disk, but if it works it's worth it. I'll try.
Thanks.

It worked. Didn't need to reformat external SSD since High Sierra install took care of that. But Smart Update worked and made it bootable. It was pretty slow on the last few steps, but it worked.

Thanks!

Glad to hear it worked as expected.

3.0b1
 

I bet you already had a registered version present on the drive, which means that you already had a registration number present on the boot drive. When I started a virgin copy of 3.0B1, the Register command gave the text about buying or entering a name and serial number, but there were no boxes present. It was only after I registered 2.9.2 that the boxes appeared already filled in.

It's a difficult bug to see, because you need a computer with High Sierra that has never had SuperDuper! present or registered. It is only with an unregistered 3.0b1 that this "bug" appears.

Interesting…

My SSD bootdrive (0) with 10.13 has - obviously - AFPS.
My external drive is partitioned in a SuperDuper clone drive (1) and a Time Machine drive (2).On 1 is still 10.12.

Now on (0) with 10.13 Disk Utility I can only convert drive (2) to APFS. With (1) the option is greyed out.

I also noticed that copying files with APFS is blindingly fast.. GB in a sec...

You might want to read my blog post at http://www.shirt-pocket.com/blog (specifically, http://www.shirt-pocket.com/news_on_the_march) for a comment about copying, which isn't really faster.

To use a drive with both HFS+ and APFS, create a partition for the APFS container and then make that APFS. You can create as many volumes as you want in the container - they all share the same pool of space. You'll then want to back up to a volume in that container.

Follow-up question:
 

Do you mean to reformat the backup partition as APFS first, and then to run SuperDuper 3.0 B1 with Smart Update? Thanks!

That's what I mean.

Hi Dave,

Perhaps I was not clear, but I have an external drive partitioned in two parts.

One as SD clone partition and the other for Time Machine.

I upgraded to 10.13 so my internal SSD drive is now APFS. The external drive is still Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

If I open Disk Utility I can only convert the Time Machine partition to APFS and NOT the SD clone partition.

I that because the SD clone partition has 10.12 installed (which does not require APFS). So the only solution is to erase the SD clone partition and then used SD... For Time Machine it seems not of any importance if the partition is APFS ?

Thanks :)

Right, so you have to delete that partition, and then create one for the APFS container. Or format the whole drive for APFS. It's up to you.

Note, though: Time Machine grows and takes over the entire space given. If you have a shared pool of storage and don't set a quota, Time Machine will eat the entire drive.

Dave, thank you !

Time machine may grow as it is on a separate partition and f the partition is 'full', old TM entrees are sill deleted right ?

For safety reason I might be better to erase the SD clone partition only; than is the TM partition still there :)

Yes, old TM data will then get deleted, but that won't help the other volume which is now full. So, I'd keep the TM volume HFS+ and add the APFS volume as I described.

It worked, but the 2nd drive isn't actually bootable...
 

I tried this on two separate external drives that used to be bootable after a SuperDuper clone prior to high sierra. With the beta and APFS, while SuperDuper does complete the copy process without any errors now, the cloned drives neither appear in the "System Preferences - Startup Disk" options, nor they appear when rebooting the macbook and pressing the "Option" key to select a boot disk.

As an FYI all my drives are encrypted with FileVault - never been an issue before APFS.

Side story - went to Apple Genius bar to repair my macbook - their hardware tests in the store now fail to run if using High Sierra as they do not see boot disks as they are all APFS volumes now...

So, one drive worked and one drive didn't? (You said '2nd drive"....)

Did you format the backup drive as encrypted? Or did you encrypt by starting up from the backup, THEN turning on encryption and booting back?

The Beta worked for me!
 

Thanks, Dave...All all went well after following your patient instructions. One partition on my external non-SSD drive now contains an APFS clone of the 240GB SSD; the other partitions, including Time Machine, remain as HFS+. (SuperDuper! Time: 2:40:40)