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Old 05-25-2007, 09:25 PM
jefman jefman is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 6
SD "copy all files" vs. Disk Utility "restore"

hi -

i'd like to know what the differences are between using SD! "erase and copy" with "copy all files", and using Disk Utility's "restore" command to create a full backup on a firewire partition.

until now i've been using SD! to back up only important files to a sparse image.

i recently bought a second firewire drive, and decided to follow the advice in the manual to make a backup partition on it. then i decided to just try out booting from the tiger install disk, and using Disk Utility "restore" to copy my internal drive to the backup partition. i heard that this is the fastest way to make a complete bootable backup, since it does a "block copy".

i haven't yet tried using SD! to do the same thing. but now i'm wondering if just using Disk Utility like this might be the path of least resistance... how much slower would SD! be, assuming i don't use smart update? are there advantages to using SD!'s method, over the Disk Utility block copy?

related to this, are there any rules of thumb about how big to make the backup partition? is it necessary for it to be exactly the same size as the internal drive? i read that SD! doesn't need it to be, but what if i had to use Disk Utility to back up or restore?

thanks...
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