Sparse Bundle Support

[Mr R.]

Back when I used OS 10.4, I had a large, encrypted sparse image. After I modified the disk image, SuperDuper! would have to copy the many GiB file, even though I had only modified mebibytes, and there was nothing I could do about it (apart from modifying the clone manually).

Anyway, I was poking around in Leopard's Disk Utility today, and I discovered the option to created a sparse "bundle" disk image. It appears that sparse bundles are a new feature of Leopard. Apple created them so that Time Machine would be able to copy only the modified chunks of an encrypted disk image (most notably, the huge ones created by FileVault).

It would be great if SuperDuper!'s Smart Update could benefit from this new feature as well. For all I know, Shirt Pocket's internal test version of SuperDuper! 2.5 already supports it. If not, however, consider this a feature request.

[CrashDavis]

I can't find much information elsewhere, but was support for bundles ever added? I have the same issue with small changes causing a massive copy of images during the smart update.

I apologize if this has been asked and answered.

Thanks!

[sjk]

That's been asked/answered in: Support for Sparse Bundles?

SD! has always supported using them even though it still doesn't support creating them.

[dnanian]

It kind of depends on what you mean by 'bundles'. We've always supported 'bundles' in the "iPhoto Library" sense -- that is, a collection of files under a folder that appear to be a single file in Finder (another example: application bundles).

Sparse Bundles are different, however, and as sjk indicated above we do support them, although we can't create them.

[sjk]

Originally Posted by dnanian

It kind of depends on what you mean by 'bundles'.

True. My reply presumed, possibly incorrectly, that "sparse" was implied by where CrashDavis posted the question.

[CrashDavis]

Yes, I meant sparse bundles. Although now that I'm thinking about it, I only use encrypted sparse bundles, and they aren't mounted for backup, so I don't think the smart update really works for me anyway.

[dnanian]

Sure it does: in that case, Smart Update would only copy the 'bands' in the bundle that changed.