Comments on SD! and APFS

[RobLewis]

Just got around to installing SD! on my 2015 MacBook Pro. Cloned the internal SSD to an external USB3 hard drive APFS partition. Comments:

• Interestingly, SD! reported that it evaluated 1,686,597 files and copied 1,706,007. What does this mean?
• I verified that I can boot from the clone, but boy is it slow compared to the internal SSD! (I know this has nothing to do with SD!)
• I'd like to be able to keep additional unrelated files in the clone partition and update the clone with "Copy newer", but you caution that a bootable copy can only be ensured with the "Erase, then copy" or "Smart Update" options. Why is this, and what are the risks? Would it make sense to be able to tell SD! to ignore certain directories on the target volume?

[dnanian]

1. The counts can look a bit weird due to preservation of data, hard links, etc. It means it's OK.

2. Initial boots are always slower than subsequent ones (without any updates in between) due to various items being rebuilt (caches, spotlight, etc), too.

3. Don't do this. Ever. You should keep files on their own volume/partition, and you should back them up too!