It's been so long since I've backed up my Mac (I know, I know) that I've forgotten how to use SuperDuper! I read instructions but still got confused.

I attached my external drive and erased it because it had stuff I never refer to anymore. I wanted to start fresh.

Maybe I need to reformat it for a mac. I believe I had to do that originally. It's a WD my passport. What do you think?

I went through the process of going through DiskUtility and selecting my external drive. I guess I used some wrong buttons because I got this showing up. Disk Utility. I selected all that I wanted off of there and clicked "erase." It still shows up.

I want to be able to get rid of whatever doesn't belong here on the left side and start fresh to just add one folder called Catalina when I'm done.

I don't know why I have a "container." Maybe something I did way back.

The owner of SuperDuper tried to help, but as always, everything went over my head. You guys know how to "talk down to me" so I can understand. You notice I didn't say talk to me like a 3rd grader because nowadays they would know why to do!

Hi, Rita,

Your screenshot looks like you did everything right, but I can't be certain without seeing Disk Utility with the WD My Passport line selected.

"Container disk3" is what you should see in your APFS setup.

Assuming all else is OK, you just need to select Untitled 2 as your SD! destination. (You can change that "Untitled" to whatever you want.)

This is the view with the WD passport screen shot. WD Passport View

After I click on "untitled" there is no option to change the name to Catalina. What am I missing? Untitled View

Do I need to click partition and do something there? Partition View

What you've done is correct.

You can probably change the name in a Finder "Get Info" window, and you can definitely change it by selecting the "Container disk3" line, hitting erase, and changing the name in the pop-up.

Note: Your "Partition View" link leads to a blank page.

Speaking of partitions, though, since you've got a full TB to work with, I suggest that you split it into two containers , NOT APFS volumes, so you'll have one container for your SD! clone and one for any other data you may want to store on the drive. You would do it with the "Partition" button.

Hmmm, wonder why it was blank on your end?

SuperDuper said MacOs 10.15.7 requires APFS formatting for Catalina. That's why the conversion by SuperDuper program. I copying now. That's for your help (as usual).

It's still blank on my end, but it's not necessary that I see it. (What do you see when you click on the link?)

So you're saying that you formatted the drive incorrectly, and SD! changed it to the correct format?

I am also seeing a blank when I click on it. I took a screen shot that looks perfect. Put it on Imgur and got a url. Something happened in between.

I didn't format the drive. I just started using SuperDuper and a message came up and said I needed to use the APFS format to make it work. There was a button provided for me to change it to that format, so I took advantage of it.

What happened is you somehow got an invalid URL: https://imgur.com/undefined]Partition View[/quote]

I don't think I knew SD! (CCC too?) could do that. Thanks for the info.

You're welcome and thank you. I was able to do my backup just fine once I got a little help.

I just started using SuperDuper and a message came up and said I needed to use the APFS format to make it work. There was a button provided for me to change it to that format, so I took advantage of it. [/color][/quote]
I don't think I knew SD! (CCC too?) could do that. Thanks for the info. [/quote]

I've never kept my external clone up to date - update it only once a month - because it's too much of a nuisance to keep the drive attached to my MBP, particularly in my small workspace.

To finally get around that shortcoming in my backup plan, I just got a TINY 256 GB flash drive that sits permanently in one of my ports and gets updated every day.

On point, then, now that you're started, keep going.

The external drive is a nuisance. I've knocked it out of the Mac while backing up and have to start all over. Maybe I'll get a flash drive in the future. I only have 120 gigs on my MacBook Pro anyway. You said you get updated every day. Is that a manual update or is something preprogramed in your clone program that just does it? That would be nice.

It's built-in Carbon Copy Cloner functionality which is also available in SD!, but only in the paid version.

OK, thanks. Good to know. I will think on that.

I'm still thinking of getting a flash drive to backup my Mac with S/D. Is there something special I have to do, or can I just put it in my Mac, bring up SuperDuper (paid version), and it walks me through? Any special kind of flash drive?

Flash drives use different technology, are a lot slower, less reliable, and generally less expensive than an SSD, but as far as macOS and any applications such as Super Duper or CCC are concerned they are just another drive and can be named and formatted just like any other drive mounted on the system. If your computer has a slot for an SD card, you could use something like this. If you do not have an SD slot and you have a Type A USB port then you need a thumb drive like this. If you have an unused Type C port then you would need something like this or for maximum performance, longevity and reliability, I would get a full blown SSD like this.

Remember this, SD cards and thumb drives are very much a commodity market where you get what you paid for. All too often, cheap, off-brand, SD Cards and Thumb drives aren't worth what you paid for them.

I think I have it all. I think I will go for the SD slot (flash drive). Macbook Pro Ports Not knowing much about flash drives, the measurements are ‎0.9 x 0.7 x 0.3 inches. Does that include that gray piece on the end? The port is bigger than an inch, but I assume that doesn't matter. What does matter is how much the gray piece on the end hangs over the port because I use the usb port on that side for my Logitech laptop speaker so I need room for that.

You've got your apples and oranges mixed up. SD slot and flash drive don't go together. It's either SD slot/SD card or USB port/flash drive. And the SD card slot isn't even next to the USB port, so I don't understand your concern in that respect.

Either an SD card or a flash drive will require a USB C adaptor to work with your next Mac, so they're equal in that respect other than the SD card adaptor being considerably bigger than the USB adaptor. (The SSD is USB C and will work without an adaptor.)

As for your concern about space, any listing you look at should include the dimensions of the device. I'll note that in my experience, I've never run across a device that didn't fit, but I've found that the tolerances are so small that a device that went in easily can be extremely difficult to get out.

Artie: I showed the pic. I thought the slot on the right of the MacBook (2nd pic down and which looks huge next to the HDMI slot) was where I put the SD card that Joe talked about. No?

Yes, but you also said " I will go for the SD slot (flash drive), " and "What does matter is how much the gray piece on the end hangs over the port because I use the usb port on that side for my Logitech laptop speaker so I need room for that," when an SD card has no overhang, and even if it did, it would only affect the HDMI port that sits between the SD slot and USB port.

All in all...confusing, and better to clear things up than let you go ahead and buy the wrong thing.

Ok, now I get it. So it is the SD card for sure. I had no idea a flash drive and SD card were different animals. But if it's the SD card that fits next to the HDMI port, then that's what I'm getting as I never use that port.

The SD card it is.

And you'll need this guy with your next Mac: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/...3137712f7caa748b8a814850f047de6e5305e7d1 USB-C to SD Card Reader - Apple

Which means they are taking away yet another useful item, right.

In their quest to make laptops ever smaller, they've necessitated our making up for it by carrying around a bunch of extra peripherals that used to be built in.

Oh no. This is what I am calling the SD card because it is so big. Flash drive not SD card But now it's saying flash drive. I give up. Maybe just a USB C thingy.

I hate that so much. Sometimes I wish there were a good alternative to Apple rather than Microsoft! Nowhere to go!

First off, these are the specs of the flash drive to which you just linked: Weight ‎0.112 ounces/Dimensions ‎0.9 x 0.7 x 0.3 inches, i.e., it's not very big at all.

This is the SD card to which joemike linked.

You don't want to go with USB C, because it may not be compatible with your Thunderbolt 3.

Your options are SD card, flash drive, or (EXPENSIVE) SSD.

More like they are taking away a device that has outlived its usefulness. Given the market's demand for ever thinner, lighter laptops with ever bigger batteries (a.k.a. longer battery life) and something had to go. The SD card was initially developed for use in digital cameras where they continue to dominate because of its form factor, but are rapidly being replaced by significantly smaller, micro SD cards with the same storage capacity. SD slots were included on laptops and other computers as a means of transferring images from cameras to computers, but Bluetooth has largely supplanted that use and SD cards, arguably the slowest and least reliable available option, are the logical thing to leave out. My 2022 Apple Studio still has an SD slot, although it is never used. Instead, I find it more convenient to use a USB stick that reads both SD and micro SD cards and has both Type A and Type C connectors, and works on all my devices.

That said, your decision to use the SD card slot should work well.

Features have been disappearing pretty much in size order, with"enormous" disc drives going first, followed by "too fat" ethernet ports, and logically followed by SD card readers.

And that's it! We're down to 4 USB C ports with the only remaining option being two USB C ports and a hub.

More: Thanks for linking to the card reader thingy you use. I wasn't aware that such a thing existed.

OK, so now I am so confused I want to forget it. Which device goes into the large slot next to my HDMI slot? That's what I want to buy because it's the onyx freed up slot at all times.

This is the SD card to which joemike linked. ("This" is a link.)

And bear in mind that because of the size of your internal drive, you don't need 256 GB. 128 GB will suffice (unless you want to use the card for data storage as well as backup).

OK, sorry to sound so redundant, but the SD card goes next to the HDMI port, right? If that's right, where would the flash drive go? Yes, I thought about not getting the 256 because I don't plan on storing anything else. If I decide to, I guess I could get another SD card.

Yes, the SD card goes in the slot next to the HDMI port, i.e., the one marked SDXC card slot in your pic.

A USB flash drive would go either directly into a USB port or into a Thunderbolt port via an adapter.

You've still got your WD My Passport for data, but the easiest setup would be a 256 GB SD card that can just sit in its slot forever...never need to be swapped out...never risk being misplaced.

Thanks for clarifying. The SD sounds the best. I'll be back if I get one and then can't figure out how to use SuperDuper with it. Probably easy, but you know me.

Chances are you'll have to reformat the card before SD! can deal with it.

It needs to be formatted "GUID Partition Map," and if it isn't, select the top line, hit "Erase," and select it from the pop-up. (You can also name the card in the same pop-up.)

Once that's done, SD! should offer it to you as a destination and from there you can set your schedule.

Unless S/D is intuitive about it like it was the other day when it gave me a choice to push a button to change the format to ..... Can't remember the initials. Anyway, I copied and pasted your directions for future use. I ordered the SD card last night. Now I need to purchase S/D for I can have automatic scheduling for backup.

That's a good question.

It'll be interesting to see if SD! can recognize and correct a disk that's not formatted for Mac in addition to recognizing and reformatting one that is formatted for Mac, but incorrectly. (If, in fact, your SD card really isn't formatted for Mac.)

Please post screenshots of any pertinent pop-ups.

SD cards, and Thumb drives invaribly come from the factory with a Master Boot Record partition scheme and formatted MS-DOS (FAT 16). However, Disk Utility can easily erase the existing partition scheme and reformat them HFS+ or APFS with A GUID partitioning scheme. Assuming Super Duper uses Apple's cloning utility (the only way to create a bootable clone of the later versions of macOS), erasure and reformating is an inescapable result of the cloning process and cannot be prevented.

I just saw this on the SuperDuper website. Does this include the SD card I just bought? If so, he doesn't call it that. I guess what I'm asking is "is that slot for my SD card called a firewire drive?"

Intel Mac users can boot from USB 2, USB 3, Thunderbolt or FireWire drives.

I think you're missing a step.

SD! & CCC both erase the destination container, but in order to get rid of the Master Boot Record itself on the flash drive I recently bought I had to do a separate, initial erase in Disk Utility of the "top line" of the drive.

The SD slot has got nothing to do with FireWire. (FireWire was an Apple high-speed data transfer protocol that they mis-marketed and have since retired.)

I'm pretty sure the card reader is USB.

You are correct, I was missing a critical step. I just tested using CCC 6.1.4-b5 (7443) and when I selected an SD card as the target drive, I got a popup saying I had to use Disk Utility to change the partition scheme from MBR to GUID. I changed the partition scheme to GUID formatted MS-DOS, but after running the "Legacy" clone it was reformatted to APFS.


It is most definitely USB and that is USB 3.1 (5 Gbps). The storage technology used in SD and SD microcards is so slow, a faster connection would not improve the response time or throughput of the device.

I'm pretty sure the card reader is USB. [/quote] But the slot next to the HDMI slot is way wider than USB ports.

It's not the physical configuration of the port that dictates, rather it's the circuitry behind it, so as long as it connects to the USB bus, it's a USB device.

OK, I'm a little worried now, but I hope it fits.

I don't think you've got anything to worry about. SD cards are standard specs. (Actually, I once had a camera that used a weird card that didn't fit in my slot, but that was a rarity.)

OK, hope you're right.

Joe: I just put in my SD card (with Adapter) and instead of going to D/U, I went straight to SuperDuper to see if it recognized I had an SD card in. You said when you did this with your CCC, a message popped up saying you had to use D/U. S/D didn't do this, so I am assuming I need to go back to D/U (which I did at first where it DID show the new SD card), do an erasure as you and Artie recommended, and go from there. I am awaiting an answer because I don't want to screw anything up.


You are correct, I was missing a critical step. I just tested using CCC 6.1.4-b5 (7443) and when I selected an SD card as the target drive, I got a popup saying I had to use Disk Utility to change the partition scheme from MBR to GUID. I changed the partition scheme to GUID formatted MS-DOS, but after running the "Legacy" clone it was reformatted to APFS.

"With adapter?" What & why?

You can't screw up a blank card...no data to lose.

Assuming that SD! didn't recognize the card, go to DU, select the top line for the card, hit "Erase," name the card, select Format: APFS, select scheme: GUID Partition Map.

(SD! doesn't necessarily react like CCC in similar situations, so you can't make any assumptions based upon what either one of them does as respects the other.)

OK, I erased it and named it. In order to find anything named APFS I had to go above on the side of D/U as shown and click on Apple SSD Data. Apple SSD Data There I see APFS but don't know where to go from there to find the GUID partition map. I clicked on "partition" but don't know where to go from there to find the GUID option. D/U Partition options

The menus change as you go along. Follow these steps IN THE EXACT SEQUENCE SPECIFIED. Note steps are links to screenshots of what you should see.

1. Select the SD Card
2. Click Erase
3. Click Scheme
4. From the menu Select GUID partition map
5. Now you can select APFS as the format
6. Enter your desired name and click Erase

joemike beat me to the punch, but although your pop-up will probably look different than his does, you should be able to follow his instructions.

But you ignored my BIG question: "With adapter?"

What adapter, and why do you need one?

I didn't see your post about an adapter. I need the adapter (which the SD card came with) because I am using that big slot next to the HDMI slot. The actual SD card is dinky. I showed you the screen shots today, and I saw nothing about about the GUID. I also saw nothing about "scheme" that Joe mentioned so I am stuck until I know what to do next.

First, I guess I know zilch about SD cards, so please post a link to the one you bought.

OK, I'm kinda working in the dark here because I don't know precisely what you're seeing on your screen.

In this Imgur image, #1 shows you which line to select...the very top line of the device with which you're working, #2 shows what I think you see when you hit "Erase," and #3 is what you should see after you've renamed your card, selected your Scheme and Format, and hit Erase in the pop-up. Note that you may have to select Format before you can select Scheme.

(joemike's screenshots probably look different than mine because of the Mac he's using.)

Let's see how that goes.

[quote=artie505]First, I guess I know zilch about SD cards, so please post a link to the one you bought.

SD card


Like I said after I clicked "erase" I never got the option to pick a Scheme or Format. I showed the screen shots.

I think Joe's version is so much newer than mine that it's very different.

I hate to put it quite like this, but your screenshots have got absolutely nothing to do with the project at hand: You show that you renamed your second line, NOT your first, selected you internal SSD, NOT your card, and partitioning is irrelevant to your task.)

Please follow my last set of instructions, working with the TOP line, as shown, and get back to us.

(OK, I guess the card itself is so flimsy that it needs a "carrier" to be able to work in the slot.)

She has a MICRO SD Card which is too small to fit into a standard SD card reader without a Micro SD Card to SD card adaptor. It has nothing to do with how sturdy or flimsy the card is, only the physical dimensions.

Thanks for the clarification.

So, pick the line that says Apple SD card above the the Catalina Back up, erase that and go from there? Disk Utility I couldn't tell by your screen shot or Joe's for sure. I'm about to give up because I'm feeling dumber and dumber.

Yup! The line that says "SD Card Reader."

Done. Thank you, Joe.

Is this what I should see on my desktop with the SD card in place?

SD icons on desktop

I ejected my Catalina icons in the Finder. Then those two SD card icons in my screen shot disappeared. I took my SD card out of my Mac and reinserted it, and now there is only one SD card icon showing for Catalina which makes more sense to me.

Dave at S/D told me that with an error I showed him (S/D failed to copy my SSD) that Given the error, though, you may have to re-do and erase-then-copy manually, then delete and recreate the schedule. You don't have a valid drive right now.... I'm not sure how to do, that but the next time I tried to erase and copy from my sd card it worked. For some reason the Smart Update wasn't working even though I had it selected. Turns out I had to delete the old SuperDuper and then all worked.

Anyway, this was harder than it should have been and I still don't know what he means. I don't think I have to do it though since I deleted the old S/D and downloaded the latest one. Crossing fingers it works next scheduled update tomorrow.

I understand your confusion, it all has to do with APFS and the structural changes in Catlina, Big Sur, Monterey, Ventura, etc. and apparently how SuperDuper is handling the cloning process. I will attempt to explain all this without getting into the technical details where things get really baroque. In the following description I have provided links to Wikipedia articles providing more detail on each of the terms. Explore them if you wish, but feel free to ignore them.

In the simplest terms and at the highest level of abstraction or Virtualization in Catalina, Big Sur, Monterey, Ventura, etc., the boot drive is divided into multiple partitions and each of those partitions are subdivided into Volumes. When a drive mounts the actual entity that is opened is a Volume. MacOS is divided into two volumes...

1. The "system" volume where the actual operating system and built-in apps reside named Macintosh HD and the user only has Read access
2. The "Data" volume which the user has Read/Write access to and contains all of the user's data and settings as well as any installed Apps.

.
You are seeing two mounted volumes on the same physical SD card.¹

FOOTNOTES:

1. I am not sure what SuperDuper does/did as those two volumes should mount as a single volume group and normally are not be seen in Finder separately. (Admittedly, I have slept a few times since I ran Catalina and there could be versional difference.)
2. The actual physical and logical structures are hidden by macOS and what you are actually seeing is a carefully curated encrypted and sealed virtual system called APFS Snapshot com. (As they say in the myths, "But that is another story.”)

Thanks, Joe. You said: I will attempt to explain all this without getting into the technical details where things get really baroque. LOL! You did it anyway. You can't help yourself. I'm sure there is a more technical explanation but this was beyond me. Anyway, if you read the edited version of my post, after I ejected the two Catalinas, and removed the SD card and reinserted it, only one Catalina showed in Finder and on my Desktop!
Whew! I have SmartUpdate scheduled again for tomorrow. We will see what happens. I know I can change that to today to see what happens, but I don't want to deal with it today.

It has taken me years to fully apprehend the implications of logical and structural changes in macOS 11, 12, and 13, but I am confident that if we were face to face, and I could draw diagrams, show charts, talk with my hands, and deal with each point of incomprehension one at a time, I could explain it to you in a way you can understand. It is enough you are aware there is a significantly more complex structure under the hood which you may encounter from time to time but will only rarely be of any significant consequence and can generally be ignored.


I am also confident that you originally saw both volumes on the SD-card is an artifact of SuperDuper and unlikely to be seen again and in any case is safe to ignore.


Let us know what happens. Your friends at FineTunedMac want to know.

It's working and only one artifact on the desktop. I used SmartUpdate today and it worked. I had it scheduled but it said I stopped it, so I did it manually. The only reason I could have stopped it was because at the appointed time to copy, super duper started bouncing on the dock. I clicked on it to see if it had finished and then I got the message I had stopped it. Weird. Next time that happens, I won't touch it and see what happens.

I appreciate your brain!!