I have said this before, but there is a major flaw in using Super Duper, or Carbon Copy Cloner as the only backup. Assuming you are using SD or CCC as your only backup consider this sceneario.

  • Day 1: You edit an important file and at the end of the day you backup using SD or CCC
  • Day 2: you edit the file but unknown to you there is a glitch of some sort and the file is irrepairably damaged. At the end of the day you backup using SD or CCC
  • Day 3: You attempt to open the file you have been working on for the past few days and discover it is damaged beyond repair. No problem, you simply copy the file from your SD or CCC backup. Unfortunatly that backup contains the damaged copy of the file from the Day 2 backup. You have lost all the work you have done on the file.

With Time Machine you just go back in time one more hour or one more day and recover an undamaged copy of the file having lost only an hour or so of work.

FWIW, after a logic board crash I was able to completely restore my entire system using Migration Assistant and a Time Machine backup. I will also admit I have had a TM backup set go sour for reasons I was never able to determine and I was never able to recover the backup set which forced me to start the TM backup over again from scratch.


"All you've got to do is own up to your ignorance
honestly, and you'll find people who are eager to
fill your head with information"
--Walt Disney