[galleyleo]

I've just purchased a new 250 gig external HD to use for backing up and I have SuperDuper! installed. This is my first back-up system that I have ever used and so far it seems to be working, well, super. I'm not a very sophisticated user when it comes to technical matters, but I'm trying to learn. I'm having a hard time getting my head around the sparse image concept. I've searched for info on this, but what I read are descriptions of what a sparse disc image is and how to create one, but not it's function within ones system. I realize it's for backing up, but why is it advantageous to create?. If the image is created on the hard drive, isn't the sparse image lost in the event of a catastrophic hard drive failure? What am I missing? Please forgive my naiveté.