SuperDuper! erased my data during smart update

[sdsl]

What happened to user "avex" is truly unfortunate, but it appears to really be "operator error" here because the SuperDuper instructions are very very clear. CCC does handle this process slightly differently, and it appears that the user misled himself because he assumed that SuperDuper would behave as does CCC. Still, the SuperDuper instructions in the manual and on screen are very very clear.

But mistakes can still happen. This is why, in fact, I have split my external firewire drive into two partions and alternate backups to each, just in case something bad happens to one of them. I also make a finder copy of "important files" (not the whole operating system) to yet another external drive that is located elsewhere but is accessible via network. And the fourth layer of defence is a DVD of "important files" made every month or so. (I know some people who store those DVDs in a safe deposit box off site, but I haven't gotten that far yet.) I don't want to criticize user "avex" anymore because he's been through enough, but I think having multiple backups of important files is essential. That 150 GB archive on the external drive does not itself seem to have been backed up itself, i.e. it was the one and only copy of those files. A separate external hard drive to back up the archive would be the solution, maybe costing $100 and taking half an hour or so. That archive would also have fit on about 35 DVDs, which probably would have taken ~ 10 hrs to make.

Getting back to SuperDuper, the instructions clearly state that the option selected will make the backup drive look just like the source drive. That to me means, same files, same space used etc.

Note that with CCC, it is the opposite, one can create a folder on the backup drive and call it something that doesn't exist on the source drive (like "do_not_touch_me") and copy essential files on the backup drive into that folder, and they won't be touched when the backup is run.