Will SuperDuper restore authorizations?

[dix]

My Mac Pro was not able to see the boot drive just now on startup - I got a circle with a line through it where the gray Apple logo usually is during startup. The next startup was no problem, but I don't like it one bit so I'm in the middle of SuperDuper-ing the drive to a backup drive just in case. In the event I do have to reinstall, restore or (worse) replace the drive I can't recall what happens to my authorizations. Will all my iLok, apps and plugins need to be reauthorized or will SuperDuper restore the authorizations as well?

Thanks!

[dogsbloodrising]

Not 100% sure but I think SuperDuper is a 100% complete backup including all system files, so you should be good.

Try to boot from it and see what happens; you can boot from a superduper backup the same way you boot from any extra drive in bootcamp.

[dix]

Good idea!

I tried booting from the SuperDupered clone and DP, at least, wants a ser no. Peak and others seem to be okay with the clone though. Anyway, my regular boot drive seems to be behaving normally now. Maybe it was just a fluke.

Thanks for responding!

[Dave Bourke]

My understanding of this is that the rule is: if a cloning app does a file copy of the drive, certain types of authorisations will not survive. On the other hand, if it does a device copy, all auths should be left intact.

CopyCatX does device copies:

http://www.subrosasoft.com/OSXSoftware/ ... ba2f5c71a9

EDIT: Whereas doing a file copy will result in a defragmented clone, the disadvantage of a device copy is that the original drive is reproduced exactly as it is, including existing disk and file fragmentation.

Kind regards.

[dix]

EDIT: Whereas doing a file copy will result in a defragmented clone, the disadvantage of a device copy is that the original drive is reproduced exactly as it is, including existing disk and file fragmentation.

Interesting. But presumably NOT bad sectors on the drive. That would be a hardware issue I would think. Apparently, if I have "bad boot-sector" that will cause the drive to not be seen on startup.

Thanks!

[dewdman42]

No it does not. Its not a big deal with DP, you just get prompted to re-insert the disc and re-enter the serial number, one time and then move on.

NI authorizations don't seem to stick after SuperDuper restore either.

[Larry Mal]

Have you addressed the possibly bad disc with Disk Utility while having booted from the clone? You stand a good chance of repairing the damage, in my experience. Good luck, L

[daveporter]

I have restored my main system drive using SuperDuper! and did not have any problems with any of my authorizations (including NI plugs which are very picky).

I do not use DP but due use AudioDesk 2 and 3 and it had no problem.

The trick I believe is that you have to restore back to a drive with exactly the same name as the original drive your replacing. For instance, if you are restoring your "Macintosh HD" named drive you can not restore to "Main Drive" without problems with authorizations.

At least that is the way it works for me.

Dave

[cuttime]

I just went through this with SuperDuper, and FWIW DP and Unisyn both needed to be re-authorized with disk in drive. Unisyn got really squirrelly and kept crashing on start. Deleting the prefs fixed that, but then patch publishing in DP stopped working. I had to restore the drive again, delete the prefs, re-authorize, and magically all was well.

Interestingly, KPlayer2 didn't skip a beat.

SuperDuper is a lifesaver, it saved me weeks worth of anguish.

[Klaus]

Disk Utility can create and restore device copy, block level copy.
Just boot from a different volume ( maybe you created at some point a rescue volume ? )
and use the menu - new - command to create a dmg, then use the restore tab to restore, click erase...
once it copies, it reads reading whole disk

Take care

Klaus