Is SuperDuper for me?

[Robert57]

I also want an exact back-up of my iTunes and iPhoto files on my external BU firewire drives and need some reassurance on Smart Update.

I have recently been doing an extensive amount of editing of my music library--replacing cover art embedded in the music files, editing metadata, etc.-- and so far have done a simple delete BU folder and then drag/copy routine, from the source library ext. HD to the target BU ext. HD (both firewire) in Mac Leopard 10.5 Finder, just to be sure I am capturing all the minute changes I am making with so many thousands of music files. This also allow me to keep a previous BU file on the target BU drive in case there is a drive failure in the course of the BU session. With my big library (almost 700 GB, 30K+ songs), I am really taxing the external drives with 5- hour back-up sessions (getting fairly hot), so I would prefer to use Super Duper now, with Smart Update, to do incremental back-ups, and hopefully make these back-up sessions a lot less wearing on the external drives.

Just to be clear, will SD Smart Update capture even minor changes and additions in embedded cover art in an album, or minute changes in metadata (like adding some characters to an artist or grouping field) in my iTunes music files? I am worried also about having a failure of my source drive during a long BU session, and then having no complete BU of a previous version on the cloned target drive.

Also, I have been using Icy Dock external firewire drive enclosures for my primary and BU drives, each with WD 2- TB Caviar Green drives inside, and they are getting disturbingly warm (almost hot) to the touch after these long BU sessions. Is this normal? They have no internal fan, just rely on the aluminum case for heat dissipation. I love how quiet and speedy they are, but I am worried the heat will soon cause a failure.

Thanks.

Robert