Could anyone tell me if there is any problem with cloning my present MacBook drive with SD to my external drive, replacing my MacBook drive with that external drive and running off the cloned drive as a permanent solution?

Could anyone tell me if there is any problem with cloning my present MacBook drive with SD to my external drive, replacing my MacBook drive with that external drive and running off the cloned drive as a permanent solution?

Just making sure that I understand what you are saying:

1. You want to use SuperDuper to make an identical clone of your present boot drive onto an external.

2. You then (after TESTING the clone to make sure it's functioning and bootable!) want to remove the original boot drive from your MacBook, extract the external's hard drive and put that in your MacBook in place of the original and proceed from there?

If so, then yes. In fact, that is EXACTLY the recommended procedure for people upgrading their MacBook hard drive.

That answered my question.
In cloning, it is recommended to "test" the clone. Is it expected to open every file to make sure there is nothing amuck? That would take forever. I can see booting, but how can one be sure every other file has been copied over in the cloning process? Call me paranoid, but it's a lingering concern.

ur paranoid

if you want use ccc - bit copy and they all verify anyway

That answered my question.
In cloning, it is recommended to "test" the clone. Is it expected to open every file to make sure there is nothing amuck?

What *I* mean when I say "test the clone" is to boot from it, browse a page or two, open the programs you use most, just to make sure the licensing information has come over correctly. This is particularly important to Photoshop, Word, Quark, Office et al users.

If things seem normal after opening a few random or frequently-used apps, then you can proceed with confidence.

Would you like to explain how that improves a verified clone? :D