![]() |
Hey, where did my settings go? Interface Changes in CCC 3.4 |
||
CCC 3.4 introduces several new interface changes, and these changes may be momentarily uncomfortable for long-time CCC users. Most notably, the "Backup everything" cloning method is gone, and the "Delete items that don't exist on the source" checkbox has been moved. For people that regularly use this combination of options, I definitely understand why you might be concerned about this change. I have heard feedback like this quite a bit lately:
- Why does CCC insist on archiving modified and deleted items?
- Why can't I just have the "Backup everything" method from earlier versions?
- There are too many options, now I'm afraid I might lose data.
- I just want to clone a volume, I don't need this archiving stuff.
- Why doesn't CCC say that the destination volume will be bootable? Does CCC not make bootable backups anymore?
I hear you loud and clear. I need to explain why I have made these changes, though, and I hope you'll understand my reasoning, and that you will find the old settings conveniently at your fingertips under a new name.
Why are the "Backup everything" and "Incremental backup of selected items" options gone?
There was very little difference between these two "cloning methods," so little in fact that it often led to confusion. People often asked if the latter would make a bootable clone, and if the former would copy every single file, every single time. The differences between these two methods comes down to a) how progress indication was provided, b) whether the volume icon was preserved and c) whether the user was permitted to exclude items from the backup. While "Backup everything" offered a very simplistic approach to basic cloning, the amount of confusion and ambiguity was just unnecessary, and the same functionality can be provided under a single cloning method.
How, then, can I "Backup everything"?
When you choose a volume from the Source menu, CCC populates the "Items to be copied" table with the contents of that volume. Each file and folder has a checkbox next to it. If the box is checked, the item will be copied. If the box is blank, the item will be excluded. If the item is a folder and the box has a "-", that indicates that something within that folder is excluded, but the folder itself will be copied. If you want to copy everything to your destination volume, don't deselect anything from the list of items to be copied — it's really that simple. A really easy way to determine that nothing is excluded from the backup task is to examine the top-most item in that list. If the box next to your source volume is checked, you're going to back up everything.

Why is the "Delete items that don't exist on the source" option less accessible?
Because that option is too dangerous to be confined to an area that is 200x120 pixels. I have fielded too many support requests in which a novice user checked that box and didn't fully grasp its meaning. Even with the very prominent "This task may delete items from your destination" dialog, some users still managed to delete precious information from their destination volume that wasn't backed up anywhere else. Granted, if something is really important, it should be backed up, right? And CCC offers an archiving option, right? It's the user's fault, right? I really don't think so. As the developer of software that can delete things, I have to insist that CCC's default settings are safe, and that the dangerous ones are fully explained. I hope that you can put yourself in my shoes on this one -- what if you were the one that had to explain to someone that their 20 years of photos "might" be recoverable? How many of these support requests could you manage before you insisted that the "delete" option was wrapped in bubble wrap, and that the second-chance archiving option was enabled by default? I steadfastly believe that the archiving functionality is a necessity. Want an example? See this discussion on the CCC Help Desk:
Lost all my data in the hard drive (data found in the _CCC Archives folder, whew!)
Moving forward: A guide to the new settings for long-time CCC users
If you want the "Backup everything" + "Delete items that don't exist on the source" behavior, without protection from accidental deletions (e.g. if you accidentally delete something from the source, that deletion will be propagated to your backup), you can actually get it with just two clicks (after you have selected your source and destination):
- If it isn't already checked, check the top-most item in the list of items to be copied. Now CCC will "Backup everything"
- Choose "Maintain a backup (No archiving)" from the preconfigured task settings menu
Note that there is one setting (carried over from CCC 3.3.7) that I'm insisting on for this preset: the "Protect root-level items on the destination" setting is enabled for this preset. That setting doesn't change what gets copied to your destination, nor does it affect the bootability of that volume, it simply offers a modest level of protection to content that might already exist on that destination. My goal with CCC 3.4 is to eliminate accidental data loss, and part of that requires that I make the options at your fingertips safer. While the "No archiving" preset gives you a set of options that will delete things from your destination, that deleting is limited to items that would have been on your source volume. With this preset, CCC will "make the destination look like the source", but it will do so as safely as possible. If you want to turn off that setting, simply click the "Customize these settings" button and uncheck that box.
"I still don't like it"
I certainly expect this kind of feedback, and it is absolutely welcome. CCC 3.4 isn't the last version of CCC by a long shot, and I'm constantly considering the feedback I get from my users. When you deliver this feedback, though, I hope you'll take a moment to offer some suggestions for doing it differently. I'm not going to go back to the old interface, nor can I provide "Classic" and "New" interface options (the development effort and support implications are overwhelming). The old interface may have worked great for many people doing basic clones, but it came at much too high of a cost. If you can suggest better wording, a different layout, or a more appropriate set of presets, I would really appreciate that.
How do I do a block-level clone?
CCC 3.3.7 was too ambiguous about the block-level clone. The set of conditions required for a block-level clone were documented, of course, but they were not reinforced in the user interface, and that became very frustrating for many users. Additionally, sometimes a block-level copy was not desired, but was attempted anyway because it was possible. This led to longer backup times rather than super fast updates.
CCC 3.4 makes the block-level copy explicit and very easy to specify. Choose "Preferences..." from the Carbon Copy Cloner menu, then check the box to "Indicate when a block-level clone is possible" to enable this feature. When enabled, a "Block copy" button will appear adjacent to the Destination menu. If the source, destination, and settings are amenable to a block-level copy, the Block Copy button will be enabled. Click the button to specify a block-level clone. If the button is disabled, a tool tip will tell you why — simply hover your mouse over the Block Copy button to reveal this text.
Why doesn't CCC say that the destination volume will be bootable?
CCC 3.3.7 would make an affirmative statement that "This volume will be bootable" (or not) after you had selected a source and destination volume. CCC 3.4 no longer makes that affirmative statement about bootability. Rather, CCC indicates in the "What is going to happen" description of your task that "If you are backing up an installation of Mac OS X, CCC will make every effort to make the destination volume bootable."
Unfortunately, there are hardware matters beyond CCC's detection and control that influence bootability, and this can lead to a lot of frustration. Western Digital, for example, has a line of hard drive enclosures that can't boot a Mac. Everything about the device appears, from CCC's perspective, perfectly fine. CCC performs perfectly in copying a fully operational OS to that disk, blesses the system, rebuilds cache files -- everything that is required to make the OS installation bootable. It doesn't work though, because those enclosures are not capable of booting a Mac. There are plenty of other hardware-related issues that interfere with the booting of Mac OS X, so I decided that it was inappropriate to make that statement.
That's not to say that CCC says nothing about bootability, though. If there is something about your configuration that would negatively affect bootability, CCC will let you know. When there are configuration concerns, CCC places a yellow caution icon next to the "Customize these settings" button. You can click on that icon to view the concerns, and CCC will also present these to you when you click the Clone button. If you don't see any concerns, and the destination volume has an OS on it when the backup task is completed, and barring any hardware problems that might interfere, your backup volume *should* be bootable.
Be sure to check out CCC 3.4's other new features
Beyond the interface changes described above, CCC 3.4 delivers over a dozen significant new features. This isn't an ordinary dot-release to address Lion compatibility! Here are some of the new features:
- Back up to and from network volumes (e.g. AFP, SMB, via "File Sharing")
- Back up to and from non-HFS+ volumes
- Folder-to-folder backups
- Restore user data directly to the startup disk without restarting
- Growl and email notifications
- Sleep, shutdown, and restart after a scheduled task
- Automatically mount and unmount local and network-attached volumes before and after a task
- A new "Update a file only if its newer on the source" option
- Automatic archive pruning
- Checksum-analysis of files on your source and destination to find corrupted-but-otherwise-unmodified files
- Bandwidth management for backups to a remote Macintosh
- A new "Disk Center" that offers information about how your volumes are partitioned and formatted, as well as performance statistics
- The new "Cloning Coach" offers proactive insight on potential configuration problems as well as expert advice directly to the user about any errors that were encountered during the backup task. When CCC discovers filesystem corruption and media failures, the errors are now explained in layman's terms, with simple advice on how to resolve the errors. A convenient "Reveal in Finder" or "Launch Disk Utility" button gets you on your way to resolving complex problems.