[X4U] Which program to clone with?

[John Baltutis]

On 03/03/06,  "B. Kuestner" <kuestner at macnews.de> wrote:
>
> CCC is very affordable and seems reliable.

Free to anyone in the education field; others donate what they consider it's
worth, but nothing in the software tracks usage.

> I have a few issues with CCC:
> - Only requests password but not login name. So you cannot run it as
> a non-admin user and only authorize this one process with admin privileges.

Exactly. Prominently stated in the instructions: "You must be logged in as an
administrator or root to use CCC." It's a common security feature. If you want
the ability to run itwhile logged into nonadmin user account, file an
enhancement request: <mailto:mike at bombich.com>. However, I doubt that it'll be
included in the new version, currently under development.

> - CCC requests the password over and over again at initial copy (when 
> it isn't syncing)

Not true. There's only been one reported instance of this behavior and all
indications are that was due to operator error. See
<http://forums.bombich.com/viewtopic.php?t=6738> for details

> - You need psync installed. CCC should help to install it, but the 
> link in the application is broken. You can get it from Mike Bombich's 
> home page

Only if you desire to do synchronized clones. The automatic download works for
most people. For those who have problems, there are posted workarounds; see
<http://forums.bombich.com/viewtopic.php?t=6620 >for example.

> - Sometimes the GUI virtually freezes: switching to the application 
> does not bring up the window, interrupting processes (e. g. repairing 
> permissions) is not possible

Apparent freezes, as stated in the FAQs:
Q(9): The progress bar is not moving, and CCC does not appear to be responding,
what should I do?
A: Due to the lack of a decentdialog between CCC and Darwin, it is not possible
to determine how far along each copy task is, so the progress bar is not to
scale. Because of this, CCC may appear to be hanging when it is actually
copying files. If there is diskactivity, CCC is probably still working. Be
patient (20 minutes for the System folder alone is not out of the question). If
there is no disk activity and CCC is not responding (i.e., after an error), the
easiest way to kill it is to 1) control/right click on its icon in the Dock
while holding the option key then 2) select Force Quit. You may have to allow
some time for the Dock menu to appear.

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