mstupak@mentor.com (Mike Stupak) (06/01/90)
Thanks to all of those who responded. I decided to get PCTools which is normally priced at about $100 but I got it for $75 with Byron Lunz. Other dealers claimed that they couldn't even get it for that price though and I doubt that it can be found for that much anywhere else. ==================================== Original posting by me. >I have a Packard Bell 386SX running on MSdos 3.3 with a 40 meg. hard >drive and I would like to know people's experience with different >backup programs (back up to floppies). It would be nice to have something >that did file compression, incremental backups, incremental restores, >and be fairly user friendly (it's really for my dad and he's not a real >hacker). Another limitation is $$$ as usual. Sorry if this is an old >thread. I will post or e-mail results if people express interest. ==================================== <BackIt> ~$50? Doug Marshall <Doug.Marshall@SanDiego.NCR.COM> I've been using BackIt for a couple of years. I usually just do full backups, but other froms are available. It's menu driven and I have never had to open the manual except one day when I had nothing else to do :-) I THINK it goes for around $50. It's published by Gazelle Systems. ==================================== <Fullbak, PCTools> Dae-kyun Yoon dkyoon@priam.usc.edu, ..!uunet!usc!priam!dkyoon I use either "fullbak" or "pctools delux". Both of them does file compression. For example, if you use "fullbak" you can backup about 2M disk space into 3 DS/DD diskettes. (with Standard density and 80trk). "pctools" provides two choices for compression method, maximum with low speed and medium compression with better performance. You can also backup to 3.5in diskettes with "pctools". (My old "fullbak" doesn't support 3.5in diskettes). I personally like "fullbak" better, since it's faster than "pctools". ==================================== <PCTools> ~$100 uiucuxc!ocf.Berkeley.EDU!chao PC Tools (6.0 now) is a great package for about $80. Check it out before you get a backup-only program. ==================================== <PCTools> ~$100 tektronix!sequent!TEK.COM!nosun.UUCP!techbook.com!byronl (Byron Lunz) I would highly recommend PCTools V6. I've been using it for several weeks and I'm quite impressed. In addition to the PCBackup program, you also get PCCompress, PCShell, PCDesktop which includes database, calculator, telecom and notepad programs, and Diskfix, an all-purpose disk recovery program. I noticed that Omnitek has a coupon in Sunday's Oregonian with which you can get V6 for $75. I think it's a super buy! ==================================== <PCTools> ~100 Todd Ogasawara, U. of Hawaii UUCP: {uunet,ucbvax,dcdwest}!ucsd!nosc!uhccux!todd ARPA: uhccux!todd@nosc.MIL BITNET: todd@uhccux INTERNET: todd@uhccux.UHCC.HAWAII.EDU I really like PC Tools Deluxe 6.0's PCBACKUP. It has all the characteristics you list as important to you and your father. And, since it comes as but one of many useful utilities (disk repair software, undelete, calculators, etc.), it is a real bargin. ==================================== <FastBack+> ~$100 Jim Marks (404)894-7255 Georgia Tech Research Institute SEL/CAD Internet: jm21@prism.gatech.edu Compuserve: 72310,2410 I like Fastback for this. Several of us here at work (the ones who DO regular backups) use it. Its menu-driven and is pretty easy to use, even without reading the instructions. It allows full backups as well as incre- mental (backup only files with archive bit set and reset the bit), and "differential" (same as incremental, but don't reset the bit). You can also specifically include or exclude files or whole directories. It does do pretty good compression and really is fast. I will say that the only other backup I've used is the regular MS-DOS BACKUP, and compared to it most anything looks good. Fastback isn't real cheap, but if you've got data that you consider import- ant, its a good way to go. It's easy and fast enough so that you'll probably do your backups as often as you should (which you probably won't with slower, harder-to-use programs). ==================================== <FastBack+> ~$100 Kerry Person (kperson@plains.nodak.edu) Just yesterday, I used FastBack Plus to backup the 42 meg of files on my 67 meg hard drive to high density 5-1/4" floppies. It took 26 disks, and about 20 minutes. I was in the process of reformatting my hard drive, so after doing that, I restored all the data to the hard drive. This took about 1/2 hour. For the backup stage, FastBack Plus allows you to turn compression on or off (I had it turned on and stored an average of 1.58 meg of data per 1.2 meg floppy), and send the output to 5-1/4" or 3-1/2" drives (high or double density) or a file path. You can selectively back up files within a date range, files with a certain archive attribute, new files since last backup, or all files. You can selectively include and exclude specific files, directories, and subdirectories. You can either type in the name of what you want to include or exclude, or you can just tag files on a directory tree that you can call up in a window. Very user friendly. There are several steps to go through the first time you use it, but if you are satisfied with that initial setup, you can save it, and the next time you just have to hit Start and go from there. The only thing I can think of that FastBack doesn't have that I think would be nice is support for a tape drive. There may be a way to fool it into thinking that a tape drive is a file path, but I don't know about that. I don't have a tape drive, so speaking for myself, FastBack Plus does everything I need it to do. Kerry Person (kperson@plains.nodak.edu) ==================================== <FastBack+> ~$100 E-mail: barron@wharton.upenn.edu (Daniel Barron) barron@eniac.seas.upenn.edu barron@scrolls.wharton.upenn.edu This is a very nice program. Does compression (you get a little over 2 megs per high density floppy...good but not *great*) and incremental backups. Gives you a visual tree so you can pick files to be backed up. You can choose a directory, all files below it, and all subdirectories below it ad infinitum. So you can say backup c:\*.* and include sub- directories and it will do the whole disk! I've found it to be very reliable, but I must warn that I don't do loads of backing up. Still, the program is very flexible. It has three modes, beginner, intermediate, and advanced, so you can even give it to novices and they can use it. It estimates files/kb/time and number of volumes, but it's real performance is often much better than predicted. A recent backup of a 42MB hard disk took about 45 minutes and 18 diskettes. It predicted 55 minutes and 37 diskettes! The program is widely available for about $100. You might get it cheaper from smaller mailorder places (I've seen it for $89). The newest version is FastBack Plus 2.09. Usual disclaimers. Your mileage may vary. But I expect you'll get a lot of people recommending this one to you. ==================================== <PKZip> $47 David Cohen cohend@dg-rtp.dg.com {world}!mcnc!rti!dg-rtp!cohend Mike - if you haven't been overwhelmed with this already... PKZIP! It's shareware - $47 if you like it. Available from SIMTEL and lots of BBS. I jilted FastBack for PKZIP. ==================================== -- /\__\ \__\ /\__\ /\__\\__\ /\____\ /\____\ mstupak@mntgfx.UUCP / / \/ / / / / / / // / / / __/ / / __/__ (503) 626-7000 / / \_ / / / / / / / / / __/ /\/__ //\_\ X3509 \/__/ \/__/ \/__/ \/__/ \__\ \/____/ \/____/ \/_/ (opinions are mine)