doug@fryeten.uucp (Front Office Vermin) (04/09/90)
Can someone suggest a backup software package that is comparable to Fastback in speed and economy of space that will work with SCSI drives. Fastback doesn't seem to like SCSI drives and their tech support people have confirmed this. It has something to do with the speed of the SCSI drive and DMA. They weren't too specific. doug@fryeten.UUCP
jmerrill@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (Confusion Reigns) (04/10/90)
In article <126@fryeten.uucp> doug@fryeten.uucp (Front Office Vermin) writes: >Can someone suggest a backup software package that is comparable to Fastback >in speed and economy of space that will work with SCSI drives. Fastback >doesn't seem to like SCSI drives and their tech support people have confirmed >this. It has something to do with the speed of the SCSI drive and DMA. They >weren't too specific. I have been successfully using Fastback+ 2.09 with my ST02/ST296N combination for some time. When installing, it crashed the system on the medium DMA test, but I have been restoring on High DMA without problems. I haven't tried backing up my HD at High, though. -- Jason Merrill jmerrill@jarthur.claremont.edu
neese@adaptex.UUCP (04/11/90)
>/* ---------- "BACKUP SOFTWARE & SCSI DRIVES" ---------- */ >Can someone suggest a backup software package that is comparable to Fastback >in speed and economy of space that will work with SCSI drives. Fastback >doesn't seem to like SCSI drives and their tech support people have confirmed >this. It has something to do with the speed of the SCSI drive and DMA. They >weren't too specific. I will **assume** (yes I know what that means), that you might have a AHA-154x adapter. Whether you do or not, here is some information regarding the use of Fastback and the 154xA adapter. There is a program on adaptex called SETSCSI.EXE. It is really intended for the use of backup programs that use a floppy tape drive. Some explanations: 1) Fastback will almost always fail the DMA test for the 154xA, because it doesn't know about the 154xA having its own DMA. This is no cause for concern. 2) If you are using a floppy tape drive or floppy disk, then you need to use SETSCSI to adjust the 154xA bus on/off times. By default the 154xA uses 11 micro-seconds on and 4 off. During the time the 154xA adapter is on the bus, nothing else can happen. The lengthy bus on time causes grief for software that is running a DMA channel while reading/writing to the hard disk. Like Fastback does. Basically, the on-board CPU DMA starves while the 154xA is on the bus, so... If you use SETSCSI in a batch file to set the bus on time to 6 or 7 micro-seconds, then everything will be happy. This allows the sytem DMA to run without starvation. Roy Neese Adaptec Central Field Applications Engineer UUCP @ {texbell,attctc}!cpe!adaptex!neese merch!adaptex!neese uunet!swbatl!texbell!merch!adaptex!neese
anderson@vms.macc.wisc.edu (Jess Anderson) (04/11/90)
In article <27800005@adaptex>, neese@adaptex.UUCP writes... ]>/* ---------- "BACKUP SOFTWARE & SCSI DRIVES" ---------- */ ]>Can someone suggest a backup software package that is comparable to Fastback ]>in speed and economy of space that will work with SCSI drives. Fastback ]>doesn't seem to like SCSI drives and their tech support people have confirmed ]>this. It has something to do with the speed of the SCSI drive and DMA. They ]>weren't too specific. Sorry not to have seen this earlier. I use Fastback Plus to back my SCSI hard drive up to floppy with no problem. Maybe it's a matter of the controller, which in my case is a Western Digital 7000FASST. ==Jess Anderson===Academic Computing Center=====Univ. Wisconsin-Madison===== | Work: Rm. 2160, 1210 West Dayton St., Madison WI 53706, Ph. 608/263-6988 | | Home: 2838 Stevens St., 53705, 608/238-4833 Bitnet: anderson@wiscmacc | ==Internet: anderson@macc.wisc.edu====UUCP:{}!uwvax!macc.wisc.edu!anderson==
neese@adaptex.UUCP (04/12/90)
>]>/* ---------- "BACKUP SOFTWARE & SCSI DRIVES" ---------- */ >]>Can someone suggest a backup software package that is comparable to Fastback >]>in speed and economy of space that will work with SCSI drives. Fastback >]>doesn't seem to like SCSI drives and their tech support people have confirmed >]>this. It has something to do with the speed of the SCSI drive and DMA. They >]>weren't too specific. > >Sorry not to have seen this earlier. I use Fastback Plus to >back my SCSI hard drive up to floppy with no problem. Maybe >it's a matter of the controller, which in my case is a >Western Digital 7000FASST. Fastback Plus works fine on the 154x also. But it can be made to work better with the use of SETSCSI. Roy Neese Adaptec Central Field Applications Engineer UUCP @ {texbell,attctc}!cpe!adaptex!neese merch!adaptex!neese uunet!swbatl!texbell!merch!adaptex!neese