mhg@mitre-bedford.ARPA (Mark H. Granoff) (08/30/88)
Help! I (foolishly) didn't heed the warnings of some time ago about FastBack not being quite as "wonderful" as it claimed. I have now fallen victim to the claims which I ignored. In an effort to upgrade from DOS 2.11 to DOS 3.10, I used FastBack to backup 15+ MB from my 20MB hard drive (Seagate ST225). I reformated, reinstalled FastBack (v5.13) and invoked FRESTORE. To make a long story short, I could not restore 2.4MB of data and executables. (My system is an AT&T 6300 Rom rev 1.21, 640KB mem, 1 floppy, 20 MB drive, monochrome AT&T monitor if it makes a diff). The error FRESTORE gives me is 'Invalid directory' (or something like that). Also, the date of the backup (on a couple of disks) is wrong, and therefore FRESTORE won't read from them. Is there *anything* I can do to repair these disks so FRESTORE will read them? I can probably fish up the executables from floppies, but the data files I lost are not on any other media. I think it's safe to say I will not use FastBack again... *Any* suggestions will be *greatly* appreciated! (Please reply directly to me.) Thanks.
rps@homxc.UUCP (R.SHARPLES) (08/31/88)
(Sorry I had to post this but reply mail failed in Ohio for some reason) In article <39379@linus.UUCP>, mhg@mitre-bedford.ARPA (Mark H. Granoff) writes: > In an effort to upgrade from DOS 2.11 to DOS 3.10, I used FastBack to > backup 15+ MB from my 20MB hard drive (Seagate ST225). I reformated, > reinstalled FastBack (v5.13) and invoked FRESTORE. To make a long > story short, I could not restore 2.4MB of data and executables. (My > system is an AT&T 6300 Rom rev 1.21, 640KB mem, 1 floppy, 20 MB drive, > monochrome AT&T monitor if it makes a diff). Mark - I would try two things: first call 5th Generation (if you haven't already done so) assuming you have a legit copy. They may be able to help. Second try to restor the disks, or the troublesome subdirectories, on another computer, preferably a true blue IBM. Fastback makes use of some weird mechanical aspects of the IBM floppy drives and hence, ran into trouble on AT&T machines. I don't know if ver. 5.13 has this problem. When all is done, I would toss Fastback in the trash. I haven't heard anything very good about their customer support. The backup product I use is called TakeTwo. It allows you to select files, directories, the HD, or wildcard matches for backup or no-backup. It allows you to restore individual files, directories, the whole drive, or wildcard matches. It keeps track of multiple copies of the same file. Best of all, it backs up everything in native DOS format. Why is this good? Consider the following situation: you come into work and your HD heads south and you don't happen to have a spare 20 meg disk in your desk drawer. It will take at least a week to get one from Mailorder (given purchase orders and all). In the meantime all of your files are locked up on the backup floppies. Or are they? While TakeTwo will only restore to a HD, it is very easy to scan the disks to find a particular file (using a program like Xtree) and since the files are in native DOS format, you can then copy this file to an ordinary floppy and work with it there. I have done this after suffering a HD failure. I think it is the most overlooked aspect of backup. Russ Sharples homxc!rps NOTE: The above in NO WAY reflects the opinions of AT&T. These opinions are my own and the results of un-scientific and highly irregular analysis methods.
kevinc@auvax.UUCP (Kevin "auric" Crocker) (09/03/88)
In article <3262@homxc.UUCP>, rps@homxc.UUCP (R.SHARPLES) writes: > product I use is called TakeTwo. It allows you to select files, I have been using TakeTwo for well over a year now, just upgraded to the TakeTwo Manager version and I vote whole heartedly for this program. Why? I am now on my third hard disk in two and a half years, and I back up every day, with major backups every week and full backups every month. That is a lot of backing up and disks. I have _NEVER_ had any problem restoring a hard disk. My last hard disk died a very slow and painful death - I had bad sectors creep in about every thre to four days and generally had to low-level format once a week just to keep the damn thing working until the new disk could arrive, which actually took quite awhile because of internal politics. Oh, BTW, the new disk I have is a ST251 ( I originally keep the shift key pressed and got ST@%! which is what I think of this drive) and I am not happy. The drive sounds like a Mac Truck having a torture test accident in the middle of a demolition derby. Anyone got some good! suggestions on disks. I do a lot of intensive disk writing so I really need a drive that has good reliability. I really don't like MTBF ratings as anybody who knows anything about statistics means are a very poor measure of dispersion. I want a drive with zero defects and a max time to failure of some incredibly high gigahours!!!!!!! (:-| [I don't know about the rest of you but my eyes are at the top of my head] Affectionately, Kevin Crocker
ked@garnet.berkeley.edu (Earl H. Kinmonth) (09/05/88)
I missed the original question, but have one on this subject. Is
FastBack known to crap out beyond a certain file size or number
of files? I did a 20+ disk backup (720k) yesterday, and the
sucker would not load the last four disks. I've had similar
things happen before but thought it was bad disks. I now suspect
FB....
E H. Kinmonth, Hist. Dept., Univ. of Ca., Davis Davis, Ca.
95616 916-752-1636/0776
Internet: ehkinmonth@ucdavis.edu
cck@deneb.ucdavis.edu
BITNET: ehkinmonth@ucdavis
UUCP: {ucbvax, lll-crg}!ucdavis!ehkinmonth
{ucbvax, lll-crg}!ucdavis!deneb!cckmvolo@ecsvax.uncecs.edu (Michael R. Volow) (09/05/88)
If you contact Fifth Generation about this (Fastback refusing the last four 720k diskettes), please post their response. Michael R. Volow 919 286 0411, page beeper #550 Dept. of Psychiatry mvolo@ecsvax.UUCP Durham Vet Admin Medical Center Durham, N.C. 27705