rokicki@polya.Stanford.EDU (Tomas G. Rokicki) (05/23/88)
I've just run the gamet of backup programs, and lack one crucial
feature. I want to be able to backup my hard disk to multiple
volumes! I.e., I want to be able to say
bru -cv -f df0:,df1:,df2:,df3:
and then it will backup to floppies, cycling through the four
floppies in order. This way, I don't need to feed floppies as
often, and the program never has to wait for me. Instead of
walking away during a backup for only two minutes, I can now
catch eight minutes of that novel. Please, please, please,
someone add this!
P.S. I've looked at MRBackup, SDBackup, bru, LV Backup, and a
few others which I dismissed almost immediately. LV Backup
has my vote (although I'd like to specify everything from the
command line rather than clicking gadgets) . . . it puts more
on a disk than bru, and is faster than any of the others.
(I backed up about 22M of data onto 24 disks in something
like a half hour; I should have timed it, but it was surprisingly
short and painless.)
-tom
--
/-- Tomas Rokicki /// Box 2081 Stanford, CA 94309
/ o Radical Eye Software /// (TAMU EE '85) (415) 326-5312
\ / | . . . or I \\\///Join CCFFAALW---Concerned Citzens
V | won't get dressed \XX/Fighting For An Acronym-Less Worldpage@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page) (05/24/88)
rokicki@polya.Stanford.EDU (Tomas G. Rokicki) wrote: >cycling through the four floppies in order...someone add this! >... I've looked at MRBackup ... which I dismissed almost immediately. You must have dismissed MRBackup for some other reason, since it will do this .. it looks for a particular label on any inserted disk & uses that. It means you have to pre-label all your disks, though. BTW I'd like to see a 'quickformat' option to MRBackup, just zap the boot, root and bitmap blocks instead of slogging through each block. ..Bob -- Bob Page, U of Lowell CS Dept. page@swan.ulowell.edu ulowell!page Go Celts! Go Bruins!
fnf@fishpond.UUCP (Fred Fish) (05/24/88)
In article <2890@polya.Stanford.EDU> rokicki@polya.Stanford.EDU (Tomas G. Rokicki) writes: >I've just run the gamet of backup programs, and lack one crucial >feature. I want to be able to backup my hard disk to multiple >volumes! I.e., I want to be able to say > > bru -cv -f df0:,df1:,df2:,df3: > >and then it will backup to floppies, cycling through the four >floppies in order. This way, I don't need to feed floppies as >often, and the program never has to wait for me. Relief is in sight! This is one of the features on my "TODO" list, since it has also been a common request from Unix customers with multiple tape drives. Now that file compression is complete and working, and support for SCSI tape drives is in progress, the next area that I will be tackling is some sort of IPC mechanism (support for AREXX ??), which should include some sort of script language, of which one of the commands will set up a list of devices to cycle through when a new device is required for the next volume. Actually, this may already work on the Amiga through a quirk of the console system. On Unix, bru contains explicit code to flush the input interaction stream queue before issuing a prompt for the next volume and accepting any input. This is to prevent problems with people leaning on your keyboard while you are in the midst of a multivolume backup. Under AmigaDOS, this code is not enabled (anyone know the correct ioctl()? :-), so you can probably just type ahead; df1:<return> df2:<return>, etc. Note I haven't tried this though... -Fred -- # Fred Fish hao!noao!mcdsun!fishpond!fnf (602) 921-1113 # Ye Olde Fishpond, 1346 West 10th Place, Tempe, AZ 85281 USA
papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) (05/24/88)
In article <7207@swan.ulowell.edu| page@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page) writes: |rokicki@polya.Stanford.EDU (Tomas G. Rokicki) wrote: ||cycling through the four floppies in order...someone add this! ||... I've looked at MRBackup ... which I dismissed almost immediately. |You must have dismissed MRBackup for some other reason, since it will |do this .. it looks for a particular label on any inserted disk & uses |that. It means you have to pre-label all your disks, though. | |BTW I'd like to see a 'quickformat' option to MRBackup, just zap the |boot, root and bitmap blocks instead of slogging through each block. We have been using MRBackup 2.1, and found it a very good program. It GURUS every once in a while, but otherwise it does what is supposed to do very well. And it is cheap. I'd also like the "quickformat" option. Mark, what is available in 2.2 that is not in 2.1? -- Marco Papa 'Doc' -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= uucp:...!pollux!papa BIX:papa ARPAnet:pollux!papa@oberon.usc.edu "There's Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Diga!" -- Leo Schwab [quoting Rick Unland] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
rokicki@polya.Stanford.EDU (Tomas G. Rokicki) (05/24/88)
> >... I've looked at MRBackup ... which I dismissed almost immediately. > > You must have dismissed MRBackup for some other reason, since it will > do this .. it looks for a particular label on any inserted disk & uses > that. It means you have to pre-label all your disks, though. Did I screw this up? I don't think MRBackup was the one I dismissed. The thing I didn't like about it was that it required preformatted disks, and wasn't particularly fast. Sure, it prompts if you want to format the disk, but I want it to assume none of my disks are formatted. Please, correct me if I'm wrong . . . -tom -- /-- Tomas Rokicki /// Box 2081 Stanford, CA 94309 / o Radical Eye Software /// (TAMU EE '85) (415) 326-5312 \ / | . . . or I \\\///Join CCFFAALW---Concerned Citzens V | won't get dressed \XX/Fighting For An Acronym-Less World
fnf@fishpond.UUCP (Fred Fish) (05/24/88)
In article <34@fishpond.UUCP> fnf@fishpond.UUCP (Fred Fish) writes: >Actually, this may already work on the Amiga through a quirk of the >console system. On Unix, bru contains explicit code to flush the >input interaction stream queue before issuing a prompt for the >next volume and accepting any input. This is to prevent problems >with people leaning on your keyboard while you are in the midst of >a multivolume backup. Under AmigaDOS, this code is not enabled >(anyone know the correct ioctl()? :-), so you can probably just >type ahead; df1:<return> df2:<return>, etc. Note I haven't tried >this though... Ok, so I figured it was silly of me to be so lazy as to not even check to see what my own program does in this case.. :-) Yes, it does work. But you have to remember to remove the "qfwrite" flag (Query First Write) flag in s:brutab for each of the devices that you wish to write to without confirmation the first time you try to write to it. Thus backing up to four disks, for example, consists of the following: (load all four drives) bru -c <other options as desired> df1: df2: df3: (reload all four drives again) df0: df1: df2: df3: (reload all four drives again) . . . Allowing the use of multiple -f options to set up a list of devices to cycle through is trivial. Thus the above action would be reduced to: (load all four drives) bru -c -f df0: -f df1: -f df2: -f df3: <other options> (reload all four drives again and hit RETURN) (reload all four drives again and hit RETURN) . . I will attempt to get this feature in before the next beta release, unless I discover some reason why it should not be implemented. -Fred -- # Fred Fish hao!noao!mcdsun!fishpond!fnf (602) 921-1113 # Ye Olde Fishpond, 1346 West 10th Place, Tempe, AZ 85281 USA
mrr@amanpt1.zone1.com (Mark Rinfret) (05/25/88)
In article <2902@polya.Stanford.EDU>, rokicki@polya.Stanford.EDU (Tomas G. Rokicki) writes: > > >... I've looked at MRBackup ... which I dismissed almost immediately. > > > > You must have dismissed MRBackup for some other reason, since it will > > do this .. it looks for a particular label on any inserted disk & uses > > that. It means you have to pre-label all your disks, though. > > Did I screw this up? I don't think MRBackup was the one I dismissed. > The thing I didn't like about it was that it required preformatted > disks, and wasn't particularly fast. Sure, it prompts if you want to > format the disk, but I want it to assume none of my disks are formatted. > > Please, correct me if I'm wrong . . . You're probably right enough in that MRBackup doesn't do what you want it to do, Tom. MRBackup will do one of two things: - Format each disk, as it goes, if you turn on the format option. In this case, MRBackup will prompt you for an acknowledgement (or cancellation) that a new disk has been inserted for formatting. It will manufacture a name using the word "Backup" and the current date (I know, this could be a lot more flexible). - Use preformatted disks. These may have been previously formatted by MRBackup (my original intent was to allow "freshening" of backup disks) or you may have simply formatted them with the Format program. In this case, MRBackup again prompts for an acknowledgement that the disk is inserted. It then reads the disk volume info to obtain the disk name and proceeds as before. It probably wouldn't be a big deal to allow a <drive range> or <drive set> specification, along with an option to disable (or at least modify) the prompting mechanisms. However, I'm not going to make any promises. I also like the CLI invocation capabilities of SDBackup, Bru, etc., but it's unlikely that I'll try to do the same. I'm currently considering a rewrite which does not use AmigaDOS structure on the backup media, to gain speed. I'll confess that I don't do backups anywhere near as often as I should, simply because it takes so darned long (I've actually done backups that spanned 3 days, simply because I couldn't be there long enough to get it done in one session - the perils of family life :-). My first priority, then, is to make MRBackup faster. If I can, I'll address the multi-drive issue, but you probably still won't like MRBackup. Sorry, and good luck in your search. > > -tom > -- Mark -- < Mark R. Rinfret, mrr@amanpt1.ZONE1.COM | ...rayssd!galaxia!amanpt1!mrr > < AMA / HyperView Systems Home: 401-846-7639 > < 28 Jacome Way Work: 401-849-9930 x301 > < Middletown, RI 02840 "If I just had a little more time...">
mrr@amanpt1.zone1.com (Mark Rinfret) (05/26/88)
In article <9274@oberon.USC.EDU>, papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) writes: > We have been using MRBackup 2.1, and found it a very good program. It > GURUS every once in a while, but otherwise it does what is supposed to > do very well. And it is cheap. I'd also like the "quickformat" option. > Mark, what is available in 2.2 that is not in 2.1? Hopefully, fewer (no) GURU's :-). I'm a little fuzzy on what transpired between 2.1 and 2.2, but I remember that 2.1 was VERY short-lived at the Rinfret Ranch. I think I hit it with a can of Raid. The latest release (2.3) seems to be very stable, including a few fixes to non-GURU type bugs. The only feature addition of note is the "local init file" capability. I found that I wanted to do delta backups of a large software project and I wanted a custom set of options just for that directory and its children. Thus, a new feature was born (I've always said I wrote MRBackup for myself). I'm looking into the quick format feature, but frankly, I don't have the insight to pull it off. I've sent Bob Page email on this subject (since he aired the request first) along with a copy of my disk format routine. I certainly know how to format only the tracks containing the root block, bit maps and boot block (writing the correct info as with a full format) but I know that's not enough. I'm relying on AmigaDOS to create a standard file structure on the backup media. As I understand it, the first time I write to a non-formatted track, the track will be read in first to buffer and preserve the blocks that won't be rewritten. This is where my attempt at a quick format goes to hell. If there is something else I need to know, please fill me in! Finally, Marco, I'd be happy to send you an update directly (and promptly). Just follow the directions in the document. And please, all MRBackup users, if you discover a bug or abnormality, let me know about it! You might be surprised at how quickly you get results. Thanks, Mark > > -- Marco Papa 'Doc' -- < Mark R. Rinfret, mrr@amanpt1.ZONE1.COM | ...rayssd!galaxia!amanpt1!mrr > < AMA / HyperView Systems Home: 401-846-7639 > < 28 Jacome Way Work: 401-849-9930 x301 > < Middletown, RI 02840 "If I just had a little more time...">
lgreen@pnet01.cts.com (Lawrence Greenwald) (07/19/88)
Message-Id: <8807150841.AA22154@crash.cts.com>
Date: Fri, 15 Jul 88 01:20:51 PDT
From: lgreen@pnet01.cts.com (Lawrence Greenwald)
To: ockenden@prlhp1.prl.philips.co.uk
Subject: Re: hard disk backup...get Quarterback
Paul, I bought quarterback when I first bought my hard disk some 6 months ago
and it is *definitely* worth the money. It is very easy to use, and is very
*fast* (which is what you're looking for...can backup 20 megs in about 30
minutes using 22 diskettes).
Larry Greenwald
UUCP: {hplabs!hp-sdd sdcsvax nosc}!crash!pnet01!lgreen
ARPA: crash!pnet01!lgreen@nosc.mil
INET: lgreen@pnet01.cts.com
SNAIL:4545 Collwood Blvd, #52 San Diego, CA 92115
"I'm looking over a three-leaf clover that I overlooked be-three!" -Bugs Bunny
P.S. Sorry about the delay in answering your question. I e-mailed it to you
but it got bounced, so I posted it.
UUCP: {hplabs!hp-sdd sdcsvax nosc}!crash!pnet01!lgreen
ARPA: crash!pnet01!lgreen@nosc.mil
INET: lgreen@pnet01.cts.com
SNAIL:4545 Collwood Blvd, #52 San Diego, CA 92115
"I'm looking over a three-leaf clover that I overlooked be-three!" -Bugs Bunnyblgardne@esunix.UUCP (Blaine Gardner) (11/16/88)
From article <5233@cbmvax.UUCP>, by daveh@cbmvax.UUCP (Dave Haynie): > in article <1070@esunix.UUCP>, blgardne@esunix.UUCP (Blaine Gardner) says: >> It looks like daily backups from here on out. > Good idea, anyway. Not saying I ever do it, either, but it's a good idea. > (actually, I do backups every so often, and I'd recommand LV Backup by > MkSoft to anyone not happy with one of the numerous PD backup programs > around). Dave, how about a quick rundown of LV Backup's features? I haven't heard of this program. Of course daily backups are easier said than done. I was going to set up a small script to handle all of the parameters that Matt's Backup/Restore needs. But of course I still haven't got around to doing it. :-( -- Blaine Gardner @ Evans & Sutherland 580 Arapeen Drive, SLC, Utah 84108 Here: utah-cs!esunix!blgardne {ucbvax,allegra,decvax}!decwrl!esunix!blgardne There: uunet!iconsys!caeco!pedro!worsel!blaine (under construction) "Nobody will ever need more than 64K." "Nobody needs multitasking on a PC."
802360644%RUMAC%UPR1.UPR.CUN.EDU@vtvm1.cc.vt.edu (Angel Asencio) (03/11/90)
Charles Hymes wrote: >I'd really apprieciate it if you would give me some much needed help here. >This is my third request for some advice on software that will back up Dungeon >Master, Shadow of the Beast and/or Populous. Shadow of the Beast is allready >starting to fail to boot! I'm begining to get anxious. I would just go out and > buy >a backup program, but I know some of them wort work on these disks. >Some time ago there was disscusion about hardware copiers, what was the final >evaluation? is there one that will work for these games? >Thank you for your help, >Charles Hymes, chymes@csmil.umich.edu I only know software copiers, Raw Copy and Project D. The advantage of Raw Copy is that if it not copy the first time I think you don't have bother to try again, and with Project D if you don't see the parameter you can try some tools it have. I heard that the best combination is Fat Tracks, Raw Copy and Project D. Angel Asencio // \X/ 802360644%RUMAC%UPR1.UPR.CUN.EDU PS. I ADVISE THIS FOR BACKUP PURPOSE, ONLY. Pirates, remember that if you copy and don't buy, the companies will drop the amiga from their works group, remember that we are in a capitalist system, and if the company don't make profits, they go broke (look Epyx, chapter Eleven).
jhc00614@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (03/12/90)
Angel says: "where a company don't make profits, it goes broke (like Epyx)."
No offense, but that has as much insight as that Republican Calvin
Coolidge once said about the economy, "When a lot of people are out of work,
you have unemployment." (BTW, Pres. Coolidge was Ronald Reagan's hero he
tried to emulate....Reagan replaced Jefferson's picture with Coolidge in the
White House.)
But, I am getting beside myself. Epyx did not go out of business
because of piracy but because of Lynx. kosma%stc-sun@stc.lockheed.com (Monty Kosma) (03/16/90)
From: jhc00614@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu Date: 11 Mar 90 17:39:44 GMT Angel says: "where a company don't make profits, it goes broke (like Epyx)." No offense, but that has as much insight as that Republican Calvin Coolidge once said about the economy, "When a lot of people are out of work, you have unemployment." (BTW, Pres. Coolidge was Ronald Reagan's hero he tried to emulate....Reagan replaced Jefferson's picture with Coolidge in the White House.) I take it you don't appreciate his sense of humor (or his politics). Have you read much Coolidge? One of the more brilliant presidents, IMHO. But, I am getting beside myself. Epyx did not go out of business because of piracy but because of Lynx.
jmeissen@oregon.oacis.org (John Meissen) (03/17/90)
> But, I am getting beside myself. Epyx did not go out of business > because of piracy but because of Lynx. Excuse me, but Lynx did not put Epyx out of business. Lynx kept Epyx in business at least a year beyond when it would normally have failed. A good portion of the venture capital for Lynx (Handy) was used to keep the rest of the company afloat so there would be someone to make the thing when it was finished. And piracy was not responsible for the Epyx demise, either. Epyx management made some really stupid decisions, like putting millions into VCR games, and relying on a sagging PC (IBM, C-64, Apple-//) games market when the emerging market was Nintendo, Sega, etc.