new@udel.edu (Darren New) (10/24/89)
Can anybody recommend a hard-disk to floppy backup program that actually works? I really don't want to have to write one myself just so I can change my disk partitions!!! MRBackup 3.3d has problems backing up files it won't compress that won't fit on the current disk (I think). That is, if xyzzy.zoo won't fit, only the first 32K will be copied and NO ERROR MESSAGE is given. Other than this, it seems like the best of the backup programs I've seen so far. SDBackup expands some of the files and chokes if the file that overflows the disk does not overflow it by enough. DoubleBack (comercial, DiskMechanic package) version 2.5 is closer to version 0.90. The backup works fine, as long as you don't try to use any fancy options, like incremental backups. The help gadget brings up a series of 4 blank requestors. The backup progresses smoothly and quickly, until you try to restore. You then find out that the backup set just won't restore. Ooops, you had delete-proof or write-proof files? Sorry, I have to crash now. What? You are almost done? I'd better hang now. Oh, there are already some files from a previous attempt? Let's skip to the last disk and not restore anything else, so the user has to reformat and start over. I've written a program to back up one syquest cartridge to another using an incremental diskcopy, but this does not help me when I want to repartition my disk. What I'm looking for is a recommendation of a hard-disk-to-floppy backup/restore utility that works. Please, recommendations only from people who have actually backed up AND RESTORED a large hard disk on a file-by-file (not image) basis. Commercial OK, PD/FD/ShareWare obviously preferred. I will summarize, so EMail me. Thanks!! -- Darren
dlm@druwy.ATT.COM (Dan Moore) (10/24/89)
in article <2357@nigel.udel.EDU>, new@udel.edu (Darren New) says: > Can anybody recommend a hard-disk to floppy backup program > that actually works? I really don't want to have to write > one myself just so I can change my disk partitions!!! I use Safe-T-Net which is pretty good. I haven't had any failures on backups or restores (I recently switched controller and hard drives so I did several restores while playing with how I wanted things setup). Speed is ok for a floppy based backup program. There are several options to control what to backup and what should be restored. Dan Moore AT&T Bell Labs Denver dlm@druwy.ATT.COM
new@udel.edu (Darren New) (10/31/89)
Earlier I requested recommendations for a hard-disk to floppy backup program. The overwhelming response was Quarterback. It was described as reliable, fast, and friendly. I got other recommendations: one respondant mentioned Quikbackup (fish 249-254) as "more stable than MRBackup or SuperBack", another (the author, actually) recommended SuperBack, and one recommended Backup/Restore by Matt Dillon, which does compression and has many nice features and is on the latest Fish release, and one has "heard that Express Copy is pretty nice, too". Quarterback (according to possibly reliable sources :-) multitasks well and does not crash. It was described as better than FastBack (for those in IBM land (like I used to be)) and better than MRBackup (which I must admit has gotten much better). Quarterback is said to be up to version 2.2. Thanks for all the responses (and fish :-). It looks like if I can't get my tape drive working I'll have to get Quarterback and start working with those floppy-things again :-). -- Darren
barrett@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Dan Barrett) (10/31/89)
>in article <2357@nigel.udel.EDU>, new@udel.edu (Darren New) says: >> Can anybody recommend a hard-disk to floppy backup program >> that actually works? > In article <4406@druwy.ATT.COM> dlm@druwy.ATT.COM (Dan Moore) writes: > I use Safe-T-Net which is pretty good. I use QUARTERBACK and it works just fine. I have only one complaint about the program. Suppose you do an incremental backup of your hard disk, and only one or two files get be backed up. Later, you decide to look at your backup floppy to see what files are on it. QUARTERBACK saves a copy of your hard disk's directory structure on the backup floppy, which means that ALL directory and subdirectory names appear. So, it becomes a chore to look through all those directories for the one or two files that are actually on the backup disk. Other than this gripe, I think the program is fast, the user-interface is reasonably good, and it has never crashed on me. Dan //////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ | Dan Barrett - Systems Administrator, Computer Science Department | | The Johns Hopkins University, 34th and Charles Sts., Baltimore, MD 21218 | | INTERNET: barrett@cs.jhu.edu | UUCP: barrett@jhunix.UUCP | | COMPUSERVE: >internet:barrett@cs.jhu.edu | BITNET: barrett@jhuvms.bitnet | \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\/////////////////////////////////////
limonce@pilot.njin.net (Tom Limoncelli) (11/01/89)
In article <3108@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU> barrett@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Dan Barrett) writes: > your backup floppy to see what files are on it. QUARTERBACK saves a copy > of your hard disk's directory structure on the backup floppy, which means > that ALL directory and subdirectory names appear. So, it becomes a chore to > look through all those directories for the one or two files that are actually > on the backup disk. There is an option on the RESTORE menu to have it not do that. I don't know why the default is "yes". I didn't notice the option at all for a while. Strange thing is, I can't think why someone would want such a feature. (Any suggestions?) > | Dan Barrett - Systems Administrator, Computer Science Department | -- Drew University -- Tom Limoncelli C M Box 1060 -- limonce@pilot.njin.net limonce@pilot.rutgers.edu P O Box 802 -- tlimonce@drunivac.Bitnet <<<-has a "T" in it. Madison, NJ 07940 -- 201-408-5389 ...!rutgers!njin!limonce
swan@jolnet.ORPK.IL.US (Joel Swan) (11/01/89)
In article <2926@nigel.udel.EDU> new@udel.edu (Darren New) writes:
:Earlier I requested recommendations for a hard-disk to floppy
:backup program. The overwhelming response was Quarterback.
:It was described as reliable, fast, and friendly. I got
[some editing to save bits]
:Quarterback (according to possibly reliable sources :-)
:multitasks well and does not crash. It was described as
:better than FastBack (for those in IBM land (like I used to be))
:and better than MRBackup (which I must admit has gotten
:much better). Quarterback is said to be up to version 2.2.
:
:Thanks for all the responses (and fish :-).
:It looks like if I can't get my tape drive working I'll
:have to get Quarterback and start working with
:those floppy-things again :-). -- Darren
Ooooh. Ouch. While I was one of the respondents that recommended
Quarterback, I must report this disaster. Two days after replying to
you, I backed up my HD using Quaterback with the "read-after-write" mode
ON. The next night, I had some HD errors so I decided to re-format and
restore using the new backup (I had luckily made a new set because I had
a pile of new disks sitting there).
Yowser! Almost every disk that had been written to in df1: was unreadable!
I lost about 1/5 of my data forever (or until I could re-download from
PLINK). Luckily I had my old backup on disk. I used a separate 40meg
partition to try and recover what I could from the bad disks. using the
QB report generator, I was able to easily see what files were missing.
After two days of downloading and pasting my HD back together, I'm almost
as good as new.
So I ask - HOW COULD QUARTERBACK SAY MY FILES WERE READ AND OK WHEN THEY
WERE NOT?!?! THe feature sure seems worthless if it doesn't work, no?
I had never had any problems before. I have backed up and restored
80 megs worth at least 5 times w/no problems.
Don't let this scare you from QB though. it may have been some sort of
fluke. Still, my eyes are about to fall from my head form looking at
som many files and keeping them all in line (a million thanks to CLICKDOSII
and a boo hiss for SID. SID keeps locking up while doubleclicking on
a directory while the drive is active. Ouch)
HAppy Halloween!
Joel