giguere@aries5.waterloo.edu (Eric Giguere) (05/02/89)
Well, if my message yesterday sounded panicky, that's because it was.... having
a hard drive crash on you before you've made any backups is not a fun
experience. That said, however, it isn't as bad as I thought it was. My real
problem was that I had no info on the hard drive itself to set up the mountlist
info -- the dealer had neglected to give that stuff to me. Anyhow, I called
him up, he was surprised but gave it to me over the phone. I took a guess at
how big my first partition was (I knew where it started at least) and created
a mountlist entry for it. It mounted, but there was nothing there... so I
tried DiskDoctor (yes, the one that comes with the OS) and WOW! directories
started appearing like magic! Some files were corrupted, but they were mostly
printer drivers and fonts, since it turns out the partition was smaller than
I had first guessed. But the important stuff was intact, including my
mountlist and the startup-sequence. I was now able to remount all the
partitions properly... and the data is still there! I am busy now downloading
all of it to floppies and will do a low-level format to get rid of the bad
blocks.
The main thrust of this message is: KUDOS to Commodore for DiskDoctor. That
little beasty did a great job!
Actually, while I'm here: going over the recovered mountlist, I noticed that
my dealer had set up the first 2 cylinders of the hard drive as RES0:, whereas
the manual says that SCSI drives should have them set up as RES2: -- does this
make a big difference? I'm trying to think why my drive crashed like it did.
Also, I've lost the autoboot... I have to mount things manually from diskette.
How do I set it up to autoboot again?
This all happened because DME couldn't save a file due to a read/write error...
the requester kept popping up and DME would try to save it again and again and
again... this may have aggravated things. Is it possible for a program to
intercept these errors and abort its disk activity? Maybe a little hack to
DME is in order.
And I'd like recommendations on hard drive backup programs. I have the source
to Matt's backup program but I haven't downloaded the support library yet.
Until then I think it's ZOO and COPY time....
Thanks again to all who helped.
Eric Giguere 268 Phillip St #CL-46
For the curious: it's French ("jee-gair") Waterloo, Ontario N2L 6G9
Bitnet : GIGUERE at WATCSG (519) 746-6565
Internet: giguere@aries5.UWaterloo.ca "Nothing but urges from HELL!!"thywiss@csvax.cs.ukans.edu (John A. Thywissen) (05/03/89)
Eric Giguere asks about backup programs.
I use DoubleBack (in Disk Mechanic) from Lake Forest Logic, and it's
FAST--BLAZINGLY!!! It also has pretty powerful file matching for
selective backup (match on name, date, protect bits, filenote, etc...)
AND it will set the ARCHIVE bits of files as it backs up. It can back
to several drives (start writing to, for instance, DF1: while DF0: is
finishing up), formats as it backs up, and displays all sorts of neat
status info as it does it. Of course, DoubleBack can verify disks
it backs up and it can restore from the disks. The disks it creates
are standard amiga format--you can get at all the files on the backups
with no special contortions.
To give you an example of its speed, I was using a VERY plain vanilla
program (esentially it did a COPY ALL) before I got Disk Mechanic.
This program took 2 h 10 min to backup my drive. I added a bunch of
stuff to the drive just before I switched to DoubleBack, and
DoubleBack saved the drive in *18* min!!
There are a few problems with the (now obselete) v 2.4 of DoubleBack,
though:
o It doesn't like being run from the CLI (it asks Mr. Guru to
explain that to you.)
o It doesn't set the A bits of directories
LFL wasn't polite when I called them for support, either.
However, the program and the rest of Disk Mechanic are VERY well done.
Also included with DiskMechanic:
TuneUp -- Disk Optimizer (like B.A.D.)
WorkShop -- Really good disk editor
BCheck -- Boot Block checker
BenchMark -- System Performace Checker
MarkBad -- Find Bad Blocks
DiskRepair -- Jazzed-Up DiskDoctor
Others: Blank, Clear, Cut, Data, Find, Move, Splice, Task
Computer Mart in Texas (800) 443 8236 has them ($55), but says "They're
selling like hotcakes."
John
-------
John A. Thywissen <thywiss@csvax.cs.ukans.edu>
1122 West Campus Rd. Rm. 213 /| |\/| | / \ |\
Lawrence, KS 66045-8081 / | | | | | | \
(913) 864 2646 _/_-_-_|_ _|_ _ _|_ _|_ _ _\__|_ _|_-_-_\ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) (05/05/89)
In article <161@maytag.waterloo.edu> giguere@aries5.waterloo.edu (Eric Giguere) writes: >The main thrust of this message is: KUDOS to Commodore for DiskDoctor. That >little beasty did a great job! > You have *GOT* to be kidding. This is the first time I've ever heard of DiskDoctor actually fixing a disk. 1/2 :-) Was this the 1.3 or 1.2 version you used? _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ Leo L. Schwab -- The Guy in The Cape INET: well!ewhac@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU \_ -_ Recumbent Bikes: UUCP: pacbell > !{well,unicom}!ewhac O----^o The Only Way To Fly. hplabs / (pronounced "AE-wack") "Work FOR? I don't work FOR anybody! I'm just having fun." -- The Doctor
papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) (05/05/89)
In article <11531@well.UUCP> ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) writes: >In article <161@maytag.waterloo.edu> giguere@aries5.waterloo.edu (Eric Giguere) writes: >>The main thrust of this message is: KUDOS to Commodore for DiskDoctor. That >>little beasty did a great job! > You have *GOT* to be kidding. This is the first time I've ever >heard of DiskDoctor actually fixing a disk. 1/2 :-) > Was this the 1.3 or 1.2 version you used? I have to concur. 1.3 DiskDoctor fixed my HD once and saved me the time to back everyting up with DiskSalv. I never had any problem on the "doctored" disk since. -- 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] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
sneakers@heimat.UUCP (Dan "Sneakers" Schein) (05/06/89)
In Message <14561@louie.udel.EDU>, thywiss@csvax.cs.ukans.edu (John A. Thywissen) writes >I use DoubleBack (in Disk Mechanic) from Lake Forest Logic, and it's >FAST--BLAZINGLY!!! It also has pretty powerful file matching for >selective backup (match on name, date, protect bits, filenote, etc...) >AND it will set the ARCHIVE bits of files as it backs up. It can back >to several drives (start writing to, for instance, DF1: while DF0: is >finishing up), formats as it backs up, and displays all sorts of neat >status info as it does it. Of course, DoubleBack can verify disks >it backs up and it can restore from the disks. The disks it creates >are standard amiga format--you can get at all the files on the backups >with no special contortions. Hmmmm this is a real suprise (a nice one that is ;-). I just finished reading a comparison of EZ Backup, Superback, Ultra DOS Utilities, and Quarterback in the June issue of Commodore Magazine. Quarterback looked the winner hands down but DoubleBack was not covered. So if you want a fair (but short) review of HD backup progs take a look.... I use Quarterback for heimat (1 40meg & 1 20meg) and have been very happy with the results. Sneakers -- ___ Dan "Sneakers" Schein //// BERKS AMIGA BBS Sneakers Computing //// 80+ Megs of software & messages 2455 McKinley Ave. ___ //// 12/2400 Baud - 24 Hrs West Lawn, PA 19609 \\\\ //// 215/678-7691 \\\\//// {pyramid|rutgers|uunet}!cbmvax!heimat!sneakers
a3@mindlink.UUCP (Dave Allen) (05/07/89)
I would just like to add that I have started using ExpressCopy and find it to
be very fast as well as doing all those things that "Sneakers" seems to want.
I have no affiliation with Express-Way Software, except I bring the product
into our area for those that wants it, and I am very satisfied with it.
For your reference:
ExpressWay Software Inc.
P.O. Box 10290
Columbia, MO
65205-4005
--
RSI-where WEDGES come from // Multi-Tasking is my life!
9651 Alexandra Road // Name: Dave Allen
Richmond, B.C. Canada \\ // Phone: (604) 278-6694 - MIND LINK (604) 533-2312
V6X 1C6 \X/ UseNet: uunet!van-bc!rsoft!mindlink!Dave_Allensneakers@heimat.UUCP (Dan "Sneakers" Schein) (05/13/89)
In Message <235@mindlink.UUCP>, a3@mindlink.UUCP (Dave Allen) writes: >I would just like to add that I have started using ExpressCopy and find it to >be very fast as well as doing all those things that "Sneakers" seems to want. What things were/are they???? Im kinda forgetfull at times...... Sneakers -- ___ Dan "Sneakers" Schein //// BERKS AMIGA BBS Sneakers Computing //// 80+ Megs of software & messages 2455 McKinley Ave. ___ //// 12/2400 Baud - 24 Hrs West Lawn, PA 19609 \\\\ //// 215/678-7691 \\\\//// {pyramid|rutgers|uunet}!cbmvax!heimat!sneakers