moriarty@fluke.UUCP (07/21/87)
Glad you asked, Chuq -- I've been meaning to write an article on this, and
now here's the impetuous...
What I've found, out in the "hard disk backup" market, is that the ultimate
software does not yet exist (surprise, surprise). What I need is software
to do two basic tasks: a) Backup my hard disk, i.e. make a copy of the
contents onto floppies so that if Anything Awful occurs, I can quickly
restore everything; and b) archive certain files onto floppies so that they
can be deleted from the hard disk, yet retrieved in a fairly organized
manner.
For each of these tasks, I've been using a specific application, and that
seems to be doing the trick fairly well -- the two programs together almost
make my ideal backup software a reality. For "backup", I am using
SuperMac's DiskFit program; and I must tell you that this is quite possibly
THE ultimate backup program for floppy backup. This program makes it almost
completely painless (after the initial backup) to backup your hard disk; it
is the first program in months to come along that I have been able to get
extremely enthusiastic about. It allows me to backup my hard disk, every
week, in about 5 MINUTES! That's faster than most tape drive archiving
programs; and I find that the speed of backup, and the ease of use, promotes
the habit of backing up my disk to a much greater degree.
DiskFit basically really is more of an "arranger" than a backup program; it
copies the various files on your hard disk onto floppies in as compact a
manner as possible. Thus, each floppy has the files in standard,
Finder-accessible format; you can copy the file right off the floppy if you
need to. The initial backup takes the usual half-hour, as DiskFit arranges
the hard disk's files onto your floppies, and saves a copy of the way it has
arranged everything on the floppies. Then, for each subsequent backup,
DiskFit compares the contents of the hard disk to the files it backed up
during the previous session. Any files that have been updated since the
previous backup are re-copied to the floppy disks, if possible over their
previous backed-up versions; any new files are fit wherever possible on the
floppies. Often new floppies are needed -- but not always, because DiskFit
also DELETES files off the floppies which have disappeared off the hard disk
since the last DiskFit backup. This conserves floppies wonderfully, and
makes DiskFit a very fast, "incremental" backup. It has provisions for a
full restore (keeping track of folders and everything); and while it does
not do single-file restores (you accidently delete a file you needed), it
can generate a report during backup which tells which floppy disk each file
has been backed up to. At this point, you can just use the Finder to copy
the file from the floppy disk, without any help from DiskFit.
However, the features which make DiskFit such a perfect disk backup program
make it fairly inappropriate as a disk archive program. Since it deletes
files from floppy disks which are no longer on the hard disk, archiving
disks to floppies which will subsequently be deleted from the hard disk is
futile with this program. Also, it's only good for backing up the entire
hard disk, not selected portions of it. For archiving purposes, I am using
HFS Backup 2.01, which I am fairly pleased with, though I have one major
complaint. It's fine for selecting specific files and archiving them to
floppy (they are transformed into a format that only HFS Backup can restore
from); however, for each backup it creates a new index of files, instead of
altering the previous one; and for restoring selected files (which I often
do with an archive program), I have to remember which set of floppies I
archived a file with HFS Backup. What I'd like is a cumulative index which
grows with each new set of floppies added. So some improvement is looked
for in archiving software.
At this time, the hope of a combined backup/archive software seems remote.
HFS Backup 2.01 is better than 1.2 in some ways, but it retains most of the
functional faults of its predecessor; the improvements are more flashy than
substantive. I might hope that SuperMac would decided to improve DiskFit
so that it does archiving, also; but that would mean a drastic departure
from how they're doing things now, and I'm reluctant to ask for major
alterations to something which performs its current task so efficiently --
better to have a program that performs one task superbly, instead of two in
a mediocre fashion.
I should point out that DiskFit comes free to those of us who have DataFrame
drives -- SuperMac is nothing if not generous in its support to its user
base. However, after experiencing how easy it has made backing up my 20 Meg
drive, I would have gladly paid the $80 to get it in the first place.
Hope this helps...
"You know, there are times when it's a source of
personal pride to not be human."
-- Hobbes
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
INTERNET: moriarty@tc.fluke.COM
Manual UUCP: {uw-beaver, sun, allegra, hplsla, lbl-csam}!fluke!moriarty
CREDO: You gotta be Cruel to be Kind...
<*> DISCLAIMER: Do what you want with me, but leave my employers alone! <*>cgeiger@ut-ngp.UUCP (charles s. geiger, esq.) (07/22/87)
In article <1306@sputnik.COM>, moriarty@tc.fluke.COM (Jeff Meyer) writes: > However, after experiencing how easy it has made backing up my 20 Meg > drive, I would have gladly paid the $80 to get it in the first place. Where did you get this figure? DiskFit is $49 from the mail-order houses. BTW, I heartily recommend DiskFit as well. I've had no problems with it, and am especially pleased at the ease of recovering an accidentally-erased file (look in the DiskFit report with Mockwrite, find which disk the file is on, and copy it back onto the drive). cheers, from charles s. geiger ARPA: cgeiger@ngp.cc.utexas.edu cgeiger@ut-ngp.ARPA UUCP: ihnp4!ut-ngp!cgeiger allegra!ut-ngp!cgeiger gatech!ut-ngp!cgeiger seismo!ut-sally!ut-ngp!cgeiger harvard!ut-sally!ut-ngp!cgeiger
graifer@net1.ucsd.edu (Dan Graifer) (07/22/87)
In article <1306@sputnik.COM> moriarty@tc.fluke.COM (Jeff Meyer) writes: >... For "backup", I am using >SuperMac's DiskFit program; and I must tell you that this is quite possibly >THE ultimate backup program for floppy backup. Agreed, It works great, is fast, and is as reliable as the finder. Since it clearly knows where files are in the backup set, it would be nice to have a "find file" feature, but it's not critical. >... For archiving purposes, I am using >HFS Backup 2.01, which I am fairly pleased with,... > Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer I recently came up with a new scheme for archival storage. I am using the d'Librarian application that was posted on the net recently. I just keep a couple of sets of archive disks: ie. Personal Letters Archive 1...n, Client X 1...m. When I want to archive something, I copy it to the first large enough blank area on the approprate archive set, then run the set through d"librarian. The current version of d'Librarian wont sort by file, but since I've subdivided disks by topic, I only have to check the half dozen disks it's likely to be on. Note that I do this on d'Librarian's info file, not by plugging disks into the drive. Once archived, I trash the files, and Diskfit recovers the space on the backup set. I like this technique because, like Diskfit, the files are stored in Finder format. If I loose the current archive catalogue, I just run all the files through d'Librarian again and build a new one. With about 50 disks, this takes ~20 minutes. I haven't had to archive a file >800K yet, but what I intend to do is archive the split backups that Diskfit creates! Hope this helps everyone out there manage their drives. Dan Graifer graifer@net1.UCSD.EDU Disclaimer: Nobody ever listens to me anyways; Why should they start now?
mo@well.UUCP (Maurice Weitman) (07/24/87)
In article <5670@ut-ngp.UUCP> cgeiger@ut-ngp.UUCP (charles s. geiger, )writes: >[...] and am especially pleased at the ease of >recovering an accidentally-erased file (look in the DiskFit >report with Mockwrite, find which disk the file is on, and >copy it back onto the drive). > I love DiskFit, too, but this is one of its shortcomings. It doesn't show you where each file is located, only folders are catalogued. Finding a particular file can be quite a chore when a folder's contents may exist on a dozen or more floppies. Over all, it is a pleasure to use, and I would recommend it highly to anyone. -- Maurice Weitman ..!{dual,hplabs,lll-crg,ptsfa,glacier}!well!mo | <- this is not a pipe POBox 10019 Berkeley, CA 94709 (415)549-0280 Quote: "What a revoltin' development this is." Maurizio T. Butthead, 1986 Disclaimer: Any errors in spelling, tact or fact are transmission errors.
moriarty@tc.fluke.COM (Jeff Meyer) (07/30/87)
In article <3612@well.UUCP> mo@well.UUCP (Maurice Weitman) writes: >I love DiskFit, too, but this is one of its shortcomings. It >doesn't show you where each file is located, only folders are >catalogued. Finding a particular file can be quite a chore when >a folder's contents may exist on a dozen or more floppies. This is true, but I haven't found that much of a problem. If I accidently delete a file, I know what folder it's in, and the catalog (the "DiskFit Report") that you can optionally make shows you where that folder is. I admit this would be a big problem if I was trying to use Diskfit for archiving software that I was going to delete off my disk, and want to restore months or years later; but as I've said before, DiskFit is not built for archiving; it is just the best hard disk backup software I've ever seen. Disclaimer: I don't have any connection with SuperMac Software, except that I bought a Dataframe 20 a year ago and have never regretted it -- since they keep sending me things like DiskFit for free... "Nice shooting, son. What's your name?" "MURPHY." Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer INTERNET: moriarty@tc.fluke.COM Manual UUCP: {uw-beaver, sun, allegra, hplsla, lbl-csam}!fluke!moriarty CREDO: You gotta be Cruel to be Kind... <*> DISCLAIMER: Do what you want with me, but leave my employers alone! <*>