chuq%plaid@Sun.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) (07/19/87)
I'd love to get suggestions on good hard disk backup software. I'm currently using HFS Backup 1.1, and I spent a good three hours last night trying to get it to restore a single, earlier version of a given file (it happened to be my RSG 3.0 version of OtherRealms #17, so it wasn't exactly a trivial file. How it got overwritten by a text file and backed up before I noticed it is an exercise for the reader). Anyway, I finally gave up on HFS Backup and pulled out a copy of Restore 1.0, which will read a raw HFS Backup disk and extract the files for you (the existence of this neat little utility says something about the robustness of HFS Backup, in retrospect. sigh). So what I'm looking for is a program that will do the following: o Full backups of a hard disk o Incremental backups of same (either Unix dump style tower of hanoi dumps or HFS Backup "since last backup" is fine by me) o Ability to do a full restore, of course o Pull off any version of a given file off of any dump set o An intelligent way of finding all revisions of a given file (I did this last night, believe it or not, with the DiskInfo DA -- HFS Backup was negative help because it doesn't set up the Desktop.) o Preferably a program that doesn't hack up the files when it puts them on the backup media unless absolutely necessary (meaning that if it doesn't have to split it, it doesn't modify it. o Something that (it would hope) makes a reasonable attempt to optimize the use of the floppy by backing up smaller files to fill it up. I've heard rumors of an HFS Backup 2.0, but I don't know if it is shipping or what it does -- and since the HFS folks haven't bothered to send me mail on the upgrade (as a registered user, I sort of expect that, and I register every program I buy -- even games) I have to believe it doesn't exist (even if it does, if they don't notify me I'll pretend it doesn't and buy someone else's product in spite... hee-hee) Any/all suggestions welcome. HFS Backup in general seems a reasonable program, but I'm not going to waste another three hours trying to get around some of its lesser braindamage. chuq Chuq Von Rospach chuq@sun.COM Delphi: CHUQ We live and learn, but not the wiser grow -- John Pomfret (1667-1703)
infinity@well.UUCP (sunny at Infinity Software) (07/25/87)
I highly recommend DiskFit
drc@dbase.UUCP (Dennis Cohen) (07/27/87)
You are really using the wrong/oldest version of HFS Backup. The bug about which you are complaining was fixed in 1.1 and 2.02 is the latest upgrade I've received (about six weeks ago). It is an incredibly robust backup utility. The only thing that will bite is that the formats have changed and they are NOT upward compatible (your old copies might as well be recycled). Another really good backup program is DiskFit by SuperMac (the DataFrame folks). Its major strength is that files small enough to fit on a disk intact are stored in Finder copyable format; its drawback is that you can't say, "Backup just these folders." It is single file, whole disk, or everything but applications. There are other good packages out, but those are the two I use (bought HFS Backup, DiskFit came with the DataFrame). Both are well worth what I paid for them. Dennis Cohen Ashton-Tate Glendale Development Center dBASE Mac Development Team --------------------------- Disclaimer: All opinions expressed above are my own, leave AT out of it.