acs@ecsvax.UUCP (04/06/87)
I recently had a major disaster backing up my HD20. I was using HD Backup 1.2 software. HD Backup backs up the HD by combining files into and compressing them into the data fork of a "Storage File". There is a storage file on every disk that is used in the backup. Here's the rub; HD Backup saves a directory of these compressed, backed up files on the last disk of your back up set. Well, I performed a backup, saved the backup directory onto my last disk and went about my business. When I went to restore, my directory disk was zapped and thus has rendered my backup set useless. Efforts to recover the "Storage Directory" with MacZap, Fedit and some others have been fruitless. The program works great except for this catch. It will also let you save the Backup directory on many different disks, but unfortunately I saved the dir on only one disk. Now I can't read the storage dir and can't get to the backed up files. HD Backup gives an "logical end of file reached during read operation" error when I try to read the Storage Dirs I recover with MacZap. Occasionally I get a "general error: 1234" also. Has anyone ever had this problem before? Does anyone know the format for the HD Backup StorageDir file? Would there perhaps be a program which will read my backup set and rebuild a StorageDir for me? Would there be any to remove the backed up files from the data forks of the StorageFile(s)... Thanks for any help Wayne Fee Applachian State Univ.
ngg@bridge2.UUCP (04/14/87)
In article <2864@ecsvax.UUCP>, acs@ecsvax.UUCP (Deanna Bowman) writes: > > I recently had a major disaster backing up my HD20. I was using HD > Backup 1.2 software. HD Backup backs up the HD by combining files > into and compressing them into the data fork of a "Storage File". > There is a storage file on every disk that is used in the backup. > Here's the rub; HD Backup saves a directory of these compressed, > backed up files on the last disk of your back up set. Well, I > performed a backup, saved the backup directory onto my last disk and > went about my business. When I went to restore, my directory disk > was zapped and thus has rendered my backup set useless. > Wayne Fee Applachian State Univ. Your are not the only Hard disk user that has experienced the horror of a useless backup set because of a munched backup directory and file formats that you cannot restore to normal without the backup program and then the stupid program won't even think of working with out a backup directory. Why can't it just read the file that it creates and restore it anyway if the backup directory is damaged? HFS Backup, HD backup and other are all guilty of changing the file format for some reason, I have not seen in any of the backup programs I have tried any significant compression when it changes the file format. Usually just some sort of headache if a disk fails and you lose your backup, and your data, not to mention maybe your sanity... But there is hope on the Horizon..... SuperMac Software has released DiskFit!! This is without a doubt the best Hard Disk utility to date! Its a "Smart" Disk backup that creates a "Smart Backup Set". Never again will you wind up with a backup set that grows to phenomenal proportions as you continue to do incremental backups, dreading the day that you will have to create a new set to eliminate this growing pile of floppies. If you have a 20 meg HD, a complete backup can take 45-60 minutes. Even longer with Larger Hard disks. It has the capabilty to create either Full or Document only backups. It will create a Report of your backup and Place the resulting text file in the System Folder at the completion of the Backup. I think the one of the more important feature of this program is ALL FILES ARE LEFT IN NORMAL MACINTOSH FORMAT!! They can be Finder copied back to the HD, should you lose your file and need a copy from your backup. This is where the Backup Report Comes in handy. Locating the Disk that the File is on. The Exception to this is an occasional File that DiskFit must break over 2 disks, and its not that difficult to re-join the files as DiskFit provides this option on the File menu. Another major advantage of DiskFit is; it always uses the same set of disks for your incremental backups as it does for your initial backup. The only time after your First backup does DiskFit ask for more Disks is if you have added a significant amount of Data to your HD. When Starting an incremental backup, Diskfit scans the HD, locates all files that have changed since the last backup, it compares it to A file it created during your first backup called DiskFit Info located in the System folder, you insert the first disk of the backup set, and Diskfit wil then only ask for the floppies it needs to update to match the current condition of the HD. If you need archivability in your backups, you would need to create a couple of sets, but this is no problem at all, as you can chose your sets if you have more than one. As it incremenatally backups, it selectivly deletes the changed files and replaces it with the current file, and if you have deleted a file from the HD, it will be removed from the backup set. If the new file take more space than it originally did it will be located elsewhere within the set. Restores are nice as well, when you do a backup, followed by a restore, the HD looks EXACTLY as you left it after the last backup. Other Backups, seem to leave a mess Files not located in folders properly, messy folders. Not so with DiskFit. Give it a try...Its a little more spendy than the current crop of HD backup Utilities, but worth it.... -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Norman Goodger @Bridge Communications !bridge2!ngg (415) 969 4400 Ex:445 Sysop-MACINFO BBS @415-795-8862 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------