[comp.sys.mac.system] Apple's HDBlowup software

gillies@m.cs.uiuc.edu (09/19/90)

I have absolutely had it with Apple's "HDBackup" utility.  It should
be renamed "HDBlowup".  Currently, it exhibits at least two fatal
bugs:

(1) If you keep inserting 800K disks that are not initialized (a
somewhat flakey disk that you are hoping will work with a good
physical insertion), it eventually crashes to the Finder saying:

	The Application "HDBackup" has unexpectedly quit

This has happened to me twice, on the 42nd disk of a 50Mb backup.

(2) I have a set of 1.4Mb disks, the result of a previous backup.
For many of the disks (i.e. HD40.6, and now, HD40.7), I get the
brain-damaged message,

	There isn't enough finder memory to work with the
	disk "HD40.7".

This is absolute baloney.  I can open the disk easily with the finder.
To be safe, I added 10K to the finder memory allocation, and I
increased the HDBackup allotment to 512K (instead of the standard
384K).  The bug still occurs.


So what's the best commercial replacement for HDBackup, at $50 or
less?


Don W. Gillies, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Illinois
1304 W. Springfield, Urbana, Ill 61801      
ARPA: gillies@cs.uiuc.edu   UUCP: {uunet,harvard}!uiucdcs!gillies

omalley@mace.cc.purdue.edu (John O'Malley) (09/19/90)

In article <70500032@m.cs.uiuc.edu> gillies@m.cs.uiuc.edu writes:
>
>I have absolutely had it with Apple's "HDBackup" utility.  It should
>be renamed "HDBlowup".

Apple, apparently, agrees somewhat.  They opted to discontinue
distributing the software effective with System 6.0.5.  (Look on all
your 6.0.5 disks ...  there's no trace of it.)

There was some mention of it in a 6.0.5 tech file you can ftp from
apple.com.  They decided not to fix incompatibilities between it and
MultiFinder, if I remember correctly.  Users will have to find a backup
program on their own.

-John
---
John O'Malley               / Macintosh  / Purdue University / (317)
omalley@mace.cc.purdue.edu / Specialist / Computing Center  / 494-1787

Adam.Frix@p2.f200.n226.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Adam Frix) (09/22/90)

gillies writes in a message on 19 Sep 90:

G>  So what's the best commercial replacement for HDBackup, at $50 
G>  or less?...

Redux, at right around $50 (maybe $53 MacConnection).  If you also want SUM
II, note that the SUM Backup is a subset of Redux.  Also note that Redux stores
files in its own internal format, not in Finder format.  Offers no file compression
yet.  But it works, has scripting if needed, extensive filtering, and fantastic
customer support (just ask Robin, CEO of Microseeds Publishing!).  If you're
backing up to floppies, Redux is a strong contender.

--Adam--
 

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