dchun@aludra.usc.edu (Dale Chun) (01/01/91)
Does anyone know what the file MIRROR.FIL and MIRROR.BAK does with PC-Tools? As in, what *exactly* (in as much detail as possible) does this file contain and do? Can this file be safely deleted without any harm to the system? This post may sound stupid (flame me, I'll torch you sort of deal), but we are having some bizzare problems with this MIRROR.FIL and MIRROR.BAK files on our hard disk. Thanks for any info! (Ya Ya, flame me for using up bandwidth on New Year's Eve instead of partying, but this is somewhat important) ...dale ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ name: Dale C. Chun | * 2 + 2 = 5, for sufficiently large values of 2. PLAYMAC Technical Support | * Hack First, Ask Questions Later. email: dchun@aludra.usc.edu | * MAC; Maybe A Computer, but probably a toy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
funkstr@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (Larry Hastings) (01/01/91)
+-In article <13939@chaph.usc.edu>, dchun@aludra.usc.edu (Dale Chun) wrote: | | Does anyone know what the file MIRROR.FIL and MIRROR.BAK does with | PC-Tools? As in, what *exactly* (in as much detail as possible) does | this file contain and do? | | Can this file be safely deleted without any harm to the system? | [... We] are having some bizzare problems with this MIRROR.FIL and | MIRROR.BAK files on our hard disk. | +---------- Those are the FAT backup files written out by "mirror". "mirror" is a combination FAT-restoring and deleted-file-tracking utility. (The "FAT"s are your disk's File Allocation Tables -- in a nutshell, the lists of what files are stored where.) What mirror does is make a direct copy of your hard disk's FAT tables into a file. Then, if your FATs get trashed somehow (like a rogue disk-writing process or a nasty virus) you can restore them. Mirror can also (optionally) keep track every time you delete a file, and make it possible to restore them. (This is done by loading a small TSR.) By keeping this information, PC Tool's Undelete can do a much better job of restoring the files than without it. (I would guess that Mirror stores deleted file information in the same file -- I never use it.) The file that Mirror writes into is called MIRROR.FIL. If there's already a file called MIRROR.FIL, Mirror makes a copy of it (calling the copy MIRROR.BAK) before overwriting it. This is useful if you got part of your FAT trashed, and rebooted, and Mirror ran again -- you can use the old .BAK FAT from before your FAT got trashed. When you install PC Tools, as I recall, they automatically insert a call to Mirror into your AUTOEXEC.BAT, both backing up your FATs and turing on "deleted-file" tracking. The manual mentions that if you're having problems with collisions between Mirror's TSR and other TSRs that you can stop doing the "deleted-file" tracking but still run mirror to back up your FATs -- this is what I'd recommend. If you still have trouble, just remove Mirror from your AUTOEXEC.BAT -- but I don't think you will. -- larry hastings, the galactic funkster, funkstr@ucscb.ucsc.edu I don't speak for Knowledge Dynamics or UC Santa Cruz, nor do they speak for me "People, it's Fonzie with Teret's syndrome!"--Dennis Miller on Andrew Dice Clay
stevek@hp-ptp.HP.COM (Steve_Kite) (01/04/91)
Mirror.fil is created when you run the PCtools compress program. It is the file that allows pctools to recover files that are accidently erased. The .bak is just that, a backup copy of the mirror file. When you run compress, and it asks if it should run mirror, reply no and this file will not be created. The file can be deleted (it is read only) without any problems, if so desired.
als@hpwarqp.hp.com (Al Sherman) (01/04/91)
In article <10503@darkstar.ucsc.edu> funkstr@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (Larry Hastings) writes: > >it. (I would guess that Mirror stores deleted file information in the same >file -- I never use it.) > >The file that Mirror writes into is called MIRROR.FIL. If there's already a >file called MIRROR.FIL, Mirror makes a copy of it (calling the copy MIRROR.BAK) Deleted file information gets written into the file PCTRACKR.DEL in the root directory. I believe you have to manually turn this on in your AUTOEXEC.BAT by specifying /TC etc. as Mirror parameters. The install program does not do this for you. Al
silver@xrtll.uucp (Hi Ho Silver) (01/07/91)
In comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc, stevek@hp-ptp.HP.COM wrote: $Mirror.fil is created when you run the PCtools compress program. Close ... it's actually produced by mirror, but you probably run this right after running compress. -- __ __ _ | ...!nexus.yorku.edu!xrtll!silver | always (__ | | | | |_ |_) >----------------------------------< searching __) | |_ \/ |__ | \ | if you don't like my posts, type | for _____________________/ find / -print|xargs cat|compress | SNTF