Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!merlin.usc.edu!girtab.usc.edu!malczews
From: malczews@girtab.usc.edu (Frank Malczewski)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: 150MB Tape Backup Software/Hardware
Message-ID: <4259@merlin.usc.edu>
Date: 1 Jul 89 01:38:22 GMT
References: <4201@merlin.usc.edu> <141200055@cdp>
Sender: news@merlin.usc.edu
Reply-To: malczews@girtab.usc.edu (Frank Malczewski)
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Lines: 50



Walt:

Thanks for the info on Retrospect; I recently saw an release notice type of
article in MacWeek... including its price.  Since Fastback II is offering
a 40$ deal for users of other backup software (in my case, DiskFit), I 
decided that 40 bucks vs. whatever Retrospect's discount price may be would
be preferable at this time.

To anyone interested:

My initial evaluation of the Shamrock Teac 150MB drive should be updated, so
as not to leave anyone with in incomplete picture...

My posting was based on an earlier version of the backup software that was
provided to me over the weekend, while the official version arrived.  Most
of the problems that I noticed with the file by file backup were the result
of a failure of this earlier version while it was apparently updating the
modification dates and folder structure to their backed up values.  This was
corrected in the version I got this past Monday.

Nevertheless, the software is still a bit sensitive (it crashed upon quitting
once), and perhaps a bit inefficient (but I really have no basis for comparison
in terms of tape backup software).  I think its sensitivity may be related
to caching (either the RAM cache available through the General cdev, or the
caching resident within my 68020 cpu).  It seems to work fine when both of
these are turned off, but I have not had the opportunity to try out each of
the caches individually.  Its inefficiency relates to how it restores 
modification dates and such during the file by file backup; it apparently
puts all of the files onto disk first, then rescans the tape a number of
times to get the modification dates (and possibly other information) back in
order.  The first time I did this I thought the software had become stuck in
and endless loop and just stopped it.  The second time, after turning off the
two caches, there was no problem, as when I awoke the next morning, it had
correctly completed restoring the 3000 files correctly.

The image backups work just fine on each of my partitions (individually), and
is quite fast in backup and restore.  Restoration to other disks in this
format (or other partitions) may be a problem, though; I have not tried this.

Also, the drive comes with an 18" SCSI cable, so if you have the smaller
Macs, this is ideal; the Mac II's size requires a longer cable (and thus my
earlier post for a 3ft (preferably) to 6ft SCSI 25pin to 50pin cable.

I'll probably keep it.

OBTW, does anyone know of a computer supply place that sells Data Spec cables?

  -- Frank Malczewski		(malczews@girtab.usc.edu)