Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!dptg!rutgers!cmcl2!esquire!sbb
From: sbb@esquire.UUCP (Stephen B. Baumgarten)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Comments on SUM II
Message-ID: <1382@esquire.UUCP>
Date: 30 Aug 89 17:47:37 GMT
References: <10716@fluke.COM> <9419@chinet.chi.il.us>
Reply-To: sbb@esquire.UUCP (Stephen B. Baumgarten)
Distribution: na
Organization: DP&W, New York, NY
Lines: 48

In article <9419@chinet.chi.il.us> magik@chinet.chi.il.us (Ben Liberman) writes:
>I'm currently using Fastback II and am less than thrilled.  I guess that
>getting all of your files in the proper folder on a full restore is good
>enough on a PC, but on a Mac I'd really like to have the windows and files
>in the right sizes and places.  I understand that SUM II's backup can do
>a disk image backup so that after a restore everything is where you want it
>to be.  Do any other backup pgms. do this?

Yes, DiskFit for one.  The reason FastBack doesn't is that it doesn't
backup/restore the desktop file (where all of this info resides).
Fifth Generation claims that it doesn't because ``the desktop file
belongs to the system and its contents are not documented'' or
something to that effect.  I don't know what happens if you backup
the desktop file under Multifinder, where it's always kept open and is
subject to change at the whim of the Finder.  I assume that you could
get a bad or incomplete copy of it, and that's why FastBack doesn't
back it up.

>P.S.  I'm quite pleased with other pgms. from 5th Generation but IMHO,
>      Fastback II is better than Fastback I, but I don't think I'd call
>      that a compliment. ;-)

I'm very pleased with it myself and consider this a minor problem.  I
switched from DiskFit and I've found that my backup times have gone
way down.  This is mostly because I do one full backup and then lots
of differentials, reusing the same set of disks for the differentials.
That way my backup set doesn't keep growing and I don't have to keep
track of a half-dozen incremental sets.  This was the reason I started
using DiskFit in the first place.

FastBack II works superbly in the background under Multifinder -- I
usually do backups while I'm in Versaterm reading netnews or something
-- and I like the added flexibility that its macros give me (e.g., I
don't back up System, LaserWriter, and other ever-changing system
files in my differentials, but I do include them on the full backup).
Their technical support is also first-rate.

>	Ben Liberman    USENET         magik@chinet.chi.il.us
>	                GEnie,Delphi   MAGIK

Standard disclaimer:  I'm just one of Fifth Generation's satisfied
customers. 

--
   Steve Baumgarten             | "New York... when civilization falls apart,
   Davis Polk & Wardwell        |  remember, we were way ahead of you."
   cmcl2!esquire!sbb            | 
   esquire!sbb@cmcl2.nyu.edu    |                           - David Letterman