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From: bytebug@dhw68k.cts.com (Roger L. Long)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Ack! Horrible Bug in DiskFit... and guess how I found it :-(
Message-ID: <31497@dhw68k.cts.com>
Date: 11 Apr 90 08:09:18 GMT
Reply-To: bytebug@dhw68k.cts.com (Roger L. Long)
Organization: Wolfskill & Dowling residence; Anaheim, CA (USA)
Lines: 50

I wonder how many people backup their hard disks...  Of those, I wonder
how many people rest comfortably at night knowing that given any natural
disaster, they will be able to be back up and running in the time it
takes to re-initialize and restore their hard disks.  Of those, I wonder
how many people have actually *had* the opportunity to restore the
contents of their hard disk, and gotten a chance to look at the other
half of the program they use so religiously.

I did.  And it wasn't pleasant.  And I'm still suffering.

Perhaps I'm just a bit naive and expecting too much...  Perhaps I'm just
looking for a shoulder to cry on...  Or perhaps it's my boss's fault,
since it was he who backed up my disk in the first place, before taking it
off to a computer show.  Not much gained in pointing fingers, though.
Just a lesson learned:
	
	TRUST NO ONE - BACK IT UP YOURSELF

		and

	DON'T TRUST BACKUPS - DISASTER IS JUST A FLOPPY AWAY

Which brings me to the bug.  Partially a hardware glitch, I suppose.
Partially an oversight on my part, if you'd prefer.  But in my own
humble opinion, A MAJOR GLITCH IN THE USER INTERFACE IN A PROGRAM THAT
MANY PEOPLE TRUST THEIR LIVELYHOODS TO!

Here's the situation:  Boss needs disk drive to take to a computer show.
I'm working on another project away from my Mac, so my drive is fair
game, and he sends it on a bumpy airplane ride after backing it up.
Disk drive returns from show, with many files deleted to make space for
less useful things, so I decide that the easiest thing to do is just
initialize the disk and restore the backup.  Besides, that will eliminate
any fragmentation of files, and perk up the performance a bit.  First
five floppies restore fine, but something happens with floppy number
six, and all of a sudden DiskFit tells me that it's initializing the
diskette!  No, it didn't ask me, in the nice dialog sort of way that
my Mac normally handles unreadable diskettes, whether or not I'd 
*like* to initialize this diskette.  It just starts going click-click
and I end up with an "Untitled" blank floppy.  Wonderful.  And I have
no idea what files were on the floppy, just that when I finish restoring
the disk, bunches of files are still missing.  Like my System file, and
the Finder, and most of the applications in my tool folder.  I have no
idea whether or not any of my source files are missing, since the C
compiler is missing and I can't try rebuilding any applications.

I hope your day went better than mine...
-- 
	Roger L. Long
	bytebug@dhw68k.cts.com