Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!phigate!ehviea!sun4dts!derek
From: derek@sun4dts.dts.ine.philips.nl (derek)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: BACKUP PROGRAMS WITH COMPRESSION
Message-ID: <612@sun4dts.dts.ine.philips.nl>
Date: 10 Oct 90 13:04:58 GMT
References: <21700009@sunc7>
Lines: 43

fireman@sunc7.cs.uiuc.edu writes:


>             LOOKING FOR:  PD BACKUP PROGRAM WITH COMPRESSION

>Are there any public domain backup programs which compress the data?  I've
>been unable to find any in the pcsig collection.  

>If no such backup program exists, can someone tell me which backup programs
>are the best.  I'm currently using one that doesn't keep track of which
>disk number to insert next.  Leads to a bit of uncertainty.

>Finally, one last issue with regards to backup programs.  Why do they always
>start an incremental backup on a new disk?  Why can't they use the remaining
>space on the previous disk first?

>Thanks in advance,

>Neil Feiereisel         e-mail: fireman@uiuc.edu OR fireman@cs.uiuc.edu

Try ZOOX, an extention of ZOO. It is available on SIMTEL. ALso get the ZOO
package. This will solve the second part of the problem - use stuff and pipe
to zoo to update an archive. 

Zoox has a parameter that allows you to specify the maximum size of an archive
and prompts (for a new disk) when it reaches that size. Note that there is a
wierd bug in Zoox that prevents you from making an archive on a floppy above
about 1.2M. This is not serious to get round though.

The advantages:
You have a normal archive from which files can be extracted one by one, or 
all at once, as needed. Recovery is normally only needed for one or two files
at a time.

If anything goes wrong on the floppies - a corrupt track for example - you
only loose one or two files at the most.

You use freshen to update current archives, and stuff to create new disks.
Use stuff and zoox to fill partly-filled disks for small updates.

Best Regards, Derek Carr
DEREK@DTS.INE.PHILIPS.NL           Philips I&E TQV-5 Eindhoven, The Netherlands 
Standard Disclaimers apply.