Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!att!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard!sunic!mcsun!hp4nl!ruuinf!prisma!fred From: fred@prisma.cv.ruu.nl (Fred Appelman) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Re: BackupST a must have!!! Message-ID: Date: 24 Nov 90 13:02:49 GMT References: <639@fsucs.UUCP> <2792@laura.UUCP> <2806@laura.UUCP> <1749@mwca.UUCP> Organization: University of Utrecht, 3D Computer Vision The Netherlands Lines: 38 >I used BackupST to back up my drive and I'm quite happy with the results. >I do have a couple of suggestions for enhancements: > > 1) An option to verify the backup would be nice (in the same menu as > list/backup/restore) - slightly more security than having write verify > on, and doesn't take much longer. Can you be more specific on this point. What would you like to have happen during this verify. Do everything you do in a restore, except writing the results to disk? > 3) (If not already present) some error-correction data added to the > backup to allow recovery in the event of a few bad bytes on the > backup media. The error correcting data is minimal. On every disk is a disk header. Every backup action has got a random number assigned to it. This number is stored, together with the disk number on every disk. Everytime a disk is changed, these numbers are checked. The archive index, which is vital for a restore action, is stored both at the beginning of the archive, and at the end of the archive. If neither of these archive index's can not be read, the archive can not be restored. In the archive index every file is tagged with a starting position in the archive and a length. If there are some bad bytes on the backup media, this file is just skipped. The program will continue with the next file. If you have any further suggestions about what error-correction data could be added please let me know. > >Please don't take these suggestions as criticism; the program is superb as is. Thank you. -- Fred J.R. Appelman, 3D Computer Vision, Utrecht University AZU, Heidelberglaan 100, 3584 CX Utrecht, The Netherlands. Telephone: +31-30-506710 Fax: +31-30-513399 e-mail: fred@cv.ruu.nl or appelman@cs.unc.edu