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From: CMDSEN@primeg.weeg.uiowa.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: problem backing up SCSI hd on IIe
Message-ID: <9101081948.AA02865@apple.com>
Date: 8 Jan 91 19:48:34 GMT
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R.C. Binstock (Bob Binstock) recently commented on problems backing-up
his harddrive using a UCD/Laser 3.5 drives with backupII.

I think the problem lies with the UDC or Laser drives, not backupII,
per se.  I also have a couple IIe's with HD (10Meg Sider, 40Meg Vulcan)
and UDC/Laser 3.5 combo's.  When using BackupII I usually get a bad
block when BackupII tries to verify thedisk after writing - hence no
valid backup is done.  Yes, Bob, all 1600 blocks should be full.
BackupII splits files across disks to use all blocks.  No ProDOS volume
directory is there in the traditional sense.  Your 'bad disk' probably
has a bad block on it.  The UDC or Laser3.5 just isn't reliable enough.
I don't know is the backup utility in ProSel will work better.

Most pgms will be OK with the UDC.  BackupII won't.  I think Apple's
FastCopy won't work either.  Printing a file to disk from AppleWorks 3.0
often causes bad blocks with a UDC.  I suspect the problem is related
to the buffer size being written at a time.  Programs using smaller
buffer sizes work better.  I use Davex for file management and have
few problems because the file buffers are small (or so I think).
It is also due to Dave's great coding :-)

In summary I think your problem is really the UDC or Laser drives, not
the backup program.  Sorry :-(  If you find a solution, pass it on.
I've been bad-mouthing the UDC for a couple years now!

  -Steve Nelson
  Internet: cmdsen@primeg.weeg.uiowa.edu
  Bitnet:   cmdsenpg@uiamvs