Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!decwrl!pa.dec.com!bacchus!mwm From: mwm@pa.dec.com (Mike (My Watch Has Windows) Meyer) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.introduction Subject: Re: Need recommendation for backup program Message-ID: Date: 7 Feb 91 04:15:30 GMT References: <1991Jan29.220936.21595@cbnewsk.att.com> <6572@munnari.oz.au> <52410@sequent.UUCP> Sender: news@pa.dec.com (News) Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.applications Organization: Missionaria Phonibalonica Lines: 42 In-Reply-To: mwm@pa.dec.com's message of 6 Feb 91 10:49:39 [I think it's past time this moved out of .introduction, so I've pointed it to .applications - mwm] Speak of the devil - there were no fewer than _three_ demo backup programs in the latest round of fish disks (all on #447). A quick summary: Back-Pac: the loser of the bunch. Doesn't support multi-drive backups at all. Doesn't rate well in the "looks" department, either. ami-back: second place. It does multi-drive backups, but throws away that advantage by not prompting you for the disk until it's ready to start writing. Might be actually let you swap disks before hand, but I want the prompt. Requires 2.0, and runs on the WB. FlashBack: the most professional of the bunch. Pretty graphics, does multi-disk backups mostly right (it checks them when it wants to write on them, not after you've inserted them!). All three write a proprietary format on the disks, so I won't use them for religious reasons. A note on the multi-drive writes. That's one of the features that (to me) separates an amateur backup program from a professional one. Done right, the backup program asks for a drive, gets it & otherwise prepares it for the backup while the actual backup is happening on the other drive(s). This means the backup can run continuously, without pausing for humans to do things. I think it's an important thing to get right. Final comment on XCO: the author promises me that restoring write/delete-protected files will work "correctly" in the next upgrade (as opposed to bug fix).