Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!hp-pcd!hplsla!ericb
From: ericb@hplsla.HP.COM (Eric Backus)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: shareware 'fastback' wanted
Message-ID: <16010004@hplsla.HP.COM>
Date: 27 Jun 91 18:27:54 GMT
References: <1991Jun26.225129.26412@midway.uchicago.edu>
Organization: HP Lake Stevens, WA
Lines: 30

>>now for my question - i would like to find a vanilla fastback-like
>>procedure. maybe a shell that would work with pkarc/pkzip/et. that
>>would allow consecutive disks for backup and that i could share
>>with all sites reguardless of dos version.
>
>It's not particularly pretty (but then again, it doesn't sound like that
>really matters to you), but you could use PKZIP (et al) and then some
>kind of SPLIT utility (such as my own SPLIT.EXE) that will split up the
>big archive into floppy sized pieces.

One disadvantage of SPLITting a large PKZIP file is that the individual
disks are not readable by PKZIP - you have to put them all back together
first.  And if your hard disk doesn't have room for the whole PKZIP file in
addition to your files, you have a problem.

You can get around these problems by using ARJ.  ARJ compresses better than
PKZIP and is approximately as fast.  It has the capability to break its
archive up over multiple floppy disks, and when it is done each floppy is a
separate archive which can be read by ARJ.  It can create an index file as
it goes, so you know where to look for a file.  It can be told to archive
only files with the ARCHIVE bit set, and it can be told to clear the
ARCHIVE bit on the files it archives.  It has more features than I could
possibly name in one paragraph.

I highly recommend ARJ.  I use it as a cheap backup program and as a
generic file compressor/archiver.
--
				Eric Backus
				ericb%hplsla@hplabs.hp.com
				(206) 335-2495