Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!amdahl!nsc!csi!jwhitnel
From: jwhitnel@csi.UUCP (Jerry Whitnell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: backup utilities
Message-ID: <1408@csib.csi.UUCP>
Date: 12 Feb 88 00:19:38 GMT
References: <945@pbhyc.UUCP> <11540129@hpsmtc1.HP.COM>
Reply-To: jwhitnel@csib.UUCP (Jerry Whitnell)
Organization: Communications Solutions Inc., San Jose, Ca
Lines: 64

In article <11540129@hpsmtc1.HP.COM> kwallich@hpsmtc1.HP.COM (Ken Wallich) writes:
|>|o You are frequently asked to put in a prior disk when doing a backup.
|>  I've never had this happen to me.  It always asks for the disks in
|>  sequnce and never asked for the same one twice.  This includes both
|>   small and large (> 20 megabytes) backup.
|
|Huumm, I was doing a 10MB backup (new smartset), and I had to insert the
|first disc 3 times, and the 3rd disk twice, I'm using the same version
|you are, there were lots of BIG (1 to 3 meg) files, pehaps that makes
|a difference.

Perhaps it does, since I have only one file of > 1 meg with the rest <=
600K.  It may have something to do with marking the first disk containing
part of a large file with the rest of the disks that contain that file.

|
|>|o Prompts you for EACH disk insertion, and requires a RESPONSE.  For a
|>|  100 disk backup, that's over 100 button presses (see previous con).
|>   It only requires a response the first time you add a disk to a set.  Once
|>   it gives the disk a title it knows about, DiskFit recognizes the disk
|>   as soon as you insert the disk.  It also autoformats disks that have
|>   not been previously formmated (if they have, DiskFit requires that
|>   you erase it by pressing a button).
|
|This means if I'm doing an new big archive I have to press a lot of
|buttons.  This is precisely when I DON'T want to press a lot of buttons.
|Oh yeah, another complaint, if you insert a 400K formatted disc, you'll
|only get 400K on it, you can't reformat it to 800K in the middle of a
|backup.

If you put in a pre-formatted disk, you can make it an 800K by selecting
Erase, which will give you the standard format menu and let you select
single or double sided.  Otherwise it just uses the disk as is (renaming
it, of course).  Would be nice if you could tell it that you wanted to use
all double sided.

|... In summary,
|if you had a disc go bad in the middle of an archive, AND your catalog
|disc was also fried, you would be able to rebuild a section of the backup, 
|but would loose any files which resided partially or in whole on the bad 
|disc.

Sounds better then the last backup program, but I'm still rather paranoid
about backup programs that use their own format.  Too many bad things
can happen and Murphy never rests.

|
|Ya know, come to think of it, if DiskFit would offer me three more features,
|I would like it enough to use it:
|
|1) Partial backups of any combination of files and folders
|2) Partial restore of any combination of files or folders into the place
|   in the file hierarchy they came from
|3) Option to NOT DELETE the old files on my archive, and just have a REAL
|   incremental backup. 

I would like to see these as well, but I find that DiskFit fits my needs
as it is. 

|Ken Wallich			*My views are mine, and mine alone*


Jerry Whitnell				Been through Hell?
Communication Solutions, Inc.		What did you bring back for me?
						- A. Brilliant