Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!nrl-cmf!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!hplabs!hpda!hpcuhb!hpindda!wag
From: wag@hpindda.HP.COM (William Gilliam)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Troubles with MSDOS 3.2 XCOPY
Message-ID: <4330105@hpindda.HP.COM>
Date: 3 Sep 88 18:41:03 GMT
References: <3143@tekig4.TEK.COM>
Organization: HP Information Networks, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 25


>After trying a couple of "fast" backup utilities (including something
>called COREfast), around here we went to XCOPY because it preserves
>subdirectories, makes any single file recoverable, and is highly
>RELIABLE.  We are running 9 AT clones with DOS 3.2.  On a daily (or
>.weekly) basis we run XCOPY C:\*.* A:\ /s/m/v -- this picks up the files
>with the archive bit set.  We have had no problems after about 6 months
>of doing this.  Based on your comments, I hope this continues, but I
>can't recommend any "fast" backup utility.

This is true.  XCOPY will properly backup files in the above manner on ATs.
However, you will run into problems on XTs if your level of subdirectories
runs too deep (around 3 or 4 levels deep).  If you just want an application
to perform large and FAST (!) backups, use FASTBACK(tm).  It's *very* easy
to use, has a lot of features (and that's in the old version), and it never
gave me an error on an XT or an AT during a year of use.  It's very reliable.

Now for the bad part: if you like to simply copy the program from one machine
to another, you may run into a problem if the machines have some hardware
differences.  In this case, you may have to re-configure FASTBACK to fit the
destination machine before you can use it to restore the backed-up files.



WG