Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!adt.UUCP!madd From: madd@adt.UUCP (jim frost) Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi Subject: Re: backup through the fs Message-ID: <8904181440.AA11202@adt.uucp> Date: 18 Apr 89 14:40:13 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 26 I didn't realize that EFS worked that way. Interesting. How do you know how large an extent to allocate anyway? Or do you attempt to allocate extents within differing cylinders (groups) so you can possibly continue expanding the extent until either the cylinder (group) is full or you run out of cylinders (groups)? And what exactly defines an extent (ie it's not likely to be , for obvious reasons). I'd really like some reading material on EFS if you have it. Inquiring minds want to know. >Me?--I use tar & cpio. > >Vernon Schryver >Silicon Graphics >vjs@sgi.com Tar isn't too useful when you're backing up more than a few hundred megabytes (actually even a hundred). It's slow and very unreliable. Given Murphy's Law and the nature of tape drives, the one backup you really need will be corrupted. A good backup/restore program would be able to get a lot of information off the tape anyway; tar would barf and you'd end up bit-fiddling to get the file. Blech. jim frost madd@bu-it.bu.edu