From: mmtl@hobson.cc.flinders.edu.au (T.Lampre)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.apps
Subject: Re: Floppy Backup, Re: 32bit Shareware backup program.
Date: 21 Jul 92 00:07:27 GMT
Organization: Flinders University

In article <1992Jul20.131435.5815@relay.nswc.navy.mil> whiles@nswc.navy.mil writes:
>In article 24110@gmuvax2.gmu.edu, kbass@gmuvax2.gmu.edu (Ken Bass) writes:
>>In article <1992Jul18.005121.105@ccsvax.sfasu.edu> z_kupkams@ccsvax.sfasu.edu writes:
>>>
>>>	How many people think that a shareware floppy backup program for
>>>OS/2 would be a usefull utility in your tool box? If the Program supported
>>>HPFS, Long filenames, Extended Attributes, and could be used to backup to
>>>any Logical device( Floppy, Hard Drive, etc... ) Would the backup utility
>>>be worth $35 to you? There may be a release next month if there is enough
>>>demand for it. Let me know what you think, and what FTP sites you look for
>>>shareware apps on, thanks!
>>>
>>>	As an OS/2 Fan, I would like to see the shareware concept take root,
>>>since most of the Major Dos Apps writers hove not provided 32bit OS/2 apps
>>>yet. 
>>>
>>>	If you are a shareware developer, please let me know what you think
>>>of the shareware concept. Is it worth your time? Would it be worth mine?
>>>
>>>Thanks
>>>
>>>Michael Kupka
>>To be honest, unless it is a Tape Backup program that supports shitty
>>QIC-80, it would be worthless to me. I suspect that under OS/2, since so
>>much diskspace is required, and people are running on higher end
>>machines, no one in there right mind is going to back 200 megs onto
>>floppies.
>>
>>As far as QIC-80 drives, I did research on writing drivers and a tape
>>backup program, but it would take too much time, and I questioned it
>>feasability since the IBMFLPY driver may need to be modified.
>>
>>   ---Ken
>>
>>
>>-- 
>>Ken Bass (kbass@gmuvax2.gmu.edu)              |   Telecommunications  
>>George Mason University                       |   Techniques Corp, 
>>Student, Department of Electrical Engineering |   Software Engineer 
>
>
>In my opinion you are wrong about backing up to floppies.  Many people and
>companies use a backup strategy which allows them to backup to convenient
>(but small) media such as floppies.  This strategy is to establish a area
>of the disk which contains the operating system, and area for programs, and
>an area for user stuff.  The operating system area and the programs area are 
>only backed up when they are modified.  The user data area is always backed
>up and in general may not be that large.  The benefit of backing up to
>relatively inexpensive floppies which are supported by the os makes such
>a program and process very attractive.  At this point in OS/2, we have little
>choice unless we are willing to shell out a lot of money for a tape drive.
>Diskette drivers are standard with OS/2...
>
>Scott Hiles
>whiles@relay.nswc.navy.mil



This strategy is ok so long as the data doesn't grow too large. There
is also a bit of a difference with OS/2 with all those EA's and INI
files, not backing up those can stuff your entire system. Keeping
things on different partitions (OS,APPS,DATA) is a good start but
OS/2 tends to spread things around a bit making it hard to keep track
of what needs to be backed up.

The main problem at the moment is that there is only one backup
program for diskettes readily available; the braindead BACKUP/RESTORE
that comes with OS/2. As a user of PC-Backup under DOS I had grown
used to being able to recover from errors and media defects with ease.
The builtin backup has no such protection. Out of a 30 disk backup I
did a week ago disk 17 was stuffed. None of my tools could recover it
and the *#!@ restore won't let you skip a dud disk. It took hours to
dig the data off the remaining disks.

Whether you back up 1 meg or 1 gig makes no difference, be it on
floppies or tapes or whatever. Having good software that can cope with
the inevitable disasters is a necessity. Confidence in your data is
only as good as your last restore.


Trevor Lampre
MIS Unit
Flinders University of South Australia
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.apps