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Stowaway
True Archival System for PC Systems
Offered by: Patri-Soft
Reference Guide
by Norm Patriquin
Patri-Soft
5225 Canyon Crest Drive Suite 71-358
Riverside, CA 92507
Patriquin's BBS
--> (DATA) 909-352-2825
--> (VOICE) 909-352-2820
--> (FAX) 909-352-1527
--> Copyright 1992,1993 by Patri-Soft
all rights reserved
Stowaway User's Guide Table of Contents
WARRANTY INFORMATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Important Information About This Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
About Stowaway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Stowaway Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Archiving with Stowaway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
System Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Installation from the distribution diskette . . . . . . . . . 6
Setting system options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Test to verify installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Quick Start guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Starting Stowaway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Archiving files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Starting from the menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Selecting files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Changing directories to select from . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Viewing files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Associating a group name with files . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Archive processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Archive termination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Restoring files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Restoring files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Initial restore file selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Selecting a group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Restore now or list specific files . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Selecting files from the selection list . . . . . . . . . . 17
Restore processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Restore termination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Archival Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Archival vs Compression Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
How Stowaway works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Archive Volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Archive Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Archive File Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Archive File Expiration Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
page i
Stowaway User's Guide Table of Contents
Other Archive Indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Stowaway reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Preparing archive volume sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Stowaway's Main Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Manual Archive Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Entering archive file descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Request window for file description . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
The Archive File Selection Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Selecting Groups of Files for Archival . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Archive File Selection Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Archiving a full directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Completing file selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Automatic Archive Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Path to archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Pattern to archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Process all subdirectories (Y/N): . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Files Older than . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Archive until this amount of freespace met . . . . . . . . . . 32
Select only files needing backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Reset ARCHIVE attribute after archival . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Specifying Archive Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Archive groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Adding an archive group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Archive Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Status Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Totals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Current File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Disk Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Request for archive volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Recovering from disk write errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Completing archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Entering Restore Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Selecting Group to Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Listing Files to Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Restore File Select List Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Starting Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Restore Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
page ii
Stowaway User's Guide Table of Contents
Overlaying Files with duplicate Names . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Completing Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Utility Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
--> Compact the volumes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Remove files after archival . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
--> Prepare files for Auto Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Delete files from archives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Verify archived files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Build index from archive volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Erase archive indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
--> Archive summary statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
--> Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
--> Basic system options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
--> Advanced system options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
--> Set alternate colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Command Line operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
command line format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Command parameter explanations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Specifying options through DOS environment variables . . . . . . 58
Archive Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Multiple Archive sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Backing up the indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Making copies of archive data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
The Context Sensitive Help System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Operating system compatibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Archive device compatibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
I/O errors on disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Technical Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
page iii
Stowaway User's Guide Copyright 1993 by Patri-Soft
IMPORTANT WARRANTY INFORMATION
TRIAL USE (SHAREWARE EVALUATION VERSION) WARRANTY:
The Shareware evaluation (trial use) version is provided AS IS. Patri-
Soft MAKES NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND/OR FITNESS
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
REGISTERED VERSION ONLY WARRANTY:
Patri-Soft warrants the physical diskette(s) and physical
documentation provided with registered versions to be free of defects
in materials and workmanship for a period of ninety days from the date
of registration. If Patri-Soft receives notification within the
warranty period of defects in materials or workmanship, and such
notification is determined by Patri-Soft to be correct, Patri-Soft
will replace the defective diskette(s) or documentation.
The entire and exclusive liability and remedy for breach of this
Limited Warranty shall be limited to replacement of defective
diskette(s) or documentation and shall not include or extend to any
claim for or right to recover any other damages, including but not
limited to, loss of profit, data, or use of the software, or special,
incidental, or consequential damages or other similar claims, even if
Patri-Soft has been specifically advised of the possibility of such
damages. In no event will Patri-Soft's liability for any damages to
you or any other person ever exceed the lower of suggested list price
or actual price paid for the license to use the software, regardless
of any form of the claim.
Patri-Soft SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ALL OTHER WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF
MERCHANTABILITY AND/OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
page 1
Stowaway User's Guide Copyright 1993 by Patri-Soft
---------------------------------------
Important Information About This Manual
---------------------------------------
===============================================
This manual for Stowaway is distributed as
machine readable text with the Shareware
version of Stowaway. It is different from the
bound, printed manual for the registered
version of Stowaway. The bound version is in
a 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 format, spiral bound, and is
professionally formatted with figures to
describe Stowaway's features.
This manual is designed to print on any
printer. It describes all features in Stowaway
and basically has the same text as the bound
manual. You will receive the bound manual
when you register Stowaway.
===============================================
page 2
Stowaway User's Guide Copyright 1993 by Patri-Soft
About Stowaway
Stowaway is a personal archival system for your computer. Stowaway
releases space on your hard disk by archiving inactive files to
offline storage media such as diskette.
The files and software on our PC systems are changing at a rapid
pace. We are constantly creating new data, trying new software,
and updating old systems. Our hard disks become vessels holding
massive amounts of information we want to keep at our fingertips.
In our fast paced world, much of what we use today is old tomorrow!
Old data and software clutter our hard disks files and do little
more than take up space. These files get in our way when we search
for the files we need.
Deleting old files is not a solution, as we may have use for them
in the future, so we end up purchasing more hard disk space to
increase our storage capacity.
Although we do have need for larger hard disks to accommodate
today's larger software and more complex systems, we can also use
what space we have more efficiently. Hard disks are expensive
storage locations for inactive data. Based on disk storage prices
in 1992, it costs about $5.00 to store 1,000,000 characters of data
on a hard disk. You can store the same amount of data in archive
format on diskette for less than $0.50. This example shows a
substantial savings to be gained archiving data. Inactive data
should be stored on inexpensive media and in a place where we no
longer have to deal with it each day.
Stowaway is a solution to the storage and maintenance of your
inactive files. It manages the process of storing and tracking
inactive data on less expensive storage media such as diskettes.
Stowaway automates the task of moving files to offline storage and
cataloging them so they may be quickly located and restored when
you need them. Stowaway is a data and software archival system for
your personal computer.
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Stowaway User's Guide Copyright 1993 by Patri-Soft
Stowaway Features
∙ Age and select files for archival automatically based on your
specification criteria.
∙ Select files to be archived from optional scrollable selection
lists.
∙ Locate archived files quickly using hard disk archive indexes
maintained by Stowaway.
∙ Formats new diskettes automatically.
∙ Compressed data over 50%.
∙ Recover files to their original or new location.
∙ Archive to diskette, removable hard disks, or optical disks.
∙ Transport archives to other systems.
∙ Create multiple archive sets to keep archives for different
users on the same system.
∙ Categorize archive files into groups.
∙ Add descriptive text to archive files.
∙ Archive and restore directories or trees.
∙ View WordPerfect and text files.
∙ Assign expiration dates to archived files
∙ Run with command line parameters or menus.
∙ Examine context sensitive help at any time.
∙ Copy archive volumes easily to offsite storage.
∙ Archive files in a network environment.
--> ∙ Delete files and compact volume space for future use
page 4
Stowaway User's Guide Copyright 1993 by Patri-Soft
Archiving with Stowaway
Stowaway moves files to offline disk volumes and keeps indexes of
them on your hard drive. You retain the same access to inactive
files that you had when they were on your hard disk. The index is
instantly accessible to let you locate files. When you need a file
again, Stowaway will bring it back from storage for you.
Stowaway organizes your archives volumes in simple numerical order
so it is easy to file and locate archive volumes. All archive
volumes are numbered sequentially starting at 1. Newly archived
files are stored in the next available space on archive volumes.
Volumes are completely used before new volumes are started.
Stowaway tracks volumes by number and records information about the
exact location of every stored file in its hard disk index.
Archive volumes are stored in numeric order. During restore
processing, Stowaway determines where the archived file is stored,
and requests archive volumes by number.
This organization lets you to keep hundreds of volumes of archive
data while still maintaining easy access to any file.
Use Stowaway to save all your old and seldom used files. Archive:
1. Old versions of software
2. Old documentation
3. Old data files
4. Old system configuration information
5. Picture and graphic files
page 5
Stowaway User's Guide Copyright 1993 by Patri-Soft
System Setup
Installation from the distribution diskette
To install Stowaway take the following steps...
1. Place distribution diskette in any diskette drive.
2. Enter the following INSTALL command. (If you are not
using drive A, substitute the appropriate drive letter as
the first letter in the command.)
A:INSTALL
Once the installation is complete, you will find the following
files installed in the selected directory on your hard disk:
STOW.EXE The Stowaway program file.
STOW.HLP Contains the context sensitive help.
The first time Stowaway is started it builds files it needs for
its general operation. They are:
STOSAWAY.DAT The options file. These options are set using
the Setup option from the Stowaway menu.
STOVOLIX.DAT Stowaway's index containing information about
each archive volume it maintains.
STOGRPIX.DAT Stowaway's index containing information about
each archive group defined.
STOFILIX.DAT Stowaway's index containing information about
each file maintained in the archives.
Note: Each of the installed file names begin with the letters
"STO". Stowaway allows multiple archive sets to be created.
Each set is assigned a three letter identification. Stowaway's
index and option file names will be prefixed with the three
letter identifier on secondary archive sets so archive set data
is maintained independently. Alternate archive sets will be
discussed further in subsequent sections of this manual.
page 6
Stowaway User's Guide Copyright 1993 by Patri-Soft
--> Setting Basic system options
Stowaway is installed with default system options. Verify these
options before using Stowaway. Enter the STOW command from the
DOS command line:
C> STOW<Enter>
--> From Stowaway's Main Menu, select the Options function by pressing
'O' or by using the menu selection bar.
--> Stowaway's options menu will be displayed. Choose the menu item
--> "Basic System Options". Examine and modify the options as they
--> are appropriate for you. The following descriptions will help
--> you decide what options to choose. Help is always available by
--> pressing <F1> at any time.
Drive to archive to/from?
Enter the letter of the DOS device you will use to write
archive data. This may be the drive letter of any valid DOS
mountable disk device. You may use 5 1/4 or 3 1/2 diskette
formats or large capacity demountable hard disk type devices.
Level of compression desired?
Use the Right and Left cursor positioning keys to select the
level of compression desired for data written to the archives.
NONE Do not compress archive data. Will provide the
fastest possible archiving but you will use many
archive disks.
MINIMUM Provides about 40% compression of data but is not
as slow as higher compression levels. This is the
recommended level of compression.
STANDARD Provides about 45% compression on data but is not
as slow as MAXIMUM compression.
MAXIMUM Provides 50-60% compression but is slower than
other compression.
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Stowaway User's Guide Copyright 1993 by Patri-Soft
Disk capacity?
Specify the size of disk you will be using for archival. Each
archival disk should be the same size. This size is used when
Stowaway formats new diskettes for the archives.
If you incorrectly specify a size of a high density disk and
place a low density disk in the drive, Stowaway will format
the disk as a high density disk and format errors occur.
Enter descriptions when archiving (Y/N/Ask)
Since filenames are often not descriptive enough to help
locate a file, you can optionally enter descriptive text for
each file archived. Descriptions are entered when files are
selected for archival.
Enter 'Y' if Stowaway is to prompt for descriptive text for
each file to be archived. When 'N' is specified Stowaway will
not prompt for descriptions.
Enter 'A' to make Stowaway <A>sk if descriptions are to be
entered before archive selection is started.
A value of <Yes> assumes descriptions are to be asked for.
Even with a value of <Yes>, you may temporarily suspend
entering descriptions for each file by pressing <Escape> when
the description is requested. You will not be asked for
descriptions for subsequent files.
Perform a group archive? (Y/N/Ask)
After selecting files for archival, you may assign a group
name to the set of files. This group name lets you categorize
files stored in the archives. During restore, you can list or
select files by group name, as well as filename or directory
name.
Groups and their descriptions are saved by Stowaway in its
indexes. New groups may be added at any time. When prompted
for a group name, you are presented with a scrollable
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Stowaway User's Guide Copyright 1993 by Patri-Soft
selection list of existing groups. You may select one of the
previously defined groups, or a new group to store the files
under.
Typical groups might be SPREADSHEET, GRAPHICS, SMITHS,
LETTERS, MEMOS, HOME, CORPORATE, etc.
Enter 'Y' to be prompted to enter group information for sets
of files to be archived. Specify 'A' to have Stowaway <A>sk
if you want to enter group names before each archive process.
Enter 'N' to indicate group names are not to be associated
with archived files.
Enter an expiration date for files archived? (Y/N)
Expiration dates may be optionally specified for each set of
files archived. When 'N' is specified to bypass the prompt
for expiration dates during archive file selection, you may
still specify expiration dates by pressing <F8> while
selecting files for archival. Enter 'Y' if you want Stowaway
to prompt for an expiration date during archive file
selection.
Verify archive data after it is written? (Y/N)
For data integrity, Stowaway can verify archive volume
contents before deleting archived files from your hard disk.
The verify process is performed just before you are asked to
remove an archive volume from the drive. Verification rereads
the entire disk to make sure the data is accessible.
Use DOS Verify feature? (Y/N)
DOS provides a Verify feature to check that data is properly
written during disk write processing. This feature adds
additional time to verify disk data during processing, but
provides an additional level of assurance that archive data is
properly written to disk and can later be accessed. This
verification may also be activated through the DOS VERIFY
command. Documentation about it may be found in DOS reference
manuals.
page 9
Stowaway User's Guide Copyright 1993 by Patri-Soft
Enter 'Y' to have Stowaway activate the DOS VERIFY feature
during its operation. We recommend you use this feature.
Sound speaker tones when action needed? (Y/N)
If you dislike the speaker sounds Stowaway makes during
processing, specify <N> to have Stowaway disable all sounds
during its operation.
When <Y> is specified, you will hear a quiet tic as each file
is archived. This gives you audible signal that archive is
currently working. You will also be beeped whenever Stowaway
is waiting for you to take an action, such as placing another
volume in the drive.
Action to perform on archived files?
Normally archival is the process of copying files to another
storage location and then deleting them from your hard disk.
If you want to retain the files on your hard disk after
archiving them, specify "Keep".
Specify <Ask> to indicate you desire to be prompted before
Stowaway processes the files after archival. At the prompt
you may decide if the files are to be deleted or not.
Stowaway may also ready the archived files for Auto Restore by
setting this entry to "Auto Restore." Auto Restore is a
unique way to manage your archived files. For more details
about AR, see the file, AUTOREST.TXT.
When experimenting with Stowaway, set this value to "Keep."
You may then practice archival without actually removing
files from your system. Stowaway comes with this option set
to "None." When you are ready to start archiving, set this
value to the desired setting.
A potential reason for archiving without deleting is to use
Stowaway to copy selected files to diskette to take to another
location. You still want to keep the files on your current
drive. Another use of archival without deletion is to take a
copy of files to place in the archives for historical reasons.
You may store multiple files in the archives with the same
name. This lets you keep copies of the same file at different
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Stowaway User's Guide Copyright 1993 by Patri-Soft
points in its life.
Overlay files when restoring? (Y/N/Ask)
If during restore, Stowaway finds a file already defined on
the hard disk with the same name as the file being restored,
it must decide if the existing file is to be replaced, or to
bypass restoring the file.
The following options to indicate what action Stowaway is to
take when files of duplicate names are found during restore
processing.
Yes Replace the existing file with the new file.
No Don't overlay the existing file. Skip the restore
for the file and continue restoring other files.
Ask Prompt when duplicate files are encountered and ask
if the file is to be replaced, or the restore
bypassed.
Update
Replace files that are newer than the ones present
on the disk. The DOS date of the file on the hard
disk will be compared to the DOS date of the
archive file recorded when the file was originally
archived.
Test to verify installation
After Stowaway is successfully installed you will want to take a
few minutes to learn how it works and develop come confidence in
it. You may test Stowaway without actually archiving any data
from your hard disk by setting the "Delete files after archival"
Setup option to <N>.
Explore Stowaway's features by archiving and restoring files and
directories. When restoring files, always specify an alternate
restore target pathname so you will not replace the files on
your hard disk during your evaluation.
page 11
Stowaway User's Guide Copyright 1993 by Patri-Soft
Since Stowaway allows multiple archive sets to be created, you
can create a special archive set to test or demonstrate
Stowaway. If you would like to use this feature specify /ID:TMP
on the Stowaway command line or set a DOS environment variable
with the archive set id desired.
SET STOW=/ID:TMP
You may delete the test archive set by using the Clean option
from Stowaway's utility menu.
Archive volumes used for the test archive set may be reused for
any other archive set. You do not need to delete the files on
the disk before reusing them as Stowaway will do this for you.
page 12
Stowaway User's Guide Copyright 1993 by Patri-Soft
Quick Start guide
If you dislike reading manuals and want to get right to the action,
this section will get you started using Stowaway. Remember the
<F1> key provides direct access to information about your current
action in Stowaway. The context sensitive help system provides
complete information for using the system.
Starting Stowaway
Use the STOW command to start Stowaway. Stowaway may be started
from any directory or disk. Stowaway uses indexes and options
from the directory \STOW.
You may place the STOW directory in your PATH environment
variable (see your DOS manual) or may specify the pathname where
the STOW command exists as the command prefix. Following are
some command examples:
STOW
\STOW\STOW
D:\STOW\STOW
Stowaway can be run from the DOS command line using command line
parameters. Command line parameters are documented later in
this manual. This section assumes you are using menus to direct
Stowaway's operation.
We assume you have already used the Setup of the Main Menu to
specify system options. If you have not done this yet, do it
now.
Archiving files
1. Starting from the menu...
Select the Archive function from Stowaway's main menu. You
will be presented with a second menu to select how files to be
archived are to be selected. Files can be automatically
selected based on entered specifications, or manually select
files from scrollable directory lists. Choose the manual
selection option for your evaluation. This will give you a
good idea of how Stowaway works.
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Stowaway User's Guide Copyright 1993 by Patri-Soft
Depending on Setup options specified, you may be asked the
following question...
Do you want to enter descriptions for
files to be archived? (Y/N)
Answer 'Y' if you want to manually enter a description for one
or more files to be archived.
2. Selecting files...
Next you will be presented with a display of files from the
current directory. This is a selection list to let you to
mark files for archival. Press the <Space Bar> to toggle your
selection on or off.
Depending on your options, Stowaway may ask you to enter a
description for any files you mark to be archived. To ignore
the description for a single file, press <Enter> without
entering any data. To ignore entering descriptions for this
and all subsequent files, press the <Escape> key.
File descriptions will assist you in locating files at restore
time. You will be able to browse through description data as
well as file names, and directory names.
3. Changing directories to select from...
At the top of the scrollable list of files are subdirectories
defined within the directory. These serve two purposes.
First they can be selected like files to mark an entire
directory or directory tree for archiving. Second, you can
position the selection bar on a directory name and press
<Enter> to change the list displayed to a new directory.
Stowaway remembers all selected files even though you may
change directories. The upper right hand portion of the
display shows the total number of files and amount of disk
space to be freed as a result of archival.
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4. Viewing files...
Press <F1> for help with all the functions of the selection
screen. You can View WordPerfect or text files by positioning
the selection bar on them and pressing <V>.
When you have marked some files for archival and are ready to
move to the next step press <F10>.
5. Associating a group name with files...
Depending on setup options specified, you may be asked if you
want to assign a group name to the files to be archived. If
you respond 'Y' Stowaway will present you with a group
selection display.
Archive groups are a feature provided to help you categorize
your archive data more effectively. Locating files by name
may not seem difficult at archival time, but after a few
months you will appreciate any additional comments you may
have attached to file names.
Enter any group name to be associated with the set of files to
be archived, and enter a description to help explain the
purpose of the group.
6. Archive processing...
Stowaway will present an archive status display. You will
immediately be asked to place an archive volume in the output
drive. Place any formatted or unformatted disk in the drive.
IF THE DISK CONTAINS DATA IT WILL BE ERASED! Press <Enter> to
indicate the volume is ready.
Archive processing will progress while continually updating
the status on the display. You will be asked for additional
disk volumes as they are needed. Label each archive volume
with the number indicated by Stowaway. It is usually
sufficient to place a label with a large number on it.
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7. Archive termination...
When archive processing ends, Stowaway saves its own indexes
and options at the end of the archived data on the archive
volume. This may be used if you need to recover the indexes
on another machine.
Restoring files
1. Restoring files...
Restore processing is very similar to archive processing
except you select files to be restored from Stowaway's index
of archived files. From the Stowaway Main Menu, select
restore to begin processing.
2. Initial restore file selection...
There are three levels of file selection in restore. Each
successive level further qualifies files to be restored.
At the first level, you indicate any pathname or filename
wildcard entries to be used to select files to be restored.
On the same display you can specify beginning and ending dates
for files qualify for restore.
Press <F10> after entering the information. You are not
required to enter any data at this point. Press <F10> to
proceed to the next selection display.
3. Selecting a group...
If you have associated group names with files you archived,
you will be presented with a selection display of all defined
groups and asked if you want to restore files from any
particular group.
The first entry in this list is a generic entry indicating to
select files from all groups. Other entries are for specific
groups. Selecting a specific group at this point will isolate
the files to be restored to files associated with that group.
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Pressing <Enter> from this display will move you to the next
step in restore selection.
4. Restore now or list specific files...
Stowaway now asks if you want to restore all files found in
the archive indexes matching level 1 and level 2 selection
criteria, or if you want to review a list of these files and
select specific ones to restore.
If you have already entered enough information to have the
proper files restored, you are ready to begin. Start restore
by pressing <R>.
5. Selecting files from the selection list...
Selecting <L> for List will cause Stowaway to locate all files
that qualify your selection criteria. Files will be displayed
in a scrollable selection list. You may mark any number of
files to be restored. Use the <Space Bar> to toggle selection
on or off.
Use the <F1> key to see other features of the restore
selection display. You may sort the list, zoom it larger to
fill the display and display alternate information about the
archived data.
When finished with the selection list, press <F10> to begin
restoring the selected files.
6. Restore processing...
The restore status display will be shown and you will
immediately be asked to place a specific archive disk in the
drive. Press <Enter> to indicate the disk is ready. Restore
will begin and its status will be reported until all files
are processed.
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7. Restore termination...
When restore completes Stowaway will display a message
indicating it is done. Remove the archive volume from the
drive and file it in your archive set.
That is all there is to basic Stowaway processing. There are
several features we have not mentioned in this quick start
section. Use the help system or browse this manual to learn
more about the system.
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Archival Concepts
Hard disks are not intended to be repositories for a lifetime of
information. When we get a larger hard disk it enables us to store
more files, but does not solve our problem of managing inactive
files. We often keep old and obsolete files on our hard disks just
in case we might someday need them. It becomes convenient to save
old copies of data just in case we might need them.
Unfortunately, we gradually consume the space on the disk and begin
looking for ways to release disk space. We can immediately delete
some files. Others we may compress to keep around while reducing
the disk space they require. When all else fails, we look for files
to copy to diskette for safe keeping.
This scenario demonstrates some of the basic parts of computer disk
storage management. They are:
1. Remove unneeded data by deleting it.
2. Compress data on primary storage when practical.
3. Move old or archive copies of data to less expensive
storage.
4. Purchase new primary storage only when necessary.
You might think that hard disks are not expensive, why not just
keep buying bigger ones? Purchasing additional disk space might
work for a while but there are other costs to keeping data than
just hard disk space.
Every file on your hard disk must be managed. It must be kept track
of, as well as regularly backed up. The more files we keep on our
hard disk, the more work we have to do to manage them. Archival is
a procedure for moving data to a special offline location where the
cost of management and storage is much less than on our hard disk.
Archived data is stored away so we do not have to work with it on a
day-to-day basis. Archived files no longer require repeated
backup, and they are filed properly once, so they may be easily
found when needed.
One common use of archiving is to save old generations of data.
For instance, you might want to keep a copy of a customer database
on a monthly basis. This lets you go back and restore the database
from any monthly copy. Backup systems don't provide this
capability as they only keep one or two old copies of data.
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The concept of archival is not new to us, we use archival
techniques in our everyday lives. For example, the federal
government requires us to keep years of tax receipts for proof in
case we are eventually audited. We may keep our current years tax
receipts and data in our desk, but we typically don't have enough
desk space to hold several years of information. It is instead
"archived" to the closet or garage for storage. The garage holds
more information than the desk, and is a less costly storage area.
It is the same concept for hard disk management.
Many computer users have implemented simple archival systems of
their own. They usually consist of using the DOS COPY command to
copy old files to diskette. Then they store the disks in a safe
location. This technique is valid but is often incomplete because
we do not take the time and effort to properly catalog and organize
the disks as we create them. We quickly discover this when we go
looking for a file we once saved to diskette and cannot locate it.
Stowaway's archival system provides the proven methodology and
software to create and manage our archives for us. It is
implemented to make archiving data almost effortless. You don't
need to worry about how to label or store archive diskettes. When
a file is needed, Stowaway helps locate it quickly. Stowaway puts
your computer to work for you to manage your archive data.
Archival vs Compression Systems
Since modems were introduced and PC users began transmitting files
to other systems, file compression utilities were developed to
reduce the number of characters transmitted over phone lines
between two computers. They also served to group files together
for transmission.
These same compression utilities were quickly found useful for
compressing and storing data in a format that used less disk space.
Over the years different compression utilities have proliferated.
They have greatly improved in their compression ability and
performance, but still provide the same basic function of
compression and grouping data.
Some of these utilities become known as archival systems even
though they only archive data in a crude sense. They do not
automate the storage and cataloging of data for a user. They rely
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on the user to "archive" the compressed files to offline storage
using the DOS COPY command.
Compression systems provide valuable capabilities to the PC user
and allow for much more efficient use of hard disk space, but their
archival capabilities are limited and should not substitute for a
good archival system.
How Stowaway works
Archive Volumes
Different disk device types may be used to contain archival data.
These devices may include 3 1/2 diskettes, 5 1/4 diskettes,
removable hard disk devices, optical disk devices, and more. Due
to this variety of archival storage devices, any archive storage
media is referred to by Stowaway as an archive volume.
Stowaway archival processing takes the files you select and writes
them on archive volumes. Each file is written to volume in a
compressed format. Each Stowaway archive volume contains two
files. The first file is an archive volume label file identifying
the archive volume as well as information about other volumes
written before and after the volume.
The second file on an archive volume contains all archive data
written to the volume. This file contains any number of compressed
archived files and corresponding information needed to restore
them. Since all files are written to a single output file, archive
disk space is saved and archive performance is improved.
To use volumes efficiently, each volume is completely filled before
a new volume is started. Whenever a new archive process is
started, Stowaway asks for the last archive volume used for the
previous archive. It then appends new data being archived to the
same volume.
Archive Sets
A set of archive volumes is a series of numbered diskettes or disk
volumes containing archive data. Stowaway uses only one set of
archive data for any archive process. To use an alternative
archive set you start Stowaway with a 3 character set identifier.
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Use the /ID:xxx parameter on the Stowaway command line.
Separate hard disk archive indexes are created for each archive
volume set. Basically, archive sets let you keep track of multiple
archives with Stowaway. A common reason for keeping multiple
archive sets is to keep separate archives for different people
using the same machine. For example, different users on a network.
Archive File Index
As files are archived, an entry for each file is placed in an
archive index maintained in the Stowaway directory on your hard
disk. This index is always maintained on the hard disk and may
grow to be fairly large. About 80 characters of hard disk space is
used for each file archived. The archive index record contains all
information necessary for locating and restoring files. The
archive index makes it possible for Stowaway to list archive files
at your request without having to read archive volumes.
When you restore a file, Stowaway uses its index to locate files.
When the exact files to be restored are selected, information in
the index identifies the exact volumes needed to restore the file.
Stowaway starts restore processing and asks you to place specific
volumes in the drive as they are needed.
As you archive more and more data, the archives continue to grow.
Archive volumes are inexpensive as compared to hard disk space; so,
adding new volumes to the archives is not costly. To preserve hard
disk space used by the archive indexes, you may delete index
entries from the archive index.
Archive File Expiration Dates
You may optionally assign expiration dates to sets of files
archived. An expiration date is a date in the future when the
archived files can automatically be deleted from the archives.
Expiration dates are part of automated archival management.
When you specify expiration dates for archive files, you are giving
Stowaway information that lets it automatically manage archive
files and are freeing yourself from the burden of having to again
examine the file at some later time to determine if it is still
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needed. When the day of the expiration date arrives, Stowaway can
automatically remove files from the archives.
Not all files will have expiration dates. Files with no expiration
dates will be kept indefinitely. It is a good idea to assign
expiration dates whenever possible as they help to keep the
archives uncluttered.
Other Archive Indexes
In addition to the archive file index, Stowaway also maintains
indexes about each archive volume and archive group defined. The
archive volume index contains information about each volume and its
status in the archives. The group index keeps all group names
defined to Stowaway and their associated descriptions. These
indexes are maintained as separate files in the Stowaway directory.
Separate indexes are maintained for each archive set.
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Stowaway reference
Preparing archive volume sets
Before using Stowaway you will need to prepare a set of archive
volumes. When using diskettes as archive volumes, start with a
fresh box of the highest quality diskettes you can find. Of
course, Stowaway can't tell the quality of your disks, but if your
archives are important to you, it is worth a few more cents per
disk to avoid the problems and wasted time poor disks can cost you.
Take the labels provided with the disks and using a large felt
marker, number the disks sequentially 1 through 10 (or whatever).
If you plan on keeping multiple archive disk sets, you should mark
all the disks in a set with a set identifier.
Stowaway can keep separate indexes for different sets of archive
volumes. Stowaway only works with one archive set at a time. A
good use for different archive sets is to let multiple users keep
separate archive sets on a single computer. Each user can then
have their own set of archive disks. For most users only one set
of archive volumes are used.
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Stowaway's Main Menus
Following are examples of Stowaway's main menu structure. The
(...) indicate where a menu selection takes you to another sub-
menu. All other selections immediately take the action specified.
The capitalized character on each menu line indicates the menu
selection character that can be pressed to immediately select a
menu item. You may also use a mouse with a single click to select
a menu option, or use the cursor up and down keys to position a
menu selection bar and then press <Enter> to select any menu item.
Main Menu
Archive files to diskette...
Restore files from diskette
Utilities...
--> Options...
Help
Print order form
Exit
Archive
Select files manually
Scan files automatically
Quit to main menu
Utilities
--> Volume Compaction
Remove files after archival
Prepare files for auto-restore
Delete files from archives
Verify archived files
Build index from archive volume
Clean archive indexes
Archive Summary Statistics
Quit to Main
--> Options
--> Basic System Options
--> Advanced System Options
--> Set Alternate Colors
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Manual Archive Processing
The manual archive selection process lists all the files and
directories on your hard disk and lets you individually select
files for archival. While you are scrolling through the lists of
files, you may view the contents of text and WordPerfect files
using Stowaway's file viewers. You may sort file lists by file
name, age, size, name or extension.
Depending on your setup options, you may enter a description for
each file to be archived. File descriptions are stored in the
archive index and are used to locate files to be restored.
Start manual archive processing by selecting <A> from the Main Menu
followed by <S> from the Archive sub-menu.
Entering archive file descriptions
When you mark a file for archival, Stowaway may ask the following
question:
Do you want to enter descriptions for the
files to be archived? (Y/N)
Stowaway asks this question when setup options indicate
descriptions are to be entered for archived files. If you want to
take the time to enter descriptions for each file selected for
archival, answer YES to this question. You will be prompted for a
description each time you mark a file for archival. If you mark an
entire directory for archival, you will be asked for a description
for each file in the directory.
Request window for file description
The following description entry message is displayed to accept
description data.
Enter description for C:\WP\REQUEST.LTR
<Enter> accepts, <Esc> Cancels
Even though you are asked to enter a description for every file,
you can press the <Enter> key without entering descriptive text to
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indicate no description is to be maintained for the file.
To stop the prompting for descriptions, press the <Escape> key
without entering any description data. You will not be prompted
again during this archive process.
The Archive File Selection Display
Manual archiving involves scrolling through file names on your hard
disk and marking specific ones to be archived.
The display shows files for one directory at a time. Entries for
the current and root directory are always sorted to the top of the
list along with other subdirectories defined in the listed
directory.
The top border of the display indicates the drive and name of the
directory being displayed. The bottom border gives brief help
about keys used to terminate the selection process. The right hand
border of the display holds a scroll bar for mouse control of the
list. You will also see a highlighted selection bar that covers
one entry at a time in the list. The selection bar's location is
modified by using the UP, DOWN, LEFT, and RIGHT cursor control
keys.
As files are selected, a status window in the upper right portion
of the display shows the number of files selected as well as the
number of characters to be archived. This helps you to know when
you have archived enough data to free up a desired amount of disk
space.
The Drive Statistics window Total field shows space available on
your hard drive. The Used value shows the amount of hard disk
space currently in use. The Free space value shows the amount of
hard disk space currently available for use.
The Projected freespace field shows the amount of space that will
be available on your hard disk after archive processing is
complete. This field is incremented as files are tagged for
archival. The Space Tagged and Files Tagged fields are also
incremented to show how much data you have marked for archival.
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Selecting Groups of Files for Archival
If you plan to assign group names to files to be archived, you must
select and archive only one group of files at a time. Group names
are assigned to all files selected for an archive process. Group
names are selected after all files have been marked.
Group names are categories for keeping track of archive files. See
the information about group names documented later in this manual
for a complete explanation of archive groups.
Archive File Selection Operation
The following keys are active during the manual archive selection
process:
<Space Bar>
When positioned on a file name, it either marks the file
to be archived, or if the file has already been marked,
unmarks it. Filenames become highlighted in the list
after they are selected for archival. A small checkmark
symbol is also displayed next to the filename to indicate
it is selected.
<Right Arrow>
Marks the file highlighted by the selection bar for
archival. If the file is already marked for archival, it
will remain marked. The file selection bar is also moved
to the next filename in the list.
<Left Arrow>
Unmarks the file highlighted by the selection bar. If
the file is not marked for archival it will remain
unmarked. The file selection bar is also moved to the
next filename in the list.
<Enter> When the file selection bar is placed over a directory
name, changes the list to show the selected directory.
Place the highlight bar on any directory name and
press the <Enter> key to change to the directory.
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Stowaway remembers files marked for archival from
multiple directories so you may mark files from several
directories before starting archive.
Special filenames of <PARENT> and <ROOT> are shown for
any subdirectory listed. You may press <Enter> on the
<PARENT> entry to list the files in the directory above
the current directory listed. Pressing <Enter> on the
<ROOT> entry lists the root directory of the currently
selected drive.
<F1> At any time press the <F1> key for help on the current
activity.
<F3> Press <F3> to bring up a temporary window to enter a DOS
command or to exit to DOS.
<F4> Press <F4> to bring up a window to let you change the
hard disk drive to list files from.
<F10> The <F10> key signals the end of file selection
processing and starts the archive process.
<Escape>
Use the <Escape> key to terminate the manual file
selection process and return to the Stowaway main menu.
The names of marked files are not saved.
<S> Press the <S> key to activate a selection window to
specify an alternate sort sequence for the file list.
Sorting by date lets you quickly find the old files that
are good candidates for archival.
Sorting by size lets you quickly identify the largest
files that will free more disk space when archived.
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<T> Tag all files in the currently displayed directory.
After tagging all files you can untag selected files to
be omitted from processing.
<U> Untag all tagged files in the currently displayed
directory.
<V> Press the <V> key to View text or WordPerfect files. The
file viewer can examine up to 500 lines of a file. Use
the viewer to confirm the contents of a file before
deciding to archive it.
Use the cursor control keys to control the viewing of a
file and press <Escape> from the viewer to return to the
file list.
Archiving a full directory
You may position the file selection bar over any subdirectory
name and press the <Right Arrow> or <Space Bar> to mark it to be
archived. Stowaway will immediately present the following
question
C:\DIR is marked. Process all files within it?
This is a reminder that you will mark the entire directory for
archival as well as all directories below it. Press <Y> if this
is correct. Press <N> to cancel the mark directory request.
If you mark a directory for processing and are also entering
file descriptions, you will be prompted to enter descriptions
for all files in the directory.
Completing file selection
Once you have selected one or more files for archival, press the
<F10> key to exit the file selection display and proceed to start
the archive process.
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Automatic Archive Processing
Stowaway can automatically select files to be archived with your
parameter specifications. The Automatic Scanning archive process
lets you enter a set of archive specifications and then start
archive. Files will be selected that meet your archive criteria.
When you select Scan Automatic from the Stowaway menus a form will
be presented for you to complete
Complete the automatic archive specification form as follows:
Path to archive:
Enter a directory name files are to be archived from. If this
is a parent directory to other directories, files may be
archived from this directory and all its subordinate
directories.
Pattern to archive:
Enter a file pattern to be archived. *.* will select all
files from the selected directories. You may specify normal
DOS wildcard characters or extended wildcard specifications
like *TIM*.*. This would select all files having TIM as any
part of the filename. An extended wildcard specification of
*T*I*M*.* indicates to select all files having the three
characters T,I,M in the filename in the specified sequence.
Process all subdirectories (Y/N):
Specify <Y> if all subdirectories of the directory specified
are also to be searched for matching filenames. Specify <N>
if only the specified directory is to be searched.
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Files Older than:
To delete files by their age, specify a date. Stowaway will
only select files older than this date for archival. You may
enter dates information in the following formats:
1) Number of days old. Enter a number of days. This
number of days will be subtracted from the current
date. Any files older than this date will be
considered candidates for archival.
2) Gregorian Date formats - The following date formats
are supported.
31JAN91
01/31/91
01-31-91
Archive until this amount of freespace met:
To archive files until a specified amount of hard disk space
is available, enter a desired amount of hard disk free space.
Archive file selection will automatically attempt to archive
enough files to satisfy the desired freespace and then stop.
The value can be entered as a total number of characters, or
1000's of characters (K), or 1,000,000's of characters (M).
The following three examples all indicate to archive until two
million characters of freespace are available on a hard disk.
2000000 2000K 2M
Select only files needing backup?
Each DOS file has an attribute in its directory entry
indicating if has been changed since it was last backed up.
Backup programs reset this indicator after backing up the
file. DOS sets the indicator when the file is created and
whenever it is updated.
To archive files that have changed enter <Y> for this value.
Only files with this indicator set will be selected for
archival.
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Reset ARCHIVE attribute after archival?
If you want Stowaway to reset the backup indicator in a file's
directory entry after archival specify <Y>. If <N> is
specified, the backup indicator will be left in its same
condition after archival. A value of <Y> is only effective if
files are not deleted after the archival process,
After completing the form presented on the display, press <F10> to
begin the archival process. Stowaway will scan directories
selecting files for archival. If you want to terminate archive
processing before starting, press <Escape> to return to Stowaway's
main menu.
Specifying Archive Groups
Archive groups...
Before selecting files for archival, you may assign them a group
name. Group names let you categorize files in the archives. At
restore time the group name becomes one of the criteria you can
specify when selecting files.
There is no limit to the number of groups you may define to
Stowaway. New groups may be created at any time. When Stowaway
prompts you for a group name, you are presented with a
scrollable list of existing groups to select from. You may
select any previously defined group or add a new one.
To select a group to be associated with the archive set, use the
UP and DOWN arrow keys to position the scroll bar on any desired
group and press <Enter>.
Adding an archive group
New groups may be defined when examining the group name
selection list. To define a new group, select the top item on
the display <add a new group>. You will be prompted to enter a
new group name and description. After entering the group
information press <F10> to accept the new group definition.
Press <Escape> to cancel the group definition request.
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Group names may contain any alphanumeric characters. Groups are
sorted by name when listed so, selecting a good scheme for
naming groups will cause them to be displayed in a manner where
they can be quickly identified and selected. Consider a scheme
like the following:
DOS_UTILITIES
DOS_SHAREWARE
DOS_SHELLS
WP_LETTERS
WP_MEMOS
HOME_FINANCE
HOME_GAMES
Press <F10> to accept the group. Press <Escape> to cancel.
Editing an archive group
An existing archive group name and description may be edited.
Highlight the group name and press E. This will bring up the
archive name window. You may change the information as desired.
When finished, press <F10> to accept the new changes. Press ESC
at any time to exit the group archive window.
Deleting an archive group
An existing archive group may be deleted. Deleting the archive
group name DOES NOT delete the archived files. The files are
relabeled as being in no group. Highlight the group archive name
and press D. The verification prompt will be displayed. The
archive group will now be shown as deleted. Press ESC at any time
to exit the group archive window.
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Archive Processing
When all file and group selection processing is complete, archive
processing starts. Archive begins by displaying an Archive Status
display.
The archive status display keeps you informed of the progress of
archival. It contains the following information:
Status Bar
The status bar at the left side of the display gives a graphic
status of the completion of Stowaway.
Totals
The totals lines show the number of files and total characters
to be processed, completed, and remaining to be processed.
Current File
Shows information about the file currently being copied to
diskette.
Disk Statistics
The disk statistics in the lower right portion of the display
show the amount of space used on the archive volume and the
space remaining. This is useful to help you to know when you
will need another archive volume. For large archive tasks you
might want to wait to insert a new volume before going for that
short break.
Request for archive volumes
Immediately upon starting archive you will be asked to insert a new
archive volume in the drive. Stowaway has searched its volume
indexes and found volume one to be the next archive volume to use.
Place the volume in the drive and press <Enter> to start the
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archive processing.
Press <Escape> to the volume request message to be presented with
additional options you have when mounting a volume.
Stowaway options indicate when you may safely quit processing.
When a new volume is requested to hold the second part of a file
that spans multiple volumes, you may not quit processing without
having to restart archive for the file being processed.
Select Continue by pressing <C> and you will be returned to the
display requesting the volume to be placed in the drive.
When Stowaway is requesting a volume from a previous archive
process, you may press <S> to start another new disk instead of
appending the new archive data to the last used volume. Use this
feature when you do not have access to the previous archive volume.
You might have stored the used disks of your archive set in another
location, or loaned them to someone.
Recovering from disk write errors
If DOS should encounter any disk write errors when writing to the
archive volume, you will be presented with messages and options to
select to continue from the error. This only applies if the DOS
VERIFY flag (see setup) is set on.
A message is presented after DOS issues its message to RETRY, FAIL,
or ABORT after a disk I/O error. If you selected RETRY and
processing continued successfully, the file was archived
successfully. If you selected FAIL or IGNORE, the file was not
archived correctly. Select one of the following responses to
indicate how to proceed after the I/O error:
Quit
Stop archiving immediately.
Continue Normally
The retry was successful and you want to continue archiving.
If the error was caused by a faulty volume, you may want to
Try again, or Try a new volume to move the data for the file
from the questionable volume area.
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Try again
Archive the file again on a new area of the same archive
volume. This will skip over the faulty area of a volume. We
recommend using Force New disk and try again over this option
since it is better not to try and archive any more data on a
potentially faulty volume.
Force new disk and try again
(Recommended)
Stop writing to the current volume. Ask for a new volume and
start archiving for the same file again. The file will be
written to the new volume and archive processing will
continue.
Completing archive
Before archive completes you will see the following message
presented on the display. This message is for your information
only. You do not need to take any action. Stowaway is letting you
know it is backing up its archive indexes to the output archive
volume.
Saving Archive index backup to disk. Please wait
Once archival completes another message will be presented on the
display. This is to give you a chance to examine archive
statistics before leaving the archive status display. Press enter
to indicate you are ready to continue.
The last message shown by archive relates to your archive volume.
Since Stowaway has saved its indexes on the last volume it used,
you should always keep track of this volume. Remove the archive
volume from the drive and file it so you know it was the last disk
used. Turn it sideways, upside-down, backwards, or just place it
in front of all other volumes.
An easy way to keep track of the last archive volume used is to
store volumes with the used volumes behind the unused volumes.
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Keep rotating the disks as they are used. Always keep the last
disk used in the front of the set.
Once Stowaway has returned you back to its main menu you may start
another archive or end Stowaway to return back to your operating
system.
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Restore
Restore is the process of copying an archived file back to normal disk
storage. Restore is a copy, not a move. The archive copy remains
intact exactly as before the restore. You may delete the restored
copy and still have access to the data through the archives.
Restore brings a file back to your hard disk from the "archives".
Stowaway makes locating and restoring files easy. Several features
are included to help you organize the archives and locate files in
them.
Archive data is stored in a special compressed form on consecutive
disks of offline storage. The special compressed format obviously
saves disk space but also increases archive performance. Stowaway is
needed to restore any file archived by it.
Stowaway indexes all archived files in a set of hard disk indexes.
When you search for a file to be restored, Stowaway's hard disk
indexes are used to locate information about the file.
Stowaway gets a disk location and a disk number from the index and
asks you to place the disk in the drive. It then reads the data and
writes it back to your hard disk.
Restore begins by asking for specifications for files to be restored.
There are three levels of file selection:
1. First you may optionally enter filename, pathname, text to
find in file descriptions and date ranges the file must fall
within.
2. Optionally specify a group name files are to be selected from.
This will help isolate selection to a category of files in the
archives.
3. Files matching the first two specifications may be displayed
in a scrollable list for your examination and manual
selection.
Once files are selected, restore processing begins.
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Entering Restore Criteria (level 1)
After selecting the Restore option from Stowaway's main menu you will
be presented with the following display which asks for the first level
of file selection criteria. You may skip this selection level by
pressing <F10>. Stowaway will assume all files qualify this selection
level.
Drive : *
Enter a drive letter indicating the drive files were
originally archived from. '*' indicates to select files
archived from any drive.
Path : *
Enter a pathname where files were archived from. '*'
indicates to select files archived from any directory name. A
directory specification may end with '*' to indicate the files
are to be selected from any directory name beginning with the
name specified up to the *. Valid specifications are:
\
\WP
\WP*
\WP\LETTERS
\WP\LETTERS\
Pattern to restore : *.*
Enter a complete filename or wildcard pattern name of the
archived files. Extended wildcard capabilities allow you to
enter multiple * in a name specification. The * indicates any
number of characters may exist in this portion of the name.
Valid specifications are:
AUTOEXEC.BAT
AUTO*.BAT
AUTO*.*
*.*
*TOEX*.BAT
*U*O*X*.BAT
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Restore TO directory:
Optionally enter a target pathname where files are to be
restored. This is a full pathname including drive letter. If
no directory is specified, the files will be restored to their
original directories and drive. Valid specifications are:
C:\WP
\WP
C:\WP\LETTERS\
Select files where description contains:
If you have entered descriptive text for files archived, you
may select files based on the contents of descriptive text.
Enter any word or phrase to be found in descriptive text.
Only files with descriptive information containing this text
will be selected for restore. The text will be searched
ignoring upper/lower case.
Select files archived AFTER this date :
Optionally enter a date to reject files last created or
updated on or prior to the date.
Select files archived BEFORE this date:
Optionally enter a date to reject files last created or
updated on or after the date.
Selecting Group to Restore (level 2)
If you would like to further qualify your file selection by
selecting only files archived under a group name, scroll through
the group list and choose a group.
To select a group to restore files from, use the UP and DOWN arrow
keys to position the scroll bar on any desired group and press
<Enter>. To ignore groups and select files from all groups, select
the top item (all groups) and press <Enter>.
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Listing Files to Restore (level 3)
The third level of restore file selection is manual selection of
exact files to be restored. Manual selection is an optional step.
If you have already specified sufficient criteria to select all
files to be restored, press <R> to restore all selected files. If
you would like to list all files matching the selection criteria
entered, press <L>. You will be presented with a scrollable
selection list of files.
Restore File Select List Processing
Scrollable selection lists provide complete information about files
maintained in Stowaway's archives. Due to the amount of data
stored about each file, Stowaway provides four different views of
this list. Each view shows a different category of information
about archived files.
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Contents of archive list views
View # 1
Filename
DOS File Date
DOS File Time
Original file Size
Original Pathname
View # 2
Filename
Archive Date
Archive Time
Archive Size
Compression Percent
Archive Volume ID.
View # 3
Filename
File Description
View # 4
Filename
Group Name
Expiration Date
Starting archive volume
Ending Archive volume
Offset where data stored on volume
When the scrollable selection list is first displayed VIEW #1 is
shown. To change between the three different views, press the <F6>
key. As <F6> is repeatedly pressed the next view is shown. VIEW #1
is shown again after VIEW #4.
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The following keys are active when the restore selection list is
displayed:
<Space Bar> Toggles selection - marks unmarked files to be
selected for restore. Unmarks marked files to remove
them from being selected.
<Right Arrow>
Marks file to be selected for restore. Advances the file
selection bar to the next file. Holding down the key
will mark a series of files.
<Left Arrow> Unmarks file selected for restore. Advances the
file selection bar to the next file. Holding down
the key will unmark a series of files.
<F1> Help
<F2> Zoom. When first displayed, the scrollable list is shown
in reduced size to make room for help text at the bottom
of the display. Press <F2> to zoom the screen larger.
The help text at the bottom of the screen will disappear.
Press <F2> again to reduce the display and view the help
at the bottom.
<F3> Enter a DOS Command
<F5> Locate text. If you have entered descriptive text for
archived files, you may search for words or phrases in
the text. Press <F5> to request a window to enter the
text to be found. Stowaway will search all displayed
files for the entered text. Only files containing the
text will be displayed.
<F6> Show next VIEW. Toggles between the three different
views of the archive file list.
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<F10> Start restore. After you have marked one or more files
to be restored, press <F10> to accept the selected items
and start restore.
<Escape> Exit file selection list and quit restore processing.
<S> Sort the list. Press <S> to display a selection menu of
alternate sort sequences for the restore selection list.
Name order Sorts by filename
Directory order Sort by filename within directory
name.
daTe order Sort by the date the file was last
updated or created (before it was
archived).
Archive date Sort files in sequence by the date
they were archived.
Starting Restore
After starting restore Stowaway determines the volumes needed to
restore the files and immediately requests you place the first volume
needed in the input drive.
Locate the requested volume from your set of archive volumes and place
it in the drive. You may terminate restore at any time by pressing
<Escape> when Stowaway is requesting an input volume. All files
restored to this point of processing are restored correctly. Other
files selected will need to be selected again in a subsequent restore
process to be restored.
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Restore Processing
The restore status display keeps you informed of the progress of
restoring files. It has the following basic contents:
Status Bar
The status bar at the left side of the display gives a graphic
status of the completion of Stowaway.
Totals
The totals lines show the number of files and total characters
to be processed, completed, and remaining to be processed.
Current File
Shows information about the file currently being restored.
Disk Statistics
The disk stats shown in the lower right portion of the display
show how much space is used on the target hard disk and how much
freespace remains.
Overlaying Files with duplicate Names
If Stowaway finds that a file with the same name as the one being
restored already exists in the target directory, it may overwrite
the file with the archive version, bypass restoring the file, or
compare the dates and times of the two files and restore the file
only if it is a more recent copy than the version on disk.
Stowaway Setup options let you specify any of these alternatives as
an action to automatically be taken during restore. A special
setup option of "Ask" indicates restore processing is to ask what
action to take each time a duplicate file name is found. The
following question is asked.
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File B.BAT already exists. Ok to replace?
Yes/No/Update/Continuous update/continuous Replace
Press Y, N, U, C, or R to indicate the action to take. <Escape>
immediately terminates restore. Following are explanations of
possible responses:
<Yes> Replace the file immediately. The archive file
will overlay the already existing file.
<No> Do not restore the file. Leave the file on the
hard disk.
<Update> Restore the file if it is a newer version than the
file on the target drive. If the archive file is
older than the disk file, bypass restoring this
file.
<Continuous update>
This is the same response as <Update> with the
additional feature of indicating Stowaway is not to
ask this question again if another duplicate file
name is found. A answer of <Update> will be
assumed for all future instances of this situation
during this restore process.
<continuous Replace>
This is the same response as <Replace> with the
additional feature that Stowaway is not to ask this
question again if another duplicate file name is
found. An answer of <Replace> will be assumed for
all future instances of this situation during this
restore process.
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Completing Restore
After all files have been restored the a message will be presented
over the Restore Status Display. It is an informational message to
let you know the last action taken by Stowaway. Press <Enter> to
acknowledge the message and return to Stowaway's main menu.
Utility Functions
The utility menu off Stowaway's main menu provides access to
functions supporting Stowaway archive and restore functions.
Select Utilities from the main menu to access the following menu of
options.
Utilities
--> Compact the volumes
Remove files after archival
Prepare files for Auto-Restore
Delete files from archives
Verify archived files
Build index from archive volume
Erase archive indexes
Archive summary statistics
Quit to Main
--> Utilities - Compact the volumes
--> Stowaway's archive compaction frees up archive disk space that has
--> been occupied by deleted files. This process requires at least 1.5
--> million characters of available hard drive space (1.5 Meg).
--> Stowaway compacts all disks in the backup set, until F10 is pressed
--> or it completes normally. If F10 is pressed, Stowaway will complete
--> the current disk and then terminate.
--> Stowaway will read the non-deleted files off of each archive
--> diskette and append them onto the end of the archive set, allowing
--> the original diskette to be reused in future archivals.
Utilities - Remove files after archival
Stowaway options let you archive files without deleting files after
archival is complete. When you use this feature Stowaway keeps a
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list of the files archived. This list may be used to later delete
the files from the original hard disk. The purpose of this feature
is to provide an optional capability to let you archive data and
verify archive disks before deleting the original files.
Use this utility option to delete the last set of files archived
from your system. A message will appear indicating files are being
deleted. Once all files are deleted you will be presented with a
message indicating all files have been successfully deleted.
Utilities - Prepare files for Auto Restore
If you want to use the Auto Restore package (see AUTOREST.INF for
information about Auto Restore), then you might want to take a
number of previously archived files and prepare them for use with
Auto Restore. This operation is similar to the above operation,
with the exception that it does not physically delete the files,
it sets them to 0 bytes and a time of 12:00am. This is an
indication to Auto Restore that the file has been archived. See
the above for instructions.
Utilities - Delete files from archives
When you no longer need to keep files in the archives the Delete
Archive File function will find selected archive file index entries
and remove them.
The Delete Archive File function selects the files to be deleted in
the same way restore processing selects files. You will be
presented with a display asking for specifications for files to be
deleted. Complete the form and press <F10> to accept the
specifications.
Stowaway will search the archive indexes for all files matching the
selection criteria. You will be presented with a selection list
similar to the one presented during restore processing. Select the
specific files to be removed from the archives. When done with
specific file selection press <F10>.
Stowaway will remove each index entry from the archives. You will
no longer be able to restore the files with Stowaway. Archive
index size will be reduced and future archive index lists will not
show these files.
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NOTE - This process only logically removes the files from the
archive index. To actually release the space they occupy in the
archive index and on the floppies you must use VOLUME COMPACTION. .
Utilities - Verify archived files
Use verify to confirm archival has correctly archived data.
Sometimes you may be unsure of the validity of your archives. This
might happen if you suspect faulty archive volumes were used, or a
drive might not be functioning properly. Stowaway provides this
function to read archive data and verify it can be used to restore
the files.
Volume verification is quick and easy as it only requires a quick
read of archive volume data. No data is actually written to the
hard disk.
Two verification processes actually happen. First, DOS verifies
all the data can be read from the archive disk. Second, a CRC
check verifies data is accurate by arithmetically verifying the
data in the archives is the same as the data was on the hard disk
before it was archived.
Archive verification may verify a part of the archives, or an
entire archive set. Upon selecting the verify function you will be
presented with a specification display similar to restore
processing. Indicate the qualifications of all files to be
verified.
You are asked to fill in the following fields:
Drive to verify: Enter the drive letter where the files were
originally archived from. (I.E. C, D)
Path to verify: Optionally enter the pathname where the files
were archived from. If no path is specified,
files from all paths will be selected. I.E.
\LETTERS \PICTURES
Pattern to verify: Enter a filename pattern to verify. When not
specified, all file patterns will be selected.
Archived before/after:
Select files by the date they were archived.
You may use one or both of the date
specifications.
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Press <F10> to accept specifications and start verification. <Esc>
to quit.
Like restore, you will be asked to place each archive volume in the
input drive until all data is verified. You will be notified with
error message displays if any errors are found in the data.
Utilities - Build index from archive volume
As Stowaway archives files, it saves information about each file in
a set of indexes on the hard disk.
Since the indexes are critical to the system, they are backed up to
the last archive disk at the end of each archive process. This
takes a little time and disk space but ensures indexes are always
backed up and are kept with archives.
Since the archive indexes are kept on archive volumes, each archive
set becomes a portable set of files you may take to another
computer for use.
To use any archive set, the archive indexes must exist on your hard
disk. If they are somehow lost or not available on the computer
where you want to restore files, you must first restore the index
from the archive volumes. The indexes are always found on the last
one or two volumes of the archive set. It is your responsibility
to keep track of these disks since Stowaway does not know disk
numbers without its indexes. During index recovery Stowaway will
ask you to place the last used archive volume in the drive. It is
always important to keep track of the last archive volume you use.
If you have lost track of the last archive volume, use the DOS
directory command to display the files on each archive volume. The
volume with the most recent file dates is the last disk used.
Stowaway immediately asks for the last archive volume when index
restore is started. Place the volume in the drive and press
<Enter>. In some cases Stowaway may ask for a second volume if it
determines part of the indexes backed up are split from a previous
volume.
Stowaway will read the indexes and put them on the hard drive. You
will be notified when the indexes are properly restored.
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If for some reason you lose your archive indexes, Patri-Soft does
include a utility which can "regenerate" the indexes by scanning
the disk. Call Patri-Soft or register Stowaway to obtain this
program.
---> Utilities - Erase archive indexes
This function of Stowaway deletes the current set of archive
indexes. Its purpose is to delete test versions of archive index
sets before reusing them. Your primary set of indexes should never
be deleted as they are required for restoring data.
After an archive index set is deleted, you will no longer be able
to restore files from the archive set. You can use the restore
archive index function to replace the indexes on the hard disk.
After selecting the index delete function you will be prompted to
verify you really do want to complete this process:
Respond <Yes> to continue the process and delete the current
archive index set.
Respond <No> to cancel the index deletion process and return to
Stowaway main menus.
Once the indexes have been deleted, you may create them again by
archiving more data with Stowaway.
Utilities - Archive summary statistics
This option displays statistical information about archived data.
Upon selecting this option, Stowaway will scan the archive indexes
and show archive statistical information.
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Option Functions
The options menu off Stowaway's Main Menu allows the user to
configure Stowaway to the desired settings. Select Options from
the Main Menu to access the following menu of options.
Options
Basic System Options
Advanced System Options
Set Alternate Colors
--> Options - Basic System Options
This menu allows you to set the basic system parameters for
Stowaway to use in making archive sets. See page 7 for more
details on each parameter.
--> Options - Advanced System options
Stowaway's advanced options are intended to provide a finer
granularity of control for special archival implementations. Most
users will not have a need to alter these options. If you are
unsure of the correct value of any option, leave the value as it
was distributed with Stowaway.
Following are the advanced options and an explanation of each
option:
--> Target Media type - If you are backing up to a hard drive you can
enter that information in this field. Stowaway will not
prompt the user to mount a new volume.
--> Directory To Archive to - This parameter is primarily used when
archiving to a large capacity drive (i.e. hard drive,
Bernoulli box). The archive data files will be placed on
the target drive in the specified directory. Although
backing up to a directory on a floppy is allowed, it is not
necessary.
--> Process 4DOS descriptions? - When archiving files, Stowaway can use
description from your 4DOS description files. Stowaway
will extract the description from 4DOS and insert it into
the archived file's description area. When the archived
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file is deleted, Stowaway will also remove the description
from DESCRIPT.ION. Upon restoring the file, Stowaway will
reinsert the description in the DESCRIP.ION file.
--> Restore Sort Sequence - Because of the large number of files being
processed, Stowaway may take several minutes to sort the
files for restore. Use this parameter to insure that
Stowaway sorts the files in the order that you prefer.
Stowaway can sort files in the following order:
- Alphabetical by name, with a subsort of date & time
- Alphabetical by directory, with a subsort of name & date
- Numerically by volume and offset with no subsort
--> Maintain activity log? - Stowaway has an activity log which can
keep track of all major functions performed by Stowaway.
This includes, but is not limited to archiving, index
initialization, restore and errors. The activity log is
very terse, but a log viewer will be provided by Patri-Soft
in the very near future to "translate" the log into plain
english. If you wish to maintain the log, set this option
to "Y".
Is activity log to be verbose? - If you wish a detail of
all file processed by Stowaway, then set this option
to "Y".
--> Include records marked deleted in restore? - When you delete
records from the archive index, the deleted records are no
longer in the lists of files to be restored or otherwise
processed. However, until you use the volume compaction
feature, the records are still present in the index. By
setting this flag to "Y", Stowaway will treat the files
like all other files and make them available to be restored.
NOTE: Once volume compaction has been performed, files are
no longer available at all.
--> Reset attribute on files after restore? - When files are restored,
they are normally restored with the archive attribute not
set, meaning that the files have not been marked as "backed
up." If you would like DOS and other programs to recognize
these files as "backed up" after restore, set this flag to
"Y".
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Options - Set alternate display colors
Stowaway lets you change the colors of all its display windows to
any colors of your choice. Setting alternate display colors
involves setting NORMAL, REVERSE, HIGHLIGHT, and BORDER colors for
each different type of window.
When changing colors, you are presented with a menu of each window
type used by Stowaway. You may change colors on any or all window
types.
Window colors are stored permanently on disk in the options file so
they will be used each time you use Stowaway. When you are
finished setting colors, press <Exit> to return to Stowaway's
menus.
You are presented with a screen with four major color types to pick
across the top and with a screen full of color combinations below.
Use the <Space Bar> to move between each color type. Pressing the
space bar indicates the current color selection for the active type
is to be accepted.
Use the <Arrow Keys> to position the selection box on the color
combination to be used for the current color type. When you are
positioned on the desired color, press the <Space Bar>.
Press <Enter> to accept all colors and return to the window type
menu. You can then change colors on another window type.
Press <Escape> to return to the window selection menu and leave the
colors as they were originally defined.
Command Line operation
Stowaway is normally operated through its menu structure. This
provides a simple technique for archiving files that reassures you
at every step with displays and questions to let you make
decisions.
More experienced users may want to use Stowaway's command line
interface to archive files. When the command line operation is
used, Stowaway will take all its basic instructions from the
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command line and start the archival process. It will still require
the proper disks be placed in the drives and may ask for other
decisions to be made based on your options. Although not totally
automated it provides a quick start to archiving specific data.
A typical use of command line operation is to start Stowaway to
archive specific files. Following is a sample command to archive
all files in the directory named \TESTDIR\..
STOW \TESTDIR\*.*
The Stowaway command line format
STOW path /B /BA /D:01-01-91 /DEL /EV:vol /EX:date /F:space
/ID:xxx /ND /P /S /SV:vol /RA /R
Command parameter explanations
path Specify pathname to be archived.
STOW C:\LETTERS\*.*
STOW \LETTERS
/B Select only files with the DOS ARCHIVE (BACKUP) indicator
set.
/BA Batch file operation. This parameter indicates Stowaway
is to attempt to complete processing without prompting
the user. ARCHIVE COMPLETE and other such messages will
not wait for a user response. Stowaway menus will not be
used. You still may be prompted for volumes to be placed
in drives and to decide how to handle error or exception
conditions.
/D:xxx Stowaway is to limit its file selection to files older
than the specified date. Use to free hard disk space by
scanning a directory and archiving "old" files. Dates
can have multiple formats. See information in the
archive section of this manual for more information about
different date formats.
/D:31DEC91
/D:01/01/91
/D:60 <== over 60 days old
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/DEL If your Stowaway options are set to NOT delete files
after they have been archived, this parameter will let
you override that specification and force Stowaway to
delete files after they have been successfully archived.
/EV:vol
During restore, it is sometimes desirable to only restore
files in certain volumes. You may specify a range of
disk volumes by using the /EV and /SV parameters. For
example, to restore the files after volume 6 and before
volume 9, the command line would be:
STOW /SV:6 /EV:9
/EX:date
Specify an expiration date to give to files selected for
archival.
/F:nnn Archive until nnn characters of hard disk space
available. Use this parameter to stop archiving files
when the hard disk being processed has a specified amount
of free space available.
The freespace parameter has three different forms
(characters, K=1000's of characters, M=1,000,000s of
characters). Each of the following examples will stop
archiving when 1,000,000 characters of hard disk
freespace exist.
/F:1000000
/F:100K
/F:1M
/ID:xxx
Alternative archive index set id. Specify any three
characters to use an alternate index set. For more
information about alternate archive index sets, see the
heading about Archive Index Sets in the manual. When not
specified it is assumed the value will be "STO".
/ID:TOM
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/ND Normally options are set to delete files after they have
been archived. Use this parameter to prevent the
archived files from being deleted.
/R You may also accomplish restore from the command line.
Specify a path as if you were archiving, and append /R to
the command line.
/RA After archiving files, if you want Stowaway reset the
Archive attribute, select this option
/S If you already know the archive volume Stowaway will use,
you may place it in the drive prior to starting Stowaway
and specify this parameter to have Stowaway assume the
volume is present. Stowaway will not ask you to place it
in the drive during archival.
This parameter is designed for those users archiving to
huge capacity disk devices where volume mounting is not
normally necessary.
/SV:vol
To start the restore process with a certain diskette, use
this command. For example, to restore only files on disk
6 and above, use the command:
STOW /SV:6
Specifying options through DOS environment variables
Any Stowaway command line parameters may be placed in DOS
environment variables to be effective each time Stowaway is
started. Use the DOS SET command to add the parameter to the
environment string. The environment variable name used by Stowaway
is STOW. The following example demonstrates the most common use
the environment variable for Stowaway. In this example, the SET
command is used to cause Stowaway to use an alternate index set
identifier of TOM each time it is started.
SET STOW=/ID:TOM
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See your DOS manual for more information about the SET command.
The SET command is often placed in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file on a
user's hard disk so it may automatically be issued each time your
system is started.
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Archive Maintenance
Multiple Archive sets
Stowaway lets you keep and use multiple archive sets on the same
computer system. Although not often necessary, this feature is
useful in many situations. Some examples are:
-- To create a special archive set apart from your normal set
to move files from one system to another.
-- To create separate archive sets for multiple users of a
system.
-- To test your current archive set by restoring its indexes
to a different archive set identifier.
An archive set consists of hard disk archive indexes and all
archive volumes holding files referenced by those indexes. Archive
sets are given three character set identifiers. This identifier is
normally "STO" but may be altered when starting Stowaway by using
the /ID:xxx command parameter. An alternate archive set identifier
may also be established by placing the /ID:xxx parameter in
Stowaway's DOS environment variable.
Archive set indexes consist of a set of three index files and a
Stowaway options file. These files exist on the hard disk in
Stowaway's directory. The normal files are named as follows:
STOSAWAY.DAT
STOVOLIX.DAT
STOGRPIX.DAT
STOFILIX.DAT
Notice that each file name begins with the three characters "STO".
These identify this as the main archive set for Stowaway. When you
start Stowaway with an alternative archive set identifier using the
/ID:xxx parameter, a new archive set is created with the names
changed to begin with the alternative set id.
Alternate archive indexes may be created new by starting Stowaway
with the /ID:xxx parameter and then archiving files. They may also
be created by starting Stowaway with the /ID:xxx parameter and
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restoring archive indexes from archive volumes. The indexes from
the archive volume will be assigned the archive set identifier used
to start Stowaway.
Alternate archive sets are identical in function and usage to the
normal index Stowaway uses. When using alternate index
identifiers, be careful to use the correct index set for the files
you are processing.
Backing up the indexes
The archive indexes are backed up to archive volumes after each
archive process. This insures the archive set is always complete.
Your system backup procedures may also backup the archive indexes
each time it processes. This provides redundant backups of archive
indexes. Each backup is valid and useful when needing to recover
archive indexes.
It is recommended to let your backup system continue to backup the
archive indexes as full hard disk recovery procedures will be
simplified. If you do not backup archive indexes with your normal
backup system and need to recover your entire hard disk, you will
also separately be required to recover the archive indexes.
Making copies of archive data
Each archive volume is in a normal DOS format. Archive volumes may
be copied using DOS DISKCOPY, COPY, or XCOPY commands.
For safety reasons you may want to take a copy of archive
information and store it at an offsite location. To do this, use
the DISKCOPY command to copy an archive volume to another volume.
Store the original archive volume back with the archive set, and
take the copied volumes to your offsite location.
When you only have a single drive to read and write a specific disk
format use the DOS DISKCOPY command as follows. It will use memory
to copy a volume to a new volume. The drive letters for the source
and new volumes are the same. DOS will issue messages indicating
what volumes to place in the drives and when.
DISKCOPY A: A:
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If you have multiple drives able to read and write the same volume
format, use the DISKCOPY command with different drive letters. The
first drive identifier is for the source volume, the second letter
is for the drive to hold the new volume.
DISKCOPY A: B:
Archive disks may be copied to different disk formats as long as
the new disk has enough capacity to hold all information on the
source volume. Once archived, the archive data cannot again be
split across multiple archive volumes.
The Context Sensitive Help System
Stowaway provides immediate help about its operation at every point
of its processing. A comprehensive help system may be interrogated
at any time by pressing the <F1> key. When <F1> is pressed,
Stowaway automatically determines what function is active and
action is being requested. It will search a help index and
retrieve information about your current activity. Help systems
that bring up help about your current activity are referred to as
"context sensitive" meaning they are aware of the context in which
they are requested.
In addition to being context sensitive, Stowaway's help system is
layered to let you not only examine help about your current
activity, but also lets you browse through the help displays to
learn about related topics or other aspects of Stowaway. Press the
<Home> key any time you are in the help system to display the help
menu.
The intelligent help system may be examined by using the following
navigation keys...
<Enter> Takes you to the next related screen
<Esc> Takes you back to the processing screen
<Alt> Allows you to peek back at the processing screen to
review what you are reading help about.
<PgUp> Will take you up to a more general topic in the help
system
<Home> Displays the main help menu
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The LEFT, RIGHT, UP, and DOWN keys are available when viewing
screens smaller than the full page. Use them to move the help
window around on the display to view areas hidden by the help
window.
System Requirements
Operating system compatibilities
Stowaway must run on a 100% compatible PC, XT, or AT system and
requires DOS 3.2 or above for its operation. Stowaway may
operate on some other nonstandard systems but we cannot
guarantee its correct operation nor make any promises to make it
compatible with those systems.
Archive device compatibilities
Stowaway uses only standard DOS disk devices for holding archive
data. The obvious devices are various forms of 3 1/2 and 5 1/4
diskette systems.
Stowaway is also designed to use large format removable disk
devices as archive media. These devices must have a standard
DOS format and must appear to DOS as a normal disk device.
Troubleshooting
I/O errors on disks
If you should have a problem restoring data from a damaged or
faulty archive volume take the following steps to attempt to
circumvent the problem.
-- Try turning the disk in the sleeve with your fingers to
make sure it is loose and will spin. If 5 1/4 diskettes
appear too tight, you can relieve some pressure placed on
the magnetic media by drawing each edge of the diskette
across the edge of a table applying a reasonable amount
of pressure. This will expand the area inside the jacket
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for the media to move.
-- Attempt to copy the diskette to another diskette. If the
copy is successful, attempt to use the new disk to
restore the data.
-- Take the volume in error to another drive on another
machine to attempt to restore the data.
-- When all else fails, use the "FAIL" option during archive
volume read error detection to indicate archive is to
attempt to read as much data as possible.
Error Messages
Stowaway has comprehensive error and exception checking designed
into every component of the system. Stowaway's help systems
contains help about messages issued by Stowaway. Whenever an
error message is displayed, press the <F1> key for a complete
explanation of the error and suggested actions to take as a
result of the error.
Technical Support
Patri-Soft may be reached for technical support through a variety
of sources. Normal technical support hours are 8:30AM through 5:00
PM Monday through Friday (PST).
You may contact us through the following methods...
CompuServe 76347,2477
--> Phone 909-352-2820
--> BBS 909-352-2825
--> FAX 909-352-1527
Mail:
Patri-Soft
5225 Canyon Crest Drive Suite 71-358
Riverside, CA 92507
A special order line is available if you would like to purchase
using VISA or MasterCard or discuss other purchase options.
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When calling for technical support please have the following
information ready so we may serve you efficiently:
a. The exact version of Stowaway you are using. Stowaway's main
menu contains this data.
b. An exact problem description
c. Screen print of the Stowaway directory and all files it
contains.
d. The software configuration of your system including DOS
version, AUTOEXEC.BAT contents as well as CONFIG.SYS
contents.
e. The hardware configuration of your system.
A good problem description indicates exactly what you were doing
when you encountered the error, and exactly what symptoms occurred
as a result of the error. Please avoid the following problem
descriptions. They are much too brief to begin to analyze.
Poor problem descriptions:
a. Archive is not working.
b. The machine will not read my disk.
c. I can't restore my indexes
d. The system fails during archive or restore.
Following are examples of better problem descriptions:
a. Archive is failing. Stowaway asks for an archive volume
and after I place it in the drive, the drive light comes
on, goes off, and Stowaway indicates no disk is in the
drive.
b. I am attempting to restore indexes from an archive volume
and Stowaway indicates the indexes are not present. I have
displayed the contents of the last used diskette and it
appears to be ok. Its contents are...
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Index
/B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
/BA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
/D:xxx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
/DEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
/EX:date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
/F:nnn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
/ID:xxx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
/ND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
/S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Archival Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Archival vs Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
ARCHIVE
attribute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
file descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
File Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
File Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
volume preparing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Archive group
adding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Archive index
backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
build from archive volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
clean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Archive sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Archive volume
copies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Archive volumes
mount request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Archiving files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
BBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53, 55
Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Compaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
CompuServe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32, 41
Days . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
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Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Directories
changing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
disk
I/O error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
starting new volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Distribution diskette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
DOS Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
DOS environment
SET STOW= . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Duplicate
file overlay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Environment
variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Erase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Expiration Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
FAX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
File descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Freespace
archive until freespace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Group
Associating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Help System
Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
I/O errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
INSTALL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Locate text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Menus
main . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Options
environment variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Overlaying
duplicate files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Quick Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Replace
restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
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Saving Archive index backup to disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Selecting
directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Selecting files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Sets
Archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Sort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
restore list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
STOFILIX.DAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
STOGRPIX.DAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
STOSAWAY.DAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
STOVOLIX.DAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
STOW.EXE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
STOW.HLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
SYSTEM
Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
System options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Technical Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
TROUBLESHOOTING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Update
restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
build archive index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
clean archive index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
delete files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
display colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
remove files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
verify archived files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
VIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Viewing files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Volumes
Archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Zoom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
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