home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
The World of Computer Software
/
World_Of_Computer_Software-02-385-Vol-1of3.iso
/
w
/
wtb14f.zip
/
WTB14F.ZIP
/
WTB.TXT
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1992-11-30
|
18KB
|
463 lines
What Tape Back-up? __________________
What Tape Back-up?
A Tape Back-up Tracking System
Copyright (c) 1991, 1992, Angel Babudro
All rights reserved.
I. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
II. COPYRIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
III. LICENSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
IV. TECHNICAL SUPPORT (HOW TO REACH ME) . . . . . . . . . . . 1
V. GENERAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
VI. FILE LIST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
VII. WHY USE WTB? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
VIII. What Tape Back-up? COMMAND LINE OPTIONS . . . . . . . . . 3
A. Specifying the Number of Tape Sets . . . . . . . . . . 3
B. Specifying a Range of Hard Disk Drives . . . . . . . . 4
1. With disk statistics (/D) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2. Without disk statistics (/N) . . . . . . . . . . . 4
C. Using Other Tape Software (/T) . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
D. Backing-up Modified Files Only (/M) . . . . . . . . . 4
E. Appending to the End of a Tape (/A) . . . . . . . . . 4
F. Command-line Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
IX. USING What Tape Back-up? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
A. Go . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
B. Cancel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
C. Verify . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
D. Set-up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
E. Selecting Tape Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
X. REGISTERING What Tape Back-up? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
- i -
What Tape Back-up? __________________
I. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY
By using this software and documentation ("WTB") you must
accept this disclaimer of warranty:
WTB is provided "as is" without any warranties or conditions,
expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, those
concerning merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.
By using WTB, you are expressly releasing the author, Angel
Babudro, from any liability resulting from the use of this software
and documentation. You must assume the entire risk of using WML.
Please test and supervise WML thoroughly before relying on it.
II. COPYRIGHT
WTB is owned and copyright (c) 1989-1992 by Angel Babudro,
all rights reserved. You may only use and/or distribute WTB under
the License terms below.
III. LICENSE
1. WTB is being distributed as Freeware. There is no
registration fee and you are licensed to use it for an unlimited
time.
2. You may keep as many backup copies of WTB as you wish and
you may run WTB simultaneously on as many computers as you like.
You are granted the right to share WTB with others, as long as you
distribute the original files exactly as you received them, with
all associated files included.
3. Under no circumstances may you charge any fee or receive
any other form of consideration for distributing the WTB files
without express written consent from the copyright holder, Angel
Babudro, other than to charge a fee of not more than US$6 (six
dollars) for the media and/or service of distribution.
IV. TECHNICAL SUPPORT (HOW TO REACH ME)
Gripes, moans, wails, throes, and throngs are promptly
rejected, but all other types of communications & modest groups are
graciously accepted (and thank goodness for that!).
I can be reached via mail or BBS. The BBSs below have
current versions of my software and I will get messages left there
for me. Unless you are in dire straits, please do not call me with
questions about WTB; if you must, then please be kind enough to
send a donation my way. Thank you for your understanding.
- 1 -
What Tape Back-up? __________________
Mail Angel Babudro, "Organic Computer Wizardry",
28 Mulberry Street, Clinton, NY USA 13323-1506
BBS Angelo Babudro
West Coast Researcher's BBS, So Cal (805) 949-8151 USR HST DS
East Coast Nite-Air BBS, Central NY (315) 339-8831 USR HST 14.4
Odie's PCBoard, Central NY (315) 339-6713 USR HST DS
V. GENERAL
What Tape Back-up? (WTB) is a programme to help you manage
sets of back-up tapes. WTB is provided with the commands for CMS
Jumbo 2.5, CMS Jumbo 2.54, and Mountain 5.x software. If you have
other tape software you can configure WTB to work with it.
To use WTB you will need:
* PC with MS/PC-DOS 3.3 or higher
* About 256k of free memory (the more the better, since most
tape software will use it as a buffer to speed up
operations).
* Monochrome or colour monitor
* A tape drive
* CMS Jumbo 2.5x or Mountain 5.x tape software or some other
tape software which can be controlled via batch
WTB stores your configuration within the executable file
WTB.EXE. In order to do this, WTB.EXE must remain in its full
size, unmodified by such things as LZEXE (which is otherwise a
wonderful product) or PKLite (a similar product).
VI. FILE LIST
The following files comprise the complete What Tape Back-up?
package:
* WTB.EXE -- the executable (programme) file
* WTB.WP -- the WordPerfect document file
* WTB.TXT -- the ASCII document file
* FKEY.LST -- a support file
* ORDER.FRM -- order form for all of my products
* FILE_ID.DIZ & DESC.SDI -- Description files for BBSs. You
can delete these from your hard disk, but please distribute
them with any copies of WTB you share
- 2 -
What Tape Back-up? __________________
VII. WHY USE WTB?
I wrote What Tape Back-up? as a way to manage and track my ___________________
sets of back-up tapes. Although most tape software (including
Mountain and CMS) have an automatic scheduling feature, this does
not help the user to track which tape was last used, the dates of
each back-up, and whether or not the tapes were verified for
accuracy. Besides this, I believe that a routine for regular back-
ups is critical to completing them on a regular basis. I know that
in my own case I rarely did back-ups when it was up to me to figure
out which tape to use, what type of back-up was last made, and what
type of back-up I needed next.
What Tape Back-up? takes care of helping you to schedule a
back-up routine and stick to it by making things as easy as
possible. I hope you will use it to provide yourself with better
security for your computer information.
VIII. What Tape Back-up? COMMAND LINE OPTIONS
To use WTB with default values just type, "wtb" at the DOS
prompt. In a few seconds three windows will appear: One with
statistics about your disk drives (the Disk Window), another with
statistics about your back-up tape set (the Tape Window), and a
third with information on how the current back-up will be performed
(the Back-up Window).
Note: I refer to "sets" of tapes because many people,
like myself, use more than one tape per back-up. I strongly
recommend using at least three sets of back-up tapes. This
way if the worst possible case happens -- your system goes
down will making a back-up -- you will have other tape copies
from which to retrieve your data.
WTB has the following command-line syntax:
WTB [#oftapes] [/Dxy] [/Nxy] [/T] [/A] [/M]
Note: DOS command-line options are NOT case sensitive.
You can use upper- or lower-case letters as you wish.
A. Specifying the Number of Tape Sets
If you use more than one set of tapes to back-up (use at least
three sets of tapes!) use the command "WTB x" where "x" is the
number of tapes you use. For example, "WTB 4" would manage four
sets of tapes.
- 3 -
What Tape Back-up? __________________
B. Specifying a Range of Hard Disk Drives
1. With disk statistics (/D)
You may only want to back-up a certain range of hard disk
drives rather than all of your drives. Say, for example, you
have hard disk drives C: through J: and a CD-ROM as drive H:
You will only want to back-up C: through J: since H: is in
little danger of being lost. To do this, use the "/Dxy"
option where "x" and "y" are the first and last drives to
back-up to tape. For example, "/Dcj" will back-up drives C:
through J:
2. Without disk statistics (/N)
You may wish to bypass the Disk Window, especially if you
have a large system (such as a network) with a large number of
logical drive letters or ridiculously large amounts of storage
(if so, I'm jealous!). To turn the drive statistics off, use
the /N option followed by the first and last (contiguous) disk
drive letters you wish to back-up. For example, if you have
drives C: through J: on your system and you want to bypass the
Disk Window, use, "WTB /Ncj".
C. Using Other Tape Software (/T)
You may wish to bypass the tape back-up function of WTB,
especially if you don't use CMS or Mountain tape software. To
do this, use the "/T" switch like so: "WTB /T". This will
cause WTB to end after the tape selection is made and pass the
Tape Set Number to DOS via ERRORLEVEL. This way you can have
a batch file which calls WTB then checks the errorlevel to see
which tape to use.
D. Backing-up Modified Files Only (/M)
The default back-up mode for WTB is a full back-up of all
drives. Periodically you may wish to only back-up the files
which have changed since your last full back-up since this is
normally much faster than doing a full back-up. To do this
use the /M command. For example, "WTB /dcj /m" will back-up
only the files that have changed on drives C: through J: since
the last time a full back-up was made.
E. Appending to the End of a Tape (/A)
Normally WTB will over-write the data on the tape(s) with
the new back-up information. If you would like to append the
new information to the end of a tape use the "/A" option on
the command line. For example, "WTB /M /A" will back-up
- 4 -
What Tape Back-up? __________________
modified files only and put the information at the end of the
tape.
F. Command-line Examples
To illustrate use of the options, let's say you have disk
drives C: through R:, you don't want the system to calculate
statistics on all 16 drives, you use 5 sets of back-up tapes
(one for each day of the week), and you use something other
than CMS or Mountain software. In your batch file do this:
WTB 5 /ncr /t
if errorlevel 99 goto end
if errorlevel 5 goto TapeSet5
if errorlevel 4 goto TapeSet4
...etc...
Note: An errorlevel of 99 indicates that "Cancel"
was selected from the WTB menu or that a tape error
occurred.
Or, let's say you have drives C: through R: but only want
to back-up C: through F:, you want hard disk statistics, you
use 5 sets of tapes, and you have CMS or Mountain tape
software. Just use:
WTB 5 /dcf
and WTB will perform the complete back-up for you.
IX. USING What Tape Back-up?
Once you enter the command "WTB" along with any command-line
options, several windows will open showing you the operating
environment and a menu of options at the top of the screen. You
can press the highlighted (first) letter for each option or use a
mouse to select the options.
A. Go
This option begins the back-up as specified.
B. Cancel
This cancels the back-up and returns you to DOS.
- 5 -
What Tape Back-up? __________________
C. Verify
This toggles the verify flag on and off. When verify is
"on" the tape(s) will be verified after the back-up is
complete. When "off" only a back-up will be done.
Because verifying a tape doubles the back-up time, I
found it more convenient (and virtually as safe) to verify my
tapes on a rotating basis. If you use four tapes (like I am)
and you verify tape #1, then tape #4 will next be scheduled to
be verified, then tape #3, then #2, then #1, then back to #4.
This way all tapes are verified on a regular basis. I found
that by saving time this way I was less tempted to avoid
verifying at all (or even, heaven forbid, backing-up at all!).
D. Set-up
The set-up screen lets you select the type of software
you will be using (as defined in the file WTB.CMD), the type
of tapes you use and their capacity, the number of sets of
tapes you regularly use, and your preferred back-up scheme.
Each option has a menu of choices except for the number
of tapes -- just enter the number here. The back-up scheme
(daily, weekly, monthly) has not yet been implemented, so for
now it's up to you to specify how to do each back-up.
E. Selecting Tape Sets
In the Tape Window you will see an arrow pointing to the
tape set to be used (this is, of course, a recommendation,
since you are the one who must put the proper tape(s) in the
drive!). WTB recommends the tape set following the last set
used (which is normally the oldest set). In other words, it
rotates the back-up tapes.
If you want to use a different tape set, use the arrow
keys to move the pointer between the available tape sets.
X. REGISTERING What Tape Back-up?
I am not asking for any money for the registration of WTB. If
you like it, however, check out the ORDER.FRM file (use "type
order.frm > prn" to print it) for other offers. If you would like
your name at the top of the screen just order my Sampler Disk and
ask for a copy of WTB with your name on it.
- 6 -