home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Path: sparky!uunet!gatech!psuvax1!psuvm!wvnvm!bryan
- Date: Thursday, 23 Jul 1992 10:22:13 EDT
- From: Jerry Bryan <BRYAN@wvnvm.wvnet.edu>
- Message-ID: <92205.102213BRYAN@wvnvm.wvnet.edu>
- Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
- Subject: BACKUP and RESTORE of the Desktop
- Lines: 91
-
- I do not consider the following test fully definitive, but it at least
- strongly suggests that you *can* use BACKUP and RESTORE to backup your
- desktop. Here is what I did.
-
- 1. Shutdown my system
- 2. Bring up the standalone OS/2. (Boot install disks to the point
- where you can ESCAPE out and get the command line prompt).
- 3. Put blank formatted disk in A:
- 4. Issued the following:
-
- C: (run from the C: disk. I am not sure where
- BACKUP and RESTORE are on the install disks.)
-
- CD \ (make sure I am at the root)
-
- BACKUP C:\ A: (backup root files such as CONFIG.SYS. Not
- necessary for the test, but it is in line
- with my long term plans for backing up
- critical files. One diskette will hold
- everything I want, so why not go ahead and
- get the root?)
-
- BACKUP C:\*.INI A: /S/A (backup all INI files. Note that they
- are all closed at this point, so they
- can be backed up. I want INI files
- and the desktop directory backed up
- at the same time. The /A adds these
- backups to the same diskette as the
- first backup. The /S makes sure I
- get them all.)
-
- CD "OS!2 2.0 Desktop" (Point to the desktop in preparation for
- backing it up. Note that the BACKUP
- command itself seems not to accept
- the desktop name. That is,
- BACKUP C:\"OS!2 2.0 Desktop" A: fails.
-
- BACKUP C:*.* A: /A This was an experiment to see if the EA
- of the empty directory would be backed up.
- It was not backed up. Nothing happened.
-
- BACKUP C:*.* A: /S/A Cause the whole desktop to be backed up.
- I am still not 100% convinced that
- everything was backed up, but as we shall
- see, my *limited* experiment was a success.
-
- Remove the backup diskette and reboot my regular OS/2 system.
-
- Find a folder that is on the main desktop, open it, find a program
- object in the folder, make a shadow copy on the main desktop, and
- shutdown.
-
- Reboot the standalone OS/2 system and insert the backup diskette.
-
- Issue C: and CD \.
-
- RESTORE A: C: /M/S (should cause any modified files to
- be restored. The only thing restored
- is \WP ROOT. SF.)
-
- Remove the backup diskette and reboot my regular OS/2 system.
-
- The shadow I just added to the desktop is still there. Shutdown
- in abject failure.
-
- Reboot the standalone OS/2 system and insert the backup diskette.
-
- RESTORE A: C: /S (should cause all backed up files to
- be restored. They seemed to be all
- restored. I would be *much* happier
- using the /M switch, but with /M there
- was not enough stuff restored.)
-
- Remove the backup diskette and reboot my regular OS/2 system.
-
- The shadow I just added to the desktop is gone! Success!!
-
- As I said, I do not consider this test as definitive. For example, if I
- were really brave, I would format my C: disk, re-install OS/2, and then
- restore from by backup diskette. It appears that the /M switch to BACKUP
- and RESTORE applies only to the data portion of a file, not to the EA.
- I have numerous unanswered questions in my mind with respect to file access
- dates (date created, last accessed, last modified, etc.) and whether any of
- them apply to EA's. For example, suppose the EA of a file is changed but
- not the file itself. Will an incremental backup backkup the file and its
- EA?
-
- I am somewhat mollified that I can now backup my desktop using standard
- OS/2 facilities rather than Hobbes shareware or PDware. However, I would
- still love to see some definitive statements of direction from IBM about
- the issue of desktop backup.
-