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- Path: sparky!uunet!decwrl!csus.edu!netcom.com!netcomsv!spacebbs!michael.hagerty
- From: michael.hagerty@spacebbs.com (Michael Hagerty)
- Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.apps
- Subject: Reviews of OS/2 Backup So
- Message-ID: <5167.688.uupcb@spacebbs.com>
- Date: 2 Sep 92 20:06:00 GMT
- Distribution: na
- Organization: SPACE BBS - Menlo Park, CA - 10 Lines + 4gB - 415-323-4193
- Reply-To: michael.hagerty@spacebbs.com (Michael Hagerty)
- Lines: 51
-
- X. From: x89coulter4@gw.wmich.edu
- X. Subject: Reviews of OS/2 Backup Software!!
- X.
- X. I am looking for good backup software for OS/2 2.0. Commercial or Shareware
- X. does not matter. Preferably with compression (and all the other bells and
- X. whistles we love in backup software).
-
- I'm partial to the type of backup software which attempts to keep a copy of
- the current hard disk on an integrated pool of floppies. By this I mean
- the type of backup software which only requires 1 full backup and then will
- reuse the space of the floppies freed by files which have been deleted from
- the hard disk.
-
- Under DOS I used Sterling Software's Intelligent Backup (later shortened to
- just DMS/IB -- I guess they were really mainframe people at heart). I also
- tried and recommended to others a product developed in England named Flexi-
- Back Plus. Same principle... Daily backup consisted of the program asking
- for diskette 6, then 17, then 19 and then the master dictionary diskette.
- Real simple...
-
- Sterling has just released their OS/2 version, supporting HPFS. My copy is
- on order, but has not yet arrived. I have attempted to convince the author
- of flexi-back plus that there is a market for his product under OS/2, but
- he is of the mind that there is probably more need for a Windoze product.
- Alas...
-
- The two things which I really liked about Flexi-back plus which were
- lacking in DMS/IB was the ability to intermix different density (same size)
- diskettes in the pool and the ability to create a new copy of a diskette
- which was showing signs of going bad... The first feature is useful when
- you are doing a backup and run out of 1.44s and have a few 720s around to
- finish it out. Most backup programs really object to this. Not so Flexi-
- back plus... The second feature is useful for creating a duplicate of your
- diskette pool for off-site storage. Then, if a particular diskette in the
- original pool gets hosed, you might be OK. The main advantage is that you
- can create a new (and presumably more reliable) copy of a diskette which
- was showing signs of wear (or your dog chewed it up).
-
- Note that this type of backup is not for everybody... There exist a whole
- bunch of people who believe that it is perfectly alright to use their
- backup program to create "off-line archives", where the diskette/tape pool
- does not represent an accurate image of what's on the hard disk at the
- time. IMHO, this is a very bad thing to do... It is much better to get an
- off-line storage manager and not overload the backup for this. To me,
- backup means exactly that: a complete and accurate copy of what is on the
- disk.
-
- Regards, Mikey
- ---
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