LSD Docs/LSD Docs.iso/FILEZ/lsd34.dms/lsd34.adf/AmiBack2.doc.pp/AmiBack2.doc

Text File | 1990-09-13 | 120KB | 2,630 lines

                                  AMI-BACK

                The Ultimate Hard Disk Backup and Scheduling
              Utility for the Commodore Amiga Personal Computer

                                USER'S GUIDE

                   Moonlighter Software Development, Inc.
                          Copyright 1990,1991,1992



                          Another doc by Baser Evil



                                  Ami-Back
                        The Ultimate Backup Utility

                                  Program
                                Gary Holland
                              Michaeel Mounier

                                   Manual
                                  Hap Aziz
                                Gary Holland



Copyright, Trademarks, Software License Agreement, Limited Warranty,
Support and Upgrade Policy skipped because who cares for it.....



Credits, Special Thanks, blah blah blah skipped.... begin manual....



TABLE OF CONTENTS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright                                 ii
Trademarks                                ii
Software License Agreement                ii
Limited Warranty                          ii
Support and Upgrade Policy                ii
Credits                                   iii
Introduction                              1
Package Contents                          3
System Requirments                        5
Installation                              7
The Zen of Hard Disk Maintenance          9
Overview of Features/Capabilities         11
Program Configuration                     13
Backup Configuration                      19
Restore Configuration                     29
Media Requirements                        41
Scheduler Configuration                   43
Running Ami-Back                          49
Performing Backups                        51
Performing Restores                       59
     Compare Mode                         64
Running Ami-Sched                         67
Performing Backups from the Shell         61
Other Features                            62
     Online Help                          71
     AREXX                                72
Appendix I - Question and Answer          75
Appendix II - Hardware Configurations     77
Appendix III - Tips and Tricks            79
Appendix IV - Error Messages              81
Index                                     83



Introduction
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Congratulations on your purchase of Ami-Back by Moonlighter Software
Development, Inc. Ami-Back is the most powerful and full-featured hard disk
backup program available for the Commodore Amiga computer. Ami-Back will
back up and restore your hard drive quickly and more conveniently than any
other backup program on the market. Not only that, but Ami-Back gives you
the ability to restore data from crashed hard drives - without the need for
any additional hard disk tools or utilities programs!

Hard drive errors and data corruption may happen any time even to the most
careful computer user, and when this happens the results can be disastrous.
Ami-Back allows you to protect the valuable data on your hard drive from
loss. By taking the drudgery out of backing up your data, Ami-Back ensures
that you won't put off the task until it's too late!

                                    -1-

PACKAGE CONTENTS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 o Users Guide
 o Registration Card (Be sure to send this in if you want support and
   notification of future upgrades!)
 o Program Disk: Contents of Disk - Your original Ami-Back disk contains
   both the 1.3 version and the 2.0 version of the program. On the disk you
   will find the following:
 o ami-back13 - The version of Ami-Back for AmigaDOS 1.3. This version
   will run under AmigaDOS 2.0.
 o ami-back20 - The version of Ami-Back for AmigaDOS 2.0. This version will
   only run under AmiaDOS 2.0 version 2.04 or higher.
 o ami-sched13 - The version of Ami-Sched for AmigaDOS 1.3.
 o ami-sched20 - The version of Ami-Sched for AmigaDOS 2.0.
 o hd-install - The installation program for Ami-Back and Ami-Sched.
 o README! - A text file that lists the changes and enhacements to the
   program that were made after this manual went to press. Be sure
   to read this file for important information.
 o The following files are required for the operation of Ami-Back:

              amiback.guide-------
                                 |--- Workbench 2.0
              amigaguide.library--

              asl13.library-------
                                 |--- Workbench 1.3
              gadtools13.library--

                                    -3-

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ami-Back20 requires any Amiga computer operating under AmigaDOS 2.0 or
greater (Kickstart version 37.xxx/WB v2.04 or greater) to run. Minimum
memory required is 512 kilobytes, although more memory may be required for
systems with extremely large numbers of files. Ami-Back13 requires Kickstart
version 1.1 or greater.

                                    -5-

INSTALLATION
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Ami-Back disk is not copy protected in any way. This allows you to make
your archival copy in oredr to protect your investment. However, Ami-Back is
personalized and will not run unless you provide your name and program
serial number during the installation process. Feel free to spread the word
about the program, but please do not spread the disk!

If an earlier version of Ami-Back is already installed on yoru computer and
you are installing this version as an update, you must delete the old
S:AMI-BACK.CONFIG file prior to running the new version of the program. This
will be handled properly as long as you use the provided Installation
program.

Step 1: Immediately make a backup copy of the Ami-Back program disk, and put
the original away in a safe place. (If you are unfamiliar with the Amiga
Workbench operating enviornment, or if you require more information on how
to make copies of your floppy disks, please consult the AmigaDOS manual that
came with your computer.)

Step 2: Insert the program disk into a floppy dive and open the disk (by
double clicking the disk icon) from Workbench.

Step 3: Once the disk contents are displayed on your screen, you will see an
icon named "Install Ami-Bak." This is the hard disk installation program
that will place Ami-Back20 or Ami-Back13 and the associated files on your
hard disk drive. Double click on this icon in order to execute the
installation program.

Step 4: The Ami-Back/Ami-Sched Installation Program window will appear on
your screen. Here you must Set Installation Mode by selecting the NOVICE
USER, INTERMEDIATE USER, or EXPERT USER gadget. In the Novice User mode, the
installation program will complete the installation automatically with no
user inetraction required. The installation program will detect whether you
have Workbench 1.3 or Workbench 2.0 running on your system and install the
appropriate version of Ami-Back. (In Expert User By default, the
installation progran will create a directory WORK:AMI-BACK and install
Ami-Back there, and the support files will be installed in their proper
locations (the library files will be placed in the LIBS: directory and

                                    -7-

the amiback.guide file will be placed in the S: directory. The Expert User
mode will allow you to control the installation process at every step,
deciding exactly where you wish each file to be installed. Click on the
PROCEED WITH INSTALL gadget to continue or the ABORT INSTALL gadget to
end the process.

Step 5: If you selected the Intermediate or Expert User mode for the
installation, after you select the PROCEED WITH INSTALL gadget you will be
able to select between INSTALL FOR REAL and PRETEND TO INSTALL options, and
you will be able to log all actions to PRINTER, LOG FILE, or NONE. Make your
selections then select PROCEED or ABORT INSTALL.

Step 6: Next you will be asked to select the destination for Ami-Back (if
you are in Intermediate User or Expert User mode).

Step 7: Once the installation is complete, you will be prompted to enter
your name and program serial number. You must perform the personalization
segment of the installation, otherwise Ami-Back will not work.

Ami-Back is now installed on your Amiga hard disk drive and is ready to be
configured!

                                    -8-

THE ZEN OF HARD DISK MAINTENANCE
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

You should consider regularly performing backups to be one of the most
important kinds of system maintenance. Once you take this idea to heart, you
will prevent inconvenient, exasperating, and potentially disastrous losses
of data. (If you do learn this lesson the "hard way," don't feel too bad -
almost all computer users have experienced losing data after having
neglected to perform routine backups. Think of the experience as an
"initiation" into the world of serious computing; hopefully it won't be too
bad!)

Ami-Back was written with the multitasking ability of the Amiga in mind.
While configuring your options, for example, it is entirely possible for you
to be performing many other tasks with your Amiga. (As an interesting side
note, this manual was authored while Ami-Back was running - which made it an
easy task to write about its features!) However, when actually performing
backups, we recommend that you run Ami-Back as a single task. The reason for
this is simple: It is quite possible to run a task concurrently with
Ami-Back that updates files, and if the updating occurs during the backup
process, the file may be updated after it was backed up. In this respect you
will not be guaranteed a completely accurate backup.

How often you should perform backups will vary depneding on how much you use
your computer. The more that files on your hard drive are added, updated,
altered, or deleted the greater the need to back up your data. For some
users, performing a backup only once a month is perfectly sufficent.
Computers that are used heavily (such as machines on networks, machines
running bulletin board services, machines in business enviornments, etc.)
should be backed up more often. A recommended backup schedule for such
machines would be to perform complete backups at least once a month with
incremental backups performed weekly.

Keep in mind that these recommendations are only general guidelines based on
a few rules of thumb. Only you can accuretly determine your actual backup
needs. The most important thing is that you should be consistent with your
backup duties. Set a shedule, and stick to it!

                                    -9-

After taking the time to perform your backup, be sure to keep the media in a
safe place. That means store the media someplace away from your computer!
Altough it is unlikely that some external event could take place to damage
your computer and hard drive, accidents do happen from time to time! Your
backups won't do you much good if they were stored right next to your
computer.... and also ruined by whatever accident that happened. A water
sprinkler going off in the workplace could spell disaster. So be sure to
store yoru backup media some distance from your computer.

Be sure to maintain multiple backup copies. It is never a good practice to
perform your backups with the only copy of your backup media. If, for
example, something happened (a power surge, perhaps) during the backup
process, it would be possible for your hard drive to be damaged.... as well
as your only backup copy.

Remember: If your data is important to you, it is important to take good
care of it by backing your hard disk up regularly.

                                    -10-

OVERVIEW OF FEATURES/CAPABILITIES
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ami-Back gives you complete control over the hard disk backup and restore
process. Here is an outline of Ami-Back's wealth of features:

  o The Backup Option allows you to select the sources from any of the
    available devices, and you may select destinations from floppy
    drives (regular or high desnity), tape drive (streaming tape or DAT),
    AmigaDOS files, or any mounted partition.
  o The kinds of backups you can perform are Complete, Selective, Recovery,
    and Image (which allows you to backup non-AmigaDOS partitions such as
    AMAX, UNIX, or MS-DOS).
  o The 911-Recovery mode actually recovers lost data from corrupted hard
    drives! You don't have to get a seperate hard disk utility to do this.
  o A filter system allows you to backup or restore just files you need.
  o Through the Compare option you can verify your backed-up data file by
    file, checking for any differences such as filesize or datestamp,
    for example.
  o Ami-Back can compress your data, and there will be no loss of speed
    during backup. In fact, on accelerated machines there is a noticeable
    speed increase when performing backups to floppy disks.
  o You can label your backups and create complete backup catalogs.
  o You can specify the location for your backup index files. If you
    lose your index, Ami-Back can rebuild it for you.
  o If you want to make sure that no one else can get to your data,
    you can password protect your backups.
  o Online Help for the major functions is available through the
    AmigaGuide interface. Simply position the mouse pointer over the
    desired gadget and press the HELP key for imformation.
  o The built-in scheduler, Ami-Sched, allows you to completely
    control Ami-Back automatically. Ami-Back will perform backups
    without any user interaction.

                                    -11-

  o You can communicate with Ami-back via AREXX.
  o Keyboard equivalents allow you to select the command or option
    you desire by pressing the appropriate key rather than by using the
    mouse. The keyboard equivalent for a command is the letter that is
    underscored.

                                    -12-

PROGRAM CONFIGURATION
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To start Ami-Back from Workbench, simply enter the directory in which you
installed Ami-Back, and click the program icon. (Shell users may activate
the program by entering AMI-BACK20 or AMI-BACK13 from the proper directory
path location.) The main program screen appears, giving you the options of
performing a BACKUP, performing a RESTORE, selecting the SCHEDULER or
selecting QUIT to exit the program.

When you first use Ami-Back, you will want to configure it to fit your
backup and restoration needs. Press the right mouse button to obtain the
menu bar on the Ami-Back main screen. Three menu headings will be displayed:
PROJECT, PREFERENCES, and TAPE. Under the PREFERENCES heading there are
three subheadings that allow you to set the Backup, Restore, or Program
configuration options. Select PROGRAM CONFIGURATION. The Ami-Back Program
Configuration screen will appear.

Here you will be able to specify where the files needed by the program are
to be kept as well as some of the basic program attributes. The "Ami-Back
Program Path" displayed is **NOT VALID PATH**, so you must enter the full
path including the program name here. Ami-back assigns a default
location of the S: directory to the "Log File Path" and the "Index

                                    -13-

File Path." In addition to being assigned to the S: directory, the "Backup
Filter Path" and the "Restore Filter Path" are named so that you can have
more than one of each type of filter.

Ami-Back is quite flexible and will allow you to specify any locations you
wish for these files. Just keep in mind that over the course of time as you
can use the program, some of these files will become larger. Therefore, be
sure that you specify locations for these files where space is and will
continue to be available.

AMI-BACK PROGRANM PATH (INCLUDE PROGRAM)

This is the location of the Ami-Back program. The Ami-Sched scheduler
program looks here to determine the location of Ami-Back, so do not move
Ami-Back without also updating this information. Specifying a full path
including the program name allows you to rename the backup program. For
example, if you wish to rename the program AB and place it in the WORKSTUFF
directory of your HDRIVE: partition, specify the full path as
HDRIVE:WORKSTUFF/AB.

                                    -14-

LOG FILE PATH (DIRECTORY ONLY)

This is where the AMI-BACK.LOG file is kept. Entries are made to this file
whenever you start or abort Ami-Sched and whenever the backup program is run
as a background task from Ami-Sched (see the section on the scheduler) or if
it is used from an AREXX server. Also, any errors which occur during backup
and cannot be displayed during the backup process are automatically added to
this file.

The length of the log file will increase with continued use of Ami-Sched. If
you wish to limit the length of this file, you must do so through the use of
a text editor. (The program ED supplied on your Workbench disk is sufficent
for this task; though you may use the text editor of your choice.) The most
recent entries are made at the end of the log file, so make deletions from
the beginning of the file to remove older information. This will maintain
the most accurate record of Ami-Back's activity.

When you run Ami-Back as a background task (i.e., no windows), any updates
the program makes will be placed into the log file automatically. Also, you
may delete the entire log file without affecting the operation of the
program. Ami-Back will recreate a log file whenever one is needed.

INDEX FILE PATH (DIRECTORY ONLY)

The files created at the end of all backups are kept here. The template for
these files is [PARTITION]-[BACKUP TYPE]-[DEVICE TYPE]-[DATE].IDX.(SEQUENCE
NUMBER). For example, a complete backup of partition DH2: made to a tape
drive and performed on April 15, 1992, would generate an index file named
DH2-C-T-04_15_92.IDX. Due to the file length limitation of AmigaDOS, the
PARTITION length limit is 8 characters. The allowable DEVICE TYPES are as
follows:

         H - Hard Drives
         D - Floppy Drives (High Density and regular)
         T - Tapes
         F - AmigaDOS Files

If you perform more than one backup per day, Ami-Back places a sequence
number on the end of the index file. So, for the second backup of the above
device, the index file would be called DH2-C-T-04_15_92.IDX.1. Ami-Back
allows you to perform up to 100 backups of the same device in one day.

                                    -15-

Index files contain information pertaining to the backups, and they are
subsequently used in restoring files (more specifically, they are used for
selective restores). The size of these files are determined by the number of
files which are backed up. For example, a backup of 1600 files in number
will create an index file of about 72 kilobytes in size.

Without index files, Ami-Back will only perform complete restores. (Ami-Back
gives you the ability to rebuild index files should you have the need. See
the Restore Type section for more information.)

BACKUP FILTER PATH (INCLUDE FILENAME)

This is the location of the file that holds the data for the Backup Filter.
Ami-Back allows you to specify your own so that you may have a different
filter with each configuration file. The default path name is
S:BUAMI-BACK.FILTER.

The Backup Filter will process a list of up to 100 files, directories, or
wild card entries that you specify. If the filter is active when Ami-Back is
run, the listed files and directories or any files and directories that
match any defined wildcard patterns will not be included in the backup. You
may also use the same filter for each configuration file by leaving the name
the same. You must enter the full path name of the filter. This means that
the directory location and the name of the file must be included.

RESTORE FILTER PATH (INCLUDE FILENAME)

This filter operates in the same manner as the Backup Filter, and the
required path specifications are the same. The default path name is
S:RSAMI-BACK.FILTER.

DISPLAY ALERT

During operation, Ami-Back may need to notify you (through requesters) of
changes in program status, or it may require you to provide additional
backup media (most commonly in the form of floppy disks). By selecting the
appropriate cycle gadget, you can direct Ami-Back to signal you by providing
a visual FLASH ONLY, an audible BEEP ONLY, both a FLASH AND BEEP, or, if you
prefer no audio or visual cue, you may select the NONE gadget, and Ami-Back
will perform its functions transparently.

                                    -16-

PROGRAM OPERATIONS

Ami-Back gives you the ability to control the program read-write operations.
Selecting ASYNCHRONOUS operations means that the program will read from the
destination device while writing to the source device at the same time
during the backup. Some older hard drive controllers are not suited for
asynchronous operation and may cause your machine to lock up with high
levels of DMA activity. By selecting SYNCHRONOUS operations this problem
can be avioded. Note that by switching to synchronous operations you may
notice a slight increase in the time required for backup and restore
operations on most devices.

INDEX FILE LOCATION

You have the option of storing the Index File (necessary for backups and
restores) in a location you specify or automatically with the backup set of
floppy disks. (Should your Index File become lost or otherwise unavailable
to you, Ami-Back gives you the ability to rebuild the index file. This will
be discussed later.)

SHOW CONFIGURATION FIRST

Selecting this check box will cause Ami-Back to display the backup or
restore configuration before a backup or restore is performed. This gives
you a final opportunity to check the configuration before proceeding.

Once you have established the program path configurations to fit your system
needs, you may select the SAVE gadget to permanently retain these settings.
If, however, you decide to exit the Program Configuration option without
making any changes, press the CANCEL gadget, and your last saved path
configurations will be used. You may easily respecify any or all path
configurations at any time by reselecting the Program Configuration
subheading from the Ami-Back main screen menu bar.

                                    -17-

BACKUP CONFIGURATION

One of Ami-Back's most powerful features is its ability to give you complete
control of all aspects of the backup procedure. In giving Ami-Back this
capability, its programmers did not sacrifice any amount of the program's
simplicity - ease of use was one of the main design considerations from the
beginning of Ami-Back's developement.

To customize the backup configuration, activate the BACKUP CONFIGURATION
subheading under PREFERENCES in the main screen menu. This will display the
Ami-Back backups configuration window. Here you may specify the parameters
of the backup you wish to perform.

SOURCE

First you must decide what device you wish to back up. When you open the
Backup Configuration window for the first time (when there is no backup
configuration file), the first AmigaDOS device in your device list will be
selected and the backup/restore types will be set to Image. If there are no
devices present, the gadget will display NO DEVICE.

                                    -19-

Ami-Back gives you the option of specifying any mounted device (and the RAM:
device) as your backup source. All mounted devices will be listed in a row
of icons across the top of the Backup Configuration window. (If there are
more than five devics, you will be able to scroll them into view by clicking
on the NEXT or PREV arrow gadgets.)

You may enter devices into the Source string gadget either by typing them
directly or by clicking on the appropriate icons. You may also specify
single device directories as backup sources. For example, if you wish to
backup the C directory of the DH0: device, click on the DH0: icon so that
the DH0: device is displayed. Then click within the string gadget so that a
text cursor appears, and type C so that the source device will be listed as
DH0:C.

It is also possible to specify a source device by name. Suppose your hard
drive is divided into three partitions: DH0:, DH1:, and DH2:. If the DH2:
partition is named DATA_STUFF:, you would be able to select that device by
typing DATA_STUFF: into the source string gadget, Ami-Back will also
recognize assigned directories. For example, if BIN: is an assignment to the
directory DH1:PROGS partition, typing BIN: into the source string gadget is
acceptable.

If you type your selections into the string gadget, be sure to press the
RETURN key when you are done, otherwise Ami-Back will ignore the entry. The
CLR gadget to the right of the Source string gadget will erase all
selections from the string gadget.

If the source you specify is not a directory or mounted device, or if the
source is not an AmigaDOS compatible device and the backup type is not Image
or Recovery, Ami-Back will notify you by flashing the screen and/or beeping
and displaying a requester that states "Not a valid source device." Click
the CONTINUE gadget and respecify a valid device or change the backup type.

Once you have made a valid source device selection, it will remain in the
device list during the current session in Ami-Back. Saving the configuration
will save your selection as the default backup device. If the configuration
is not saved, the source device selection will be lost and not listed the
next time Ami-Back is run. (It is possible to save more than one backup
configuration. This will be discussed later.)

                                    -20-

MULTIPLE DEVICE BACKUPS

Ami-Back allows you to backup multiple devices at one time. To backup
multiple devices, you just enter the valid device (directory) names, making
sure to seperate each device name with a space. For example, if you wanted
to backup your WB_2.X: and WORK: partitions, you would click both the
appropriate source icons or enter the following in the string gadget for
your backup source:

   WB_2.X: WORK:

DESTINATION DEVICE

Now that you have determined what you will be backing up, you need to decide
where to store that information. Ami-Back allows you to use any AmigaDOS
compatible disk device as the destination for your backup. You may use
floppy drives, high density floppy drives, hard drive partitions, removable
drives, or SCSI tape drives as your storage media. You may also backup to a
single AmigaDOS file. You may cycle through all the destination devices
available to the program by clicking on the cycling Destination gadget.

FLOPPY DRIVE(S)

If you select Floppy Drive(s) as the destination, the available floppy
drives will be displayed as button gadgets to the right of the Destination
gadget. You may then select any or all of those gadgets depending upon which
floppy drive(s) you wish to use during the backup. It is unnecessary to
format floppy disks before using them for backups. Also, it does not matter
if the disks are not empty. Any data that already exists on the floppies
will be overwritten by the backup process.

Currently the AmigaDOS trackdisk.device supports a maximum of four floppy
drives (DF0: to DF3: for regular floppy drives). If there is a high density
floppy attached to your system, more than four floppy drives may be shown to
be available (DF4: to DF7: for high density floppy drives - this is
applicable only to Applied Engineering high density drives under Workbench
1.3 only).

                                    -21-

You may select up to four floppy drives as the backup destination device.
However, you may not simultaneously select regular density and high density
floppies as the destination device. Remember that if you select Floppy
Drive(s) as your destination, you must specify at least one floppy drive as
the destination for your backup. Remember that once you start your backup
with either a regular or high-density floppy drive you must complete the
backup with that type of drive.

Commodore has established a standard for high-density floppies. Ami-Back was
written to support this standard. The Applied Engineering HD floppy
trackdisk.device patch currently does not work with Kickstart 2.0. If and
when the patch is updated to work with Kickstart 2.0, Ami-Back will support
the Applied Engineering HD floppy drive.

TAPE DRIVE

If you select Tape Drive as your destination device, a Configure Tape gadget
will appear to the right of the Destination gadget. Cliking on the Configure
Tape gadget will bring up the Tape Drive Configuration window. Here is where
you will set the options for your particular tape drive setup.

                                    -22-

If you do not wish to manually set all the options, you may want to make use
of the Read Defaults gadget. To do so, you must first set the proper Device
and SCSI ID (as described below) for your tape drive. Then, clicking on the
Read Defaults gadget will direct Ami-Back to determine your tape drive's
default settings.

DRIVE TYPE - For most drives this option should be set to Sequential. For
users with the 3M tape drive (model 3M MCD-40) or other direct access drive
types, however, make sure you have this option set to Direct rather than
Sequential. Direct accessing tape drives use a different command set than
sequential tape drives, and Ami-Back takes accounts for this.

DIRECT ACCESS - To use these tapes you must first format the tapes using
Ami-Back. To do so, select the FORMAT command under the Tape menu in the
main screen.

SEQUENTIAL-ACCESS - These tape drives are directly accessed by Ami-Back, and
most likely will not be able to be mounted by your controller software.
Ami-Back will work with any QIC standard drive (and SCSI controller) that
supports SCSI-I or SCSI-II commands. See appendix II for a list of tape
drives with which Ami-Back has been tested.

DEVICE - This string gadget is for the name of the device which controls the
drive (the internal SCSI controller device name on the A3000, for example,
is scsi.device). It is case sensitive. On the right of the Device gadget are
right and left arrows that allow you to cycle through the available devices.
You will have to consult your controller manual for your controller device.
Most controller manufacturers store the needed device in the SYS:DEVS
directory.

I/O MODE - There are two options for this mode: Asynchronous and
Synchronous. The default selection for this option is Asynchrnous, and this
is the proper setting for most tape drives. Again, the 3M drives that some
users of Ami-Back have are exceptions, and in this case the Synchrnous I/O
Mode is a better selection. The difference between the Asynchrnous and
Synchrnous modes is that the Asynchrnous mode sends commands that allow the
tape drive to disconnect from the SCSI bus (if this is supported by the
drive and controller), while the Synchrnous mode causes Ami-Back to wait for
a return of the command prior ro continuation (no disconnection). Thus the
Synchrnous mode is slower, but it may be required with some configurations.

                                    -23-

SCSI ID - In this string gadget you may specify the SCSI unit number
corresponding to your selected tape drive. In most cases the number is
between 0 and 7, but Ami-Back accepts a range of 0 to 999 (the hundred's
place digit corresponds to the SCSI controller board, the ten's place
corresponds to the LUN SCSI ID, and the one's digit corresponds to the
device) allowing for various configurations. The arrows on either side of
the gadget allow you to increase or decrease the unit number by one.

BLOCK TYPE/BLOCK SIZE - Most SCSI drives use a Fixed block lngth of 512k, so
that is the default setting for this option. The 3M drive, however, uses a
Variable block length of 8192k, so the Block Size for this drive must be set
to 8192 bytes. Most drives are of the fixed block type and require a block
size of 512k, but some drives support higher block sizes for higher transfer
efficencies.

AUTO TAPE SIZE/TAPE SIZE - The default condition for this condition is Yes,
and under almost all conditions you will not have to change this. However,
there are some combinations of controllers and drives that do not work well
together. This problem becomes evident when Ami-Back is attempting to write
data at the end of the tape; you will recieve an error. If you have problems
backing up to multiple tapes, set the Auto Tape Size option to NO. Then you
will be able to specify the maximum number of megabytes to be written to
each tape in the Tape Size gadget. When the limit you have set is reached,
you will be prompted for a new tape, and the backup process wil continue
without error.

BUFFER (x2) - There is also a gadget to specify a Buffer size for tape drive
operations (there is both a backup bufer and restore buffer) from 32k to 4
MB. (Remember that the memory available must be contiguous.) When using tape
drives that support reselection, the 32k buffer is considered to be the
optimum choice for maximum speed (in most cases). For tape drives (or SCSI
Controllers) that do not support reselection, we recommend that you use a 1
MB buffer. The larger 2 MB and 4 MB options are provided, but these normally
do not improve performance. The "x2" indicates that there are actually two
buffers allocated of this size (the restore buffer is only a single buffer
so the x2 size is not applicable).

MAXTRANSFER (BLOCKS) - This is the maximum number of blocks to be written to
your tape drive. Normally the default of 128 will give you the best results.
You may change this to optimize speed on your system. WARNING: Changing this
value can cause erratic behavior during tape drive operation. (Set it to 128
when using the 3M drive.)

                                    -24-

AUTO RETENSION - The Auto Retension gadget allows you to select whether or
not you wish to retension a tape. It is recommended that you retension new
tapes and tapes that haven't been used for long periods of time. You may
select this option from under the Tape menu item from the Ami-Back main
screen. Be sure to wait for the completion of the tape retension pass before
proceeding with the backup.

TAPE APPEND - This option allows you to backup information onto tapes which
contain information from previous backups. In this way you will be able to
utilize the entire tape storage capacity rather than be forced to use a
different tape each time you perform a backup. (Overwriting a tape that has
multiple backups on it will destroy the backups on the tape.)

Backup and restore onfigurations for tape drives are the same. Changing one
configuration will result in changing the other.

Once you have made your desired selections, select the USE gadget to return
to the Backup Configuration screen.

AMIGADOS FILE

Ami-Back supports backups to single AmigaDOS files. When this option is
selected as the destination, a string gadget for the File Name will appear
to the right of the Destination gadget. Enter the complete path and filename
for the file to which you wish to backup your data. The destination device
must have enough free space to handle the entire backup. This means that the
entire backup is stored as one large AmigaDOS file, and the resulting file
can be manipulated as any other AmigaDOS file. This option is nice for users
who want to backup one hard drive partition to another. It will allow the
free space on the destination partition to still be available for use. (With
a normal backup, the destination will be converted to a non-DOS partition.)
The path and name of the destination file is user definable, however, the
default is RAM:AMI-BACK.BAC. When backing up an AmigaDOS file from one hard
drive partition to another partition, you will not expirence any significant
speed loss.

BACKUP TYPE

Ami-Back allows you to perform five different types of hard disk backups
depending on your particular requirements.

                                    -25-

COMPLETE

This backup mode will search and backup the entire source device you have
selcted (based on your configuration criteria). A Complete backup is the
type you would perform, for example, when backing up a hard disk drive for
the first time.

SELECTIVE

This backup mode allows you to specify precisely which directories and/or
files you wish Ami-Back to backup. It does so by building a "directory tree"
of your source device, allowing you to make your selections from a displayed
listing. This mode allows you to select from a single file to everything in
your source device for backup.

911-RECOVERY

This mode only works with fast file system disks, and the backup Source must
be a single device only (hard drive partitions or floppy drives), and the
device must be mounted. 911-Recovery backup works like a selective backup,
except it doesn't go through the AmigaDOS file system -- it directly reads
the data from the disk. This is useful if parts of the disk have been
overwritten, and AmigaDOS won't recognize the disk or if parts of the disk
are unreadable. You can also use this mode to recover deleted files.

IMAGE

Ami-Back gives you the option to perform Image backups of your data. This
means that you can back up the exact image of the device. This option can
only be used to backup entire devices; you cannot select the Image option to
back up individual files, directories, etc. The advantage of this type of
backup is in backing up non-AmigaDOS partitions (such as AMAX, UNIX, etc.)
that cannot be backed up with standard Amiga backup commands or programs.
Ami-Back is able to perform Image backups and restores as long as the
selected partition is mounted.

You can perform Image backups to any device supported by Ami-Back (i.e.,
file, floppy, etc.). When you perform an Image backup, you will only be able
to restore the entire backup. It is not possible to perform incremental
backup or restores for Image backups.

                                    -26-

While we recommend that you use the Image backup option for backing up
non-AmigaDOS partitions, you may find other uses for it. For example, if you
wish to copy an entire partition to another hard drive or partition, you
will find that the Image backup option will do the job very well and
extremely quickly. For this technique to work, you will have to rstore your
data to another partition of the exact same size.

You cannot use Ami-Back as a disk copy program with Image backups or
restores. Due to the information Ami-Back stores with the backup, this is
impossible. Also, during an Image backup or restore to a partition, that
partition is completely unavailable to the operating system.

BACKUP OPTIONS

LABEL BACKUP

This option will allow you to store a label for your backup set such as a
Tape label, a disk set label, and so on. The information will be stored on
the Index Filenote, and it will be displayed on the program if it exists.
Writing a label to the first tape, disk, etc. allows you to correlate the
different types.

WRITE NOTIFY

Selecting this gadget will instruct Ami-Back to notify you before
overwriting information on the backup media.

BACKUP CATALOG

This option allows you to create a catalog of the files and directory
structure of the backed-up data, which you can save at the end of the backup
to an AmigaDOS file or to the PRT: device. If you save to a file, a
requester will allow you to name the file, otherwise a default of
ABCATALOG.TXT will be specified.

PASSWORD PROTECT

If the password protect option is set, you will be prompted for a password
when the backup begins. This password is public key encrypted and stored in
the backup header. The password is also used to encrypt the

                                    -27-

backup data using a simple fast encryption algorithm. On restore you must
re-enter the password in order to restore your data. Keep in mind that if
you should lose the password, there is no way to recover the backed up data.

USE BACKUP FILTER

This is your "on/off switch" for the Backup Filter. Selecting this option
will activate the filter parameters for your backup, otherwise Ami-Back will
ignore the filter parameters during backup. If you wish to activate the
Backup Filter, be sure to configure the filter prior to use, as described
below.

CONFIGURE FILTER

Selecting the Configure Filter gadget brings up the Backup Filter
Configuration window. This is where you may set specifications for the
File/Directory filter, protecion bits, and date stamp check. You can AND or
OR any combination of these specifactions.

                                    -28-

FILE/DIRECTORY/COMMENT FILTER

This filter has many options. First you may enter an F or D or C as the
first filter argument. This will force the filter to be applicable to the
desired type (F=File, C=Comment, D=Directory). If none of these letters are
specified, a default specification of FILE is used.

FORMAT EXAMPLE:  F - *.INFO
                 ^ ^ ^
                 | | |------ This starts the filter argument
                 | |         (can use ANY amigados wildcard scheme)
                 | |
                 | |-------- This means exclusion type argument
                 |           (possibilities are - or +)
                 |
                 |---------- This means FILE type argument
                             (possibilities are F/D/C)
                             (If not present will default to FILE
                             type)

The next character must be either a "-" symbol or a "+" symbol. This will
direct the filter argument to work with Inclusion or Exclusion mode. The "-"
symbol works with Exclusion mode and the "+" symbol works with Inclusion
mode. This means that when you have the file filter active in the Inclusion
mode, only the "+" items are used, and when Exclusion is specified, only the
"-" items are used. Both kinds of items are used if both filter modes are
specified, however, the Inclusion is actually performed first. If you are
using the Inclusion mode you must enter a D+* if you want sub-directories to
be included. (D+* will include all directories, and other arguments may be
used instead.)

There may be files and/or directories that you will consistently wish to
exclude from or include in the backups, and these files and/or directories
may have names with common elements, rather than being uniquely-named. The
filter can hold a list of filenames/directories or partial
filenames/directories combined with metacharacters (wildcards) that will
exlude from or include in backup searches, and this list can be used every
time Ami-Back is run.

For example, you may decide not to back up any file with the .info suffix.
While it would be possible for you to specify Selective as the default
backup type, and then manually MARK or EXCLUDE all those .info files, it

                                    -29-

is more convenient to make use of the Backup Filter for this task. Standard
AmigaDOS wildcard schemes are used, and you may also use the "*" (asterik)
characters to represent any amount of characters.

The more items you include in the filter, the longer the source device
search will take before the actual backup. This is because each file and
directory on the source device must be matched against all of the items
listed in the filter. A few items, however, will make no appreciable
difference in the execution time of the search.

ADDING PARAMETERS

Let's continue with the example of excluding all files with the .INFO
suffix. First you will need to add an item to the filter list which
represents all the files you want to exclude. Click the ADD gadget on the
filter requester, and the string gadget allowing you to input text becomes
active. You might type F-.INFO now, but that would only represent files with
the name of the .INFO rather files with that as a suffix. You need to
utilize AmigaDOS wildcards (see your AmigaDOS manual for more information).
Type F-#?.INFO or F-*.INFO and then press the carriage return. The exclusion
parameter F-*.INFO is now entered into the filter list. Now when the
exclusion filter is used during a backup, all files with the .INFO suffix
will be ignored.

You may add more parameters to the filter such as individual files
(Preferences), all files that start with the letter B (B#?), or whatever
else you like. Each time you add a parameter, the exclusion filter list will
be updated in alphabetical order.

If you enter a parameter which includes any illegal characters and try to
save it to the filter, you will be prompted by a requester that says
"Illegal filter type. First character must be a + or -." Clicking on the
CONTINUE gadget will remove the requester as well as the offending
parameter.

DELETING PARAMETERS

The procedure to delete items from the filter list is simple. Just click on
the item which you wish to delete (using the scroll bar to find the
parameter if necessary). The DEL gadget will become active, and clicking on
it will delete the specified item.

                                    -30-

MODIFYING PARAMETERS

To modify items in the filter, begin as if to delete an item; however, do
not select the DEL gadget. Simply change the contents of the string gadget,
and press the return key. The item will be modified and placed back into the
filter (and the original item will be deleted).

PROTECTION BIT FILTER

This will allow you to check the date range of files you wish to
include/exclude from your backup. You may set the range of dates and times
in DOS, INT (international), USA, or CANADIAN format, and then specify
whether you wish to check for files within or outside this date range. The
default FROM date is always the last backup date (datestamp of the current
configuration), and the TO date is always the system date on startup of
Ami-Back. If you desire, you may set other bracketing dates by typing in the
string gadgets or using the arrow gadgets.

AND/OR - Ami-Back gives you the ability to select any of these filter
parameters in logical AND or OR combinations. For the AND/OR operations to
be available, at least two of the three filters must be active.

Once you have made your Backup Filter Configuration selections, select the
USE gadget to return to the Backup Configuration window. If you decide that
you do not wish to change the Backup Filter, select the CANCEL gadget and
all settings will revert to the last-saved parameters.

LEAVING THE BACKUP CONFIGURATION MODE

After you have configured Ami-Back's backup options, you may exit this mode
by one of three ways.

CANCEL - Selecting the CANCEL gadget allows you to exit the backup
configuration mode with no change made to the existing enviornment. The
previously used backup configuration will be restored.

                                    -31-

USE - Selecting the USE gadget will activate your configuration changes for
the current execution of Ami-Back. However, no changes will be made to the
configuration file, and your previously saved configuration will be restored
for the next time you run Ami-Back.

SAVE - The SAVE gadget will save all the changes you made in the backup
configuration mode to the current configuration file. This will not effect
your other configuration changes.

                                    -32-

RESTORE CONFIGURATION
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just as in the Backup Configuration mode, Ami-Back gives you complete
flexibility in setting your Restore Configuration options. To enter the
Restore Configuration mode, activate the RESTORE CONFIGURATION subheading
under the PREFERENCES menu in the main screen menu bar.

To customize the restore configuration as you wish, activate the RESTORE
CONFIGURATION subheading under EDIT in the main screen menu. This will
display the Ami-Back Restore Configuration window. From here you may specify
all the parameters of the restore you wish to perform.

DESTINATION

First you must decide to what device you wish to restore your data. Ami-Back
gives you the option of specifying any mounted device (and the RAM: device)
as your restore destination. All mounted devices will be listed in a row of
icons across the top of the Restore Configuration window. (if there are more
than five devices, you will be able to scroll them into view by clicking on
the NEXT or PREV arrow gadgets.)

You may enter devices into the Destination string gadget either by typing
them directly or by clicking on the appropriate icons. You may also specify
single device directories as destinations. For example, if you wish to
restore the C directory of the DH0: device, click on the DH0: icon so that
the DH0: device is displayed. Then click within the string gadget so that a
text cursor appears, and type C so that the source device will be listed as
DH0:C.

It is also possible to specify a destination device by name. Suppose your
hard drive is divided into three partitions: DH0:, DH1:, and DH2:. If the
DH2: partition is named DATA_STUFF:, you would be able to select that device
by typing DATA_STUFF: into the destination string gadget. Ami-Back will also
recognize assigned directories. For example, if BIN: is an assignment to the
directory DH1:PROGS partition, typing BIN: into the source string gadget is
acceptable.

                                    -33-

If you type your selections into the string gadget, be sure to press the
RETURN key when you are done, otherwise Ami-Back will ignore the entry. The
CLR gadget to the right of the destination string gadget will erase all
selections from the string gadget.

If the destination you specify is not a directory or mounted device, or if
the source is not an AmigaDOS compatible device and the restore type is not
Image, Ami-Back will notify you by flashing the screen and/or beeping and
displaying a requester that states "Not a valid destination device." Click
the CONTINUE gadget and respecify a valid device or change the restore type.

Once you have made a valid destination device selection, it will remain in
the device list during the current session in Ami-Back. Saving the
configuration will save your selection as the default restore device. If the
configuration is not saved, the destination device selection will be lost
and not listed the next time Ami-Back is run. (It is possible to save more
than one restore configuration. This will be discussed later.)

When you select your restore device destination, be sure to use the same
device path that you specified in your Backup Configuration file. For
example, if your backup source is your SYS: partition, then you should
specify the SYS: partition for your restore destination device. Otherwise,
if you were to select SYS:T as your destination device and then you were to
restore the file C:DIR from the backup disk, the path for the restore would
end up being SYS:T/C/DIR.

MULTIPLE DEVICE RESTORES

Ami-Back allows you to restore multiple devices at one time. To restore
multiple devices, you just enter the valid device (directory) names, making
sure to seperate each device name with a space. For example, if you wanted
to backup your WB_2.X: and WORK: partitions, you would click both the
appropriate source icons or enter the following in the string gadget for
your backup source:

    WB_2.X: WORK:

If you backed up WB_2.X: and WORK:, and you assigned DH0: to WB_2.X: and
DH1: to WORK:, you may also use those assignment names when restoring, so
these names are used by the program. This will change your device list on
the selective restore to be DH0: and DH1:

                                    -34-

SOURCE

Now you may specify the source from which your backed-up data will be read
for the restore process. Ami-Back allows you to use any AmigaDOS compatible
disk device excluding the RAM: device as the source of your restore. You may
use floppy drives, high density floppy drives, hard drive partitions,
removable drives, or SCSI tape drives as your source media. You may cycle
through all the source devices available to the program by clicking on the
Source gadget.

FLOPPY DRIVE(s)

If you select Floppy Drive(s) as the source, the available floppy drives
will be displayed as button gadgets to the right of the Source gadget. You
may then select any or all of those gadgets depending upon which floppy
drive(s) you wish to use during the restore process. You may select up to
four floppy drives as the restore source device. (You may not simultaneously
select both regular density and high density floppies as the source device
if you are using Applied Engineering high density floppies under Workbench
1.3.) Remember that if you select Floppy Drive(s) as your source, you must
specify at least one floppy drive as the source for your restore.

TAPE DRIVE

If you select Tape Drive as your restore device, a Configure Tape gadget
will appear to the right of the Source gadget. Clicking on the CONFIGURE
TAPE gadget will bring up the Tape Drive Configuration window. This is the
same configuration window that appeared when you configured your tape drive
for bakups, and the settings currently stored are those which you selected
during the backup configuration. See Tape Drive in the Backup Configuration
section for more information.

AMIGADOS FILE

Ami-Back supports restores from single AmigaDOS files. When this option is
selected as the source, a string gadget for the File Name will appear to the
right of the Destination gadget. Enter the complete path and filename for
the file from which you wish to restore your data. The destination device
must have enough free space to handle the entire restore.

                                    -35-

RESTORE TYPE

Ami-Back allows you to perform five different types of restores depending on
your particular requirements.

COMPLETE

This restore mode will restore all your backed-up data. A Complete restore
is the type you would perform, for example, after reformatting a hard disk
partition.

SELECTIVE

Clicking on the SELECIVE gadget allows you to restore only files or
directories that you directly specify. This option is especially useful when
you wish to restore a single file or directory. To make use of this option,
you must have an index file available in the directory which you named while
setting the Program Configuration. Without an index file, Ami-Back is only
able to perform complete restores of your data. It is possible to
reconstruct an index by using the Build Index restore option (see below).

It is possible to perform selective restores from multi-device backups. If
you backup to a device with a multi-device backup and then want to perform a
selective restore, you will have to enter the same number of devices to
restore to as you backed up from in the same order as they were backed up.
However, you may "fool" the program if you want to restore only several
files or directories to a single device instead of to multiple devices. To
do so, enter the same device name more than once. For example, if you backed
up partitions WB_2.X: and WORK:, and you wanted to restore a couple of files
from each partition to RAM:, you would enter in the restore destination
gadget RAM: RAM:. This way you will have two destination device names as the
program requires, and you will be restoring to one device.

COMPARE

Though listed under the Restore Type category, this option does not actually
perform a restore of any data. Rather, Compare allows you to take a backup
(usually the last one performed) and compare it against your current
filesystem in order to obtain a list of the differences. This operation

                                    -36-

is useful after a hard drive crash or any other situation which might result
in an unexpected data loss. Although Ami-Back does not perform any
diagnostics, you can utilize the "911-Recovery" backup mode to recover lost
data. See the section on backup options for more information.

Using the Compare option will assist you in determining if any files are
missing or have been corrupted. The Compare function is performed only with
the information on the actual backup media.

IMAGE

Ami-Back gives you the ability to restore individual partitions from
multi-device Image backups. Take the above example in which you backed up
the WB_2.X: and WORK: partitions. If you wished to restore only the WORK:
partition, you could enter NIL: WORK: as your restore destination. This
would send the WB_2.X: partition data off to Never-Never Land, so to speak,
while properly restoring the WORK: partition data. (This feature will only
work with the Image restore option!)

BUILD INDEX

When Ami-Back backs up your data it creates an index that can be used later
to selectively restore the data. It is possible that the index file may
become corrupted or otherwise lost. It is always possible to perform a
complete restore even if you no longer have the index file for the backed up
data. However, Ami-Back also gives you the ability to rebuild a new index
file for your backed-up data. To do this, you must select BUILD INDEX under
Restore Type when setting your restore configuration. You then perform the
same steps as you would do when performing a complete restore. This will not
restore any files. At the end of the rebuild you will be provided a
requester allowing you to name the new index file. Make sure the name ends
with a .IDX suffix.

FILE DATE

Selecting the Original gadget maintains your files' original datestamps.
Selecting the System Date gadget will result in all files adopting the
current system datestamp during the restore process.

                                    -37-

DIR STRUCTURE

This option allows you to restore files with or without rebuilding the
backed-up directory structure. Selecting the Maintain gadget instructs the
program to rebuild the directory as it was stored, while selecting Single
Directory is appropriate when you wish to ignore the directory structure and
restore all files to a single directory.

FILE DETECTION

In some situations, you will be restoring files to a device where those
files already exist. However, there will also be occassions when you will be
restoring files because the original files were deleted or corrupted. Since
different conditions may exist when you restore files, Ami-Back gives you
three options for dealing with these situations.

WRITE-OVER

Selecting this option will result in the files on the destination device
being over-written during the restoration of files.

WRITE-OVER (DATE)

This option operates similiarly to Write Over, however, only files on the
destination device that are older than the corresponding files on the backup
will be overwritten. Duplicated files will not be restored but skipped
instead.

RENAME

If this option is selected, whenever a duplicate file is detected, Ami-Back
will bring up a requester that gives you the opportunity to rename the file
during the restore process. The renamed file will be restored to the same
directory as the original file. You are also allowed to skip over the file
(as outlined above).

                                    -38-

FILE PROTECTION BITS

This option allows you to ontrol the setting of the file protection bits
during your restoration. Selecting the ORIGINAL gadget results in the files
being restored with their protection bits unchanged. (You will usually
maintain this setting.) Selecting the USER SELECT gadget will allow you to
specify the status of each partition bit setting for all your files as they
are restored. You will be able to make your selections using the PRO BITS
gadgets to the right. (Refer to your AmigaDOS manual for more information
concerning the different protection bit and their uses.)

USE RESTORE FILTER

This is your "on/off" for the Rstore Filter. Selecting this option will
activate the filter parameters for your restore, otherwise Ami-Back will
ignore the filter parameters during the restore. The Restore Filter only
operates during the Complete or Compare restore modes. If you wish to
activate the Restore Filter, be sure to configure the filter prior to use.
The configuration and operation of the Restore Filter is the same as the
Backup Filter, so refer back to Configure Filter in the Backup Configuration
section for more information.

                                    -39-

LEAVING THE RESTORE CCONFIGURATION MODE

The SAVE, USE, and CANCEL gadgets are used here in the same manner as the
correspnding Backup Configuration screen gadgets.

                                    -40-

MEDIA REQUIREMENTS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Floppy disks do not have to be formatted prior to backing up to them with
Ami-Back, unless you are backing up an AmigaDOS file.

Since most tapes come pre-formatted, they do not require formatting. All
other media must be formatted before using. Tapes, removable media, and
fixed hard drive partitions must be formatted to the requirements of
AmigaDOS before Ami-Back will recognize them. Connect tape drives to your
SCSI controller per your controller documentation.

If you want to maintain your backup destination device as an Ami-back
partition, be sure you have specified MOUNT=0 in your mountlist entry file
for devices you wish to mount. Specifying anything else will result in a
"Not a DOS disk" error (on system startup).

                                    -41-

SCHEDULER CCONFIGURATION
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

You have the option of using Ami-Back manually whenever you wish, or
allowing its companion program, Ami-Sched to control its execution
automatically. Ami-Sched is a scheduling utility (see the section on
Ami-Sched) which is used to run Ami-Back at pre-determined intervals.

Before you run Ami-Sched you should configure the program to fit your
particular needs. (If you do not reconfigure Ami-Sched before running it,
Ami-Sched will activate Ami-Back every day at midnight, which is its default
configuration mode.)

To enter the scheduler configuration mode, select the Scheduler gadget from
the main screen. Once in the Scheduler Configuration mode, you will see five
calendar-like requesters: 1) "Months Per Year," 2) "Days Per Month,"
3) "Days Per Week," 4) "Hours Per Day," and 5) "Mins Per Hour."
Additionally, you will see gadgets for selecting the Scheduler
Configuration, setting the Configuration Status and the Event Type, and
selecting the Backup Configuration file to use.

                                    -43-

When you enter the Schedule Configuration mode for the first time, you will
notice that the number gadget 0 in the "Hours Per Day" and "Mins Per Hour"
requesters are already selected. This is Ami-Sched's default configuration
which runs Ami-Back every midnight. If, for example, you wish to change the
backup time to every day at noon instead of midnight, you would click the 0
gadget under the "Hours Per Day" heading to deactivate it and then click the
12 gadget in the same heading to activate it.

If a specific time or date for backup is not selected, Ami-Sched will behave
as if all times and dates are selected. By selecting one or more gadget in
any of the date/time requesters, you will limit the backups to those
specific times and/or dates.

The "Days Per Month" and "Days Per Week" gadgets are mutually dependent for
their operational values. If nothing is selected under either heading,
backups will occur every day of the month. If, however, any "Days Per Month"
(1,2,3, etc.) are selected, backups will occur only on those dates. If any
"Days Per Week" (Sun, Mon, Tue, etc.) are selected, backups will occur only
on these days. Finally, if certain "Days Per Month" are selected in addition
to certain "Days Per Week," backups will occur on both these dates of the
month and these days of the week.

(If you are familiar with the UNIX operating system, you will see that
Schedule Configuration setup is similar to a UNIX cron file entry.) For
example, if you select a particular month - say Jul - in the "Months Per
Year" requester, the program will only perform backups during July. If, on
the other hand, no month is selected, backups will be performed every month.
You can configure Ami-Sched so that backups are performed as frequently as
once an hour every day or as seldomly as once a year.

Users may select only one time gadget in the "Mins Per Hour" requester and
one time gadget in this requester must always be selected. The following
examples show you how Schedule Configuration works.

EXAMPLE 1

In the "Months Per Year" requester activate FEB, JUL, and NOV. Click 1, 15,
and 31 in the "Days Per Month" requester, and activate FRI in the "Days Per
Week" requester. In the "Hours Per Day" requester activate 23, and activate
30 in the "Mins Per Hour" requester. With this configuration, backups will
be performed at 11:30 P.M. on February 1st and 15th, on July 1st, 15th and
31st, and on November 1st and 15th, and also on every Friday of these
months.

                                    -44-

EXAMPLE 2

Activate WED and SAT for "Days Per Week," 9 and 18 for "Hours Per Day," and
45 for "Mins Per Hour." In this case, backups will be performed at 9:45 A.M.
and 6:45 P.M. on every Wednesday and Saturday of every month in the year.

MULTIPLE SCHEDULER CONFIGURATIONS

The Scheduler Configuration gadget allows you to select any of 10 different
backup configuration files. This means, for example, that at midnight you
can call Ami-Back with S:AMI-BACK1.CONFIG and at 12:30 am you can call
Ami-Back with S:AMI-BACK2.CONFIG. The backups will be performed with the
backup information saved in these configuration files.

To set up a configuration file, go to the scheduler configuration and
specify the time for backup as described above. Select the configuration you
wish to work on by clicking on the cycle gadget that has CONFIGURATION 1
through CONFIGURATION 10.

You may render a particular configuration or inactive by clicking on the
Configuration Status gadget. If a configuration file is inactive, the
sheduler will ignore it.

EVENT TYPE

If this option in the scheduler is specified as MESSAGE, when the scheduled
backup time arrives, instead of performing a backup, a requester will appear
informing the user that it is time for a backup and asking whether a
backup should be performed. Otherwise the backup will be performed without
notification.

In the string gadget that comes up for the first time (which defaults to
S:AMI-BACK.CONFIG), you must enter the full path name of the configuration
file you wish to use. You are allowed to name your configuration files,
so you can store as many configurations as you wish. Remember that Ami-Sched
can only use 10 configurations at any time.

Ami-Back is protected from running multiple copies at the same time. It
would be very dangerous to allow multiple backups to take place at the same
time.

                                    -45-

DEFAULT SETTINGS

By selecting the DEFAULT SETTINGS gadget, you will automatically reconfigure
Ami-Sched to the "one backup per day" mode that was its original
configuration.

LEAVING THE SCHEDULE CONFIGURATION MODE

Once you have set the Schedule Configuration as you like, click on the SAVE
gadget near the bottom left corner to save your selections for use with
Ami-Sched. If you decide that you do not want to retain any of the changes
you made, clicking on the CANCEL gadget will restore the Schedule
Configuration to its previous settings.

MULTIPLE CONFIGURATION FILES

Ami-Back gives you the ability to save multiple configuration files. From
the Project menu item you may select between NEW CONFIGURATION, LOAD
CONFIGURATION, or SAVE CONFIGURATION.

                                    -46-

NEW CONFIGURATION allows you to create a new configuration file. You will
first be asked what you wish to name the file. You may CANCEL this option or
CONTINUE to create a new configuration file. By changing the name and
seleting the DEFAULT gadget (or pressing the RETURN key), you will be given
a configuration with the initial program defaults. By changing the name and
pressing the RETURN key or selecting the CONTINUE gadget, you will get a new
configuration file with the parameters of the previous configuration file.

LOAD CONFIGURATION allows you to load a previously saved configuration file.

SAVE CONFIGURATION allows you to save the current configuration file under a
different name or save the parameters you selected but haven't yet saved.

Remember that when you load or save a configuration file with the menu
options, that configuration becomes the program's current configuration.
Whenever you change the configuration and select the SAVE gadget, you will
be saving to the current configuration. This also occurs when you select the
NEW CONFIGURATION option. You can check for the active configuration name in
the ABOUT information window.

                                    -47-

RUNNING AMI-BACK
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

There are four ways for you to run Ami-Back. You can call the program
directly by selecting its icon from Workbench, by using the Shell, or by
starting Ami-Sched (see the section on running Ami-Sched), or as an AREXX
server.

You may start the program from Workbench with a different configuration file
by specifying the CONFIG tooltype this way:

     CONFIG=SYS:S/AMI-BACK.CONFIG2

This will run Ami-Back with the configuration file you have selected. You
may also use the tooltype NOWINDOWS. By specifying this tooltype Ami-Back
will run in the background using the current configuration, and no windows
will be opened.

When you call Ami-Back directly, the main screen will appear. Under the
program title and the copyright notice information are four gadgets: BACKUP,
RESTORE, SCHEDULER, and QUIT. Clicking on any of these gadgets will direct
the program to perform the appropriate action.

Ami-Back gives you several options when you run it from the Shell. See the
section Performing Backups from the Shell for more information on these
options.

                                    -49-

PERFORMING BACKUPS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once you have configured your desired backup options, you can start
performing backups. It is not necessary to have your restore options
configured when backing up, but you will need to configure restore options
before you can restore data. Clicking the QUIT gadget at the main screen
will immediately end the backup session. Execute Ami-Back from Workbench or
from the Shell. If you selected the SHOW CONFIGURATION FIRST option in the
Program Configuration window, Ami-Back will immediately display the Backup
Configuration allowing you to make any changes necessary. Click the USE or
SAVE gadget to continue with the backup.

COMPLETE

When performing a Complete backup, Ami-Back first searches the source device
based on your backup configuration file.

A Small window appears which states "Searching Source Devices." This window
gives information on the device(s), number of sub-directories, number of
files, byte size of the backup and the available free system memory. The
window also contains an ABORT gadget. If you wish to dis-

                                    -51-

continue the backup at this point, you may click the ABORT gadget and
Ami-Back will return to the main screen.

If you selected the SHOW CONFIGURATION FIRST option when setting the program
Configuration, as soon as you instruct Ami-Back to perform a backup, the
backup configuration screen will be displayed giving you a final opportunity
to check the configuration before proceeding. To continue, you must select
either the SAVE or USE gadget. Selecting the CANCEL gadget will abort the
backup.

After Ami-Back has completed its search, the Backup Information Screen will
appear. This screen provides you with information concerning the backup.
Under the window title bar you will see the selected Source and Destination
and the Backup Type listed. Estimated and Actual figures are given for the
number of Files, Bytes, and Disks used in the backup.

There are several other displays that give information on the program status
as the backup is being performed.

BACKING UP - This displays the current file, including path, being written
to the backup destination. If the full path is too long to be displayed,
Ami-Back will split the path name and place "./" in front in order to let
you know that the entire path/filename is too long to be given on screen.

CURRENT DEVICE - This displays the destination device being written to.

BACKUP COMPLETE - This is a sliding scale that displays the percentage of
the backup which has been completed both graphically and numerically.

DESTINATIN FULL - This is the sliding scale that shows the percentage of the
destination media that has been filled. This display operates only during
Complete or Selective backups to floppy disks. During backups with tape
drives you will not be given this information. (There is no accurate way of
determining the actual length of the tape in use without, of course, testing
it first -- which would take a while!)

BU TIME/TIME LEFT/USER TIME - These time displays show the amount of time
consumed by the actual backup, the amount of time that Ami-Back estimates to
remain, and the amount of time taken by the user (during changes of media,
for example). The Time Left display does not work for selective restores.
Time Left is an indicator only, and it does not provide exact times for the
backup process. This is because Ami-Back calculates remaining time based on
the average transfer rate of the backup. This is dependent on several
factors, and is especially variable during operations with floppy disks.

BACKUP ERROR LIST - This display will let you know how many errors have
occured during the backup procedure (whether on the source device or on the
destination device). The Backup Error List lists on what files the errors
occured and the types of errors encountered, and then it will allow you to
scroll through theses errors. If any erros occur, you will be given the
opportunity to save the error list at the end of the backup.

At the bottom of the Backup Information screen are three gadgets: BEGIN
BACKUP, ABORT (ghosted), and QUIT BACKUP. Selecting the QUIT BACKUP gadget
at this point will return you to the main program screen. Selecting the
BEGIN BACKUP gadget will begin the actual backup.

BACKUP LABEL

If you selected BACKUP LABEL as one of your backup options, a requester
which states "Enter backup set label" will appear. This requester is
displayed on a selective restore after the index file is loaded. Type a
label for your backup set into the string gadget, press return, then click
on the CONTINUE gadget.

                                    -53-

PASSWORD PROTECT

If you selected PASSWORD PROTECT as one of your backup options, a requester
which states "Enter password for this backup:" will appear. Type a password
into the string gadget, press RETURN, then click on the CONTINUE gadget.
When you perform a restore you will be required to supply this password. If
you are unable to do so, you will not be able to restore your data.

A requester will appear which prompts you to insert the appropriate media
into the destination device. There are two gadgets in this requester:
CONTINUE and ABORT. Clicking the ABORT gadget will return you to the Backup
Information screen. The message Backup Aborted will be displayed in the
Backing Up display. From here, click the QUIT BACKUP gadget to return to the
Ami-Back main screen.

If instead you wish to go on with the backup, insert the required backup
media when the requester appears. If you are performing backups to floppy
disk, the requester will disappear, and the backup process will be initiated
automatically. However, you will need to select the CONTINUE gadget each
time if you are performing backups to any other media (tapes, removable hard
drives, etc.) If the backup media is already in the destination device when
the requester appears, simply click the CONTINUE gadget and the backup
process will begin. Thereafter, whenever a media change is required, the
same requester will appear informing you of the sequence number of media
required (for example, Disk 1, Disk 2, etc.) and the destination device for
the media. (When the floppy disks are inserted, the backup will resume
automatially.)

It is possible to avoid all of these requesters after the first one by
"keeping up with" the backup process. This means inserting media (floppy
disks only) before the program requests it. The Destination Full gauge will
give you the infromation you need to know when to insert the media before it
is requested. You may abort the backup process by clicking on the ABORT
gadget at any time during the backup (aborts after the current file) or by
clicking on the CANCEL gadget whenever a requester appears.

BACKUP CATALOG

If you selected BACKUP CATALOG as one of your backup options, a requester
that states "Output Backup Catalog" will appear when the backup is
completed. You will be given the choices of sending the backup

                                    -54-

catalog to a printer, a file, or cancelling the operation. Selecting the
CANCEL gadget at this point means that the catalog will not be printed, not
that the backup will be cancelled.

TAPE APPEND

If you set the Tape Append option in the Tape Drive Configuration window to
ON, Ami-Back will ask you if you want to append a backup to the end of any
existsing data on the tape. Otherwise, Ami-Back will simply proceed with the
backup. If the Tape Append option is OFF, Ami-Back will write over any data
that is already on the tape.

BACKUP ERROR LIST

If any errors occur during the backup on the source device, you will be able
to RETRY or SKIP the file containing the error. When errors occur on the
destination media, Ami-Back will ask you if you wish to RETRY writing to the
possibly defective media or use the Back-Track option to continue the backup
by replacing the defective media. When you replace the defective media using
BACK-TRACK, Ami-Back will rewrite onto the newly inserted media any data
that was written to the defective media prior to finding the error. This way
the sequence of the backup process is the same as if there were no error
detected at all. The total number of disks required for the backup remains
unchanged.

SAVING ERROR LISTS

Ami-Back allows you to save the error list (so that you may, for example,
print it out for examination later). If errors occur during the backup, a
requester will appear at the end of the backup asking you if you wish to
save the error list to an ASCII file. Selecting YES will bring up a file
requester allowing you to save the error file. If you do not specify a name
or path, the default filename will be AMIBACKERR.FILE, and the default path
will be the current path for the Ami-back index files. (If the file
AMIBACKERR.FILE already exists, the new error list file will be appended to
the file.)

                                    -55-

COMPLETING THE BACKUP

After your backup is completed, the BEGIN BACKUP and ABORT gadgets will
become ghosted. At this point, the only available gadget will be the QUIT
BACKUP gadget on the lower right of the screen. Selecting this gadget will
return you to the main program screen.

EXITING THE BACKUP

To exit Ami-Back, select the QUIT gadget at the main program screen, or
select the QUIT menu option under the Project menu heading at the main
screen (the keyboard equivalent of Right Amiga-"Q" will also quit the
program).

SELECTIVE

When this backup option is selected, Ami-Back will perform a search of the
source device in the same manner as for a Complete backup. Once this is
completed, the Selective Backup window will display the directory and file
(including filesize) listing of the source device. The directory/file
display has a scrolling gadget which enables you to access all directories
and files if there are too many to view at once.

The default condition for this mode is to exclude whatever you select. The
MARK TO EXCLUDE gadget, however, can be cycled to let you MARK TO INCLUDE
whatever you select.

If you mark a directory, all the subdirectories and files under the
directory will be marked. A single click of the left mouse buton will select
a file or directory, while a double click will take you into the specified
directory. At the top of the directory listing display is the path of the
current directory location within the source device directory structure. To
move back to a higher directory, select the PARENT gadget. Once you reach
the root of your directory structure, the PARENT gadget will have no effect.
Double clicking the path display box or the far left border of the
file/directory display operates the same as the PARENT gadget.

If any file within a directory is marked, the directory will appear as
marked.

                                    -56-

To select all files and directories under the current path location, select
the MARK ALL gadget. Selecting the CLEAR ALL gadget will clear all the files
and directories under your present path location.

Once you have selected or cleared the files you wish to include or exclude,
click the CONTINUE gadget to proceed with the backup. Clicking the CANCEL
gadget will return you to the main program screen.

911-RECOVERY

Ami-Back is truly a complete solution to your data archival needs. One of
the main reasons to backup your data is to minimize the trouble caused by a
hard drive failure. When Ami-Back performs a recovery backup, it searches
the source device to recover as much lost data as possible. It is
recommended that you find the cause of your hard drive error before
restoring recovered data. (In most cases reformatting the device will be
sufficent.)

                                    -57-

PERFORMING RESTORES
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ami-back gives you these options for restoring your backed up data:
Complete, Selective, Compare, Image, and Build Index. The Compare and Build
Index modes do not actually perform restores; Compare will make a
comparison between your backed-up data and the data currently on your hard
disk, and Build Index recreates an index for backed-up data if for some
reason the original index is not available to you. If you selected the SHOW
CONFIGURATION FIRST option in the Program Configuration window, Ami-Back
will immediately display the Restore Configuration allowing you to continue
with the restore.

COMPLETE

To perform a complete restore, make sure that you have set your Restore
Configuration options properly. Then, from the main program window, select
the RESTORE gadget (or the R keyboard equivalent) to begin the restore
process.

                                    -59-

When you direct Ami-Back to perform a restore, the Restore Information
screen will be displayed. (Notice the similarity to the Backup Information
screen.) Under the Restore Configuration heading you will see the source and
destination devices to be used, and the type of restore to be performed will
also be displayed.

Selecting the BEGIN RESTORE gadget will start the restore. This will bring
up a requester telling you to insert the first media into the source device.
(You may click the CANCEL gadget to abort the restore process. If you do
this, you must then click QUIT RESTORE on the Restore Information screen to
return to the program main screen.) After you insert the media, the number
of Files and Bytes Estimated will be updated from their initial values of
zero.

Inerting the requested media will automatically initiate the restore
process. Ami-Back will prompt you each time a media change is required
during the restore process. Just as with the backup process, you may avoid
these prompts if you are using multiple source devices by anticipating or
"keeping up" with the floppy disk changes (when using other media the
requester will alwats appear to prompt you for a media change). To abort the
restore at any time, select the ABORT gadget.

When using tape media, be sure to allow for completion for the tape
retension pass before proceeding with the backup. Also, DAT drives with Fast
Search capability are automatically detected.

If the File Detection option (set in the Restore Configuration window)
instructs Ami-Back to WRITE-OVER existing files of the same name from the
backed-up data. The WRITE-OVER (DATE) option ensures that if the backed-up
files have a later date than the corresponding files on the destination, the
files will be overwritten. If the SKIP-OVER option is selected, duplicate
files will not be restored. Instead, the duplicate files will be entered
into the error list as having been skipped. When the restore is complete, a
requester will appear asking you if you wish to "Save contents of list." You
may select either the YES or the NO gadget. If the File Detection option is
set to RENAME, you will be able to rename the file to which your restore
data is written whenever a duplicate file is encounteered. Any time a
duplicate file is encountered, a requester which states "Enter new file
name" will appear. You will see a string gadget with the current filename.
To specify a new filename, type the new new filename (the string gadget is
activated automati-

                                    -60-

cally), then press the RETURN key or click the RENAME gadget. The file will
be written to the new name. If you specified the same name, the file will be
over-written. (Renamed files will be written to the same directory where the
originals are located.) This requester also lets you ABORT the restore or
SKIP-OVER the curreent file by selecting the appropriate gadget. (Once
again, when SKIP-OVER is selected, the file will be entered into the error
list.)

Under the Restore Information heading you will find the same information
displays as are on the Backup Information screen. The Restoring display
shows the file currently being restored to the specified Destination. The
Actual Disks heading tells you what number media is being restored. The
Restore Complete and Source Read gauges keeps you informed of the percentage
progress of the restore. During restores with tape drives you will not be
given this information. (There is no accurate way of determining the actual
length of the tape in use without testing it first.)

MULTIPLE DEVICE RESTORES

It is possible to perform selective restores from multiple-device backups.
If you perform a multiple-device backup and you want to selectively restore,
you must enter the same number devices to restore to as you backed up from,
and you must enter them in the correct order. You may "fool" the program if
you want to restore only several files or directories to a single device
instead of to multiple devices. To do so, enter the same device name more
than once. For example, if you backed up partitions WB_2.X: and WORK:, and
you wanted to restore a few files from each partition to RAM:, enter in the
restore destination gadget RAM: RAM:. This provides two device names
(satisfying program requirements) while restoring to one device. If, for
example, you backed up WB_2.X: and WORK:, and you assigned DH0: to WB_2.X:
and DH1: to WORK:, you may use those assignment names when restoring. This
will change your device list on the selective restore to DH0: and DH1:.

TAPE APPEND

If several backups are appended on a tape, Ami-Back will ask you if you
want to restore each consecutive backup until you select the YES gadget or
the last backup on tape is reached. If you want to restore all the existing
backups on tape using the current restore configuration, click

                                    -61-

on the ALL gadget instead of the YES gadget. (This is primarily useful for
tapes with several incremental backups of the same device.) When performing
selective restores Ami-Back will automatically find the correct backup. If
the TAPE APPEND option is not selected, Ami-Back will restore the first
backup on the tape should more than one backup exist on the tape.

ERRORS ENCOUNTERED DURING THE RESTORE

If errors are found on the source or the destination media, you will be
given the opportunity to RETRY reading the file or to SKIP the current file
and search for the next available file to be restored. If errors exist on
your hard disk drive, it is recommended that you ABORT the restore process
as soon as possible and repair the hard drive by reformatting it, or map out
the bad blocks using the software provided with your controller. Once you
have done this, it is all right to perform the restore.

SAVING ERROR LISTS

Any errors that occur during the restore will be updated to the Rstore Error
list in the same manner as done during backup. You will be able to save this
list to an ASCII text file.

                                    -62-

A requester will appear at the end of the backup asking you whether you wish
to save the error list. If you select YES, a requester will appear for you
to specify a path and name for saving the errorlist. If you do not specify a
name or path, the default filename will be AMIBACKERR.FILE, and the default
path will be the current path for the Ami-back index files. (If the file
AMIBACKERR.FILE already exists, the new error list file will be appended to
the file.)

COMPLETING THE RESTORE

After your restore is completed, the BEGIN RESTORE and ABORT gadgets will
become ghosted, and the only available gadget will be the QUIT RESTORE
gadget. Selecting this gadget will return you to the main program screen.

EXITING THE RESTORE

To exit Ami-Back, select the QUIT gadget at the main program screen, or
select the QUIT option under the Project menu heading at the main screen
(the keyboard equivalent of Right Amiga-"Q" will also quit the program).

SELECTIVE RESTORE

When the restore type you have chosen is Selective, Ami-Back will prompt you
with a Select Index File requester before starting the restore. Here you
must select a specific index file so that Ami-Back will be able to load and
display a tree-structured directory of the backed up information. When using
this option in the AmigaDOS 2.0 version of the program, the file requester
will bring up only files with the .IDX suffix.

Each index is connected to a specific backup by datestamp. For each set of
backed-up data you have, you should also have a particular index file. You
cannot perform a selective restore with an incorrect index file. If you do
not have an index file, you will only be able to perform a complete restore
of your data unless you rebuild the index.

Clicking the SELECT gadget in the index file requester (after you have
chosen the index file) will bring up the Selective Restore screen. The
layout and operation of the Selective Restore screen is exactly the same as

                                    -63-

that of the Selective Backup screen. After you have selected the files you
wish to restore, clicking the CONTINUE gadget will start the restore, and it
will proceed in the same way as a Complete restore.

COMPARE MODE

The Compare mode does not actually perform a restore. Rather, it allows you
to find differences between the backed-up data and the data currently on
your hard disk drive. This function is extremely useful when you are
concerned that something may have happened to affect the integrity of the
data on your hard drive (such as a hard drive "crash"). Ami-Back allows you
to select the Compare information you wish to have reported by selecting the
appropriate gadgets. These are the options available.

Check option:

FILE EXIST - Check to see if File Exists
DATA - If exists will compare data between files
TIME/DATE STAMP - If exists will compare file datestamps
PROTECTION BITS - If exists will compare protection bits
FILE COMMENT - If exists will compare file comments

                                    -64-

When the Compare restore is initiated, you will be presented with the
Compare Information window. You will be shown the Source and Destination
devices as well as information on the number of Files and number of Bytes
these files occupy on the backed-up media.

The Compare Error List displays any erros found during the data comparison.
(The scroll gadget allows you to view all the contents of the list if there
are too many errors to display at once.) The following is a table which
lists and explains the possible messages that the Compare mode will return.

   MESSAGES              EXPLANATION
   -----------------------------------------------------------------
   DATA DIFFER           change in contents of file
   DATE                  change in datestamp of file
   FILE DOESN'T EXIST    file no longer exists on destination device
   NOTE                  change in file note
   PROTECT               change in file protection bits
   READ ERROR            error in reading destination device

The list entries will be displayed on a single line which indicates the
file's path. Multiple messages will be seperated by the "/" character. For
example, the entry

   SYS:C/DIR             DATE/PROTECT/NOTE

means that the datestamp, the protection bits, and the file note of the DIR
file in the SYS:C directory have been altered since the backup was
performed.

When the comparison is complete, a requester which states "Save contents of
list" will appear, giving you the option to save the Compare Error Lits to a
file. Selecting the NO gadget will return you to the Compare Information
window, and from there you may select the QUIT COMPARE gadget to return to
the main program screen. Selecting thee YES gadget will bring up a requester
which will allow you to save the list to an ASCII text file you specify. If
you do not specify a file, the list will be saved to AMIBACKERR.FILE in the
SYS:S directory. After you have saved the list, you will be returned to the
Compare Information screen where you may select the QUIT COMPARE gadget to
return to the main program screen.

                                    -65-

IMAGE

Ami-Back can restore an exact image of your backed-up data. You must restore
your data to a partition that is the exact same size as the source you
selected for backup. If the partition is not the right size, Ami-Back will
prompt you, giving you the number of blocks required for the destination
device. It is not possible to perform incremental restores under the Image
restore option. When restoring from a multiple-device Image backup (as with
other multiple-device backups) you must enter the device names in the order
in which they were backed up.

BUILD INDEX

During backups, Ami-Back creates an index that can be used later to
selectively restore data. It is possible for an index to be in some way
lost. If this happens, you can always perform a complete restore, or you may
build a new index file for your backed-up data. You must first select the
BUILD INDEX restore option, then perform a restore in the same manner as
complete restore. This will not restore any files. At the end of the
rebuild, you will have the opportunity to name the new index file. Be sure
to give the new file a name with a .IDX suffix.

                                    -66-

RUNNING AMI-SCHED
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ami-Sched allows you to schedule the times you desire to perform backups and
carries out the task of performing the backups with no action required on
your part (except for media changes, should they be necessary). Ami-Sched
was designed and written so as to occupy as little processor time as
possible. Therefore, you should feel free to place Ami-Sched in your
startup-sequence file and let it run at all times. Ami-Sched will not
degrade multitasking performance on your Amiga!

Ami-Sched is easy to start and stop. Run the program (from Workbench or the
shell), and a small status window will appear for 2 seconds. In it will be
some copyright information, and also it will tell the user if the it is
starting or aborting. The program "wakes up" once each minute to see if any
of the schedule configuration times are met. It will also wake up if the
AMI-BACK.CONFIG file is modified. If it is modified, a log entry will be
made (if the scheduler is running).

The Schedule Configuration in Ami-Back works with Ami-Sched, and allows you
to schedule backups to take place at certain times without you having to
actually run Ami-Back. The backup will run as a background task, only
requiring interaction if a media change is required.

The configuration sets up the times the backup for the backup to be
executed. The default time is 12:00 AM (00:00 or midnight). (This is only
true when the backup is initiated.

SCHEDULER OPTIONS

If you use Ami-Back on a frequent basis, it is recommended that you execute
Ami-Sched every time you turn your Amiga on. This should be done by typing
RUN>NIL:[PATH]AMI-SCHED on a single line in your startup-sequence file. The
>NIL: operator allows you to terminate the Shell. In other words, it
detaches the program from the Shell to run a seperate task.

                                    -67-

To stop the scheduler you just run it again from either the Shell or
Workbench. You will get the message "ABORTING" on a small window (which is
displayed for two seconds) informing you that the operation of Ami-Sched has
been terminated. It is possible to suppress the display of this information
window by running the scheduler (from the Shell or your startup-sequence)
with the NOMESSAGE option. To make use of this option, type
RUN>NIL:[PATH]AMI-SCHED NOMESSAGE at the shell prompt or in your
startup-sequence file. This option will prevent the two second Ami-Sched
display window.

                                    -68-

PERFORMING BACKUPS FROM THE SHELL
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

For users who prefer to operate their programs from the Amiga's Shell,
Ami-Back supports the standard CLI (Command Line Interface) options as
defined by AmigaDOS.

You can use the NOWINDOWS option. This allows you to run Ami-Back without
opening any windows as a background task from the Shell. All information
(errors, etc.) will be updated to the AMI-BACK.LOG file. The only time you
will be notified is when media changes are required. Be sure to remember
that the first media required will be assumed to be in the proper
destination device when the program is run as a background task. All Shell
options may be specified as tooltype options from the program icon. See the
following section on tooltypes for more information.

You may start Ami-Back with a different configuration file by using the CLI
option CONFIG=. For example, typing

    AMI-BACK CONFIG=SYS:S/AMI-BACK.CONFIG2

will run the program with the configuration file you have selected. When
running Ami-Back13 (the version for AmigaDOS 1.3), type a space character
instead of "=" after CONFIG like this:

    AMI-BACK CONFIG SYS:S/AMI-BACK.CONFIG2

You can perform all backups except for Selective when using the NOWINDOWS
option.

When you use the NOWINDOWS option from the Shell, you may specify a backup
source device that is different from the device you specified in setting up
the backup configuration. This can be done by using the SOURCE= option.
(This feature only works in conjunction with the NOWINDOWS options.) In this
way, it is not neccessary to run Ami-Back to change your backup
configuration. For example, if you wished to specify your DH1: partition as
your backup source device, you would execute Ami-Back by entering RUN
AMI-BACK NOWINDOWS SOURCE=DH1: at the Shell prompt (upper-case letters not
neccessary).

                                    -69-

OTHER FEATURES
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

KEYBOARD EQUIVALENTS

You can access many of Ami-Back's features without using the mouse. For
example, to begin a backup or restore, to access the scheduler, or to quit
from the opening screen, simply press the B, R, S, or Q key. The keyboard
equivalents allow you to select from all the backup and restore
configuration options (as described in the following sections). For example,
pressing the B key while in the backup configuration mode selects each
backup type in turn. By using keyboard equivalents, you can select your
configuration options without using the mouse.

PASSWORD PROTECTION

Password protection is an option that you may wish to select if your data is
sensitive or important enough for restricted access. If you have specified
the Password Protection in your Backup Configuration, during the backup
process you will be asked to supply a password, and you will be asked to
supply this same password when you wish to restore the data. It is
impossible to restore protected data without supplying the password, so be
sure that you do not lose or forget the password you select.

ONLINE HELP

Ami-Back provides Online Help (through the Commodore AmigaGuide system) for
the major program gadgets. To obtain help, place thee mouse pointer over the
desired gadget and press the HELP key. For example, place the mouse cursor
ovr the RESTORE gadget on the main screen, then press the HELP key. A window
titled "Restore_Gadget" will appear. There will be several selectable
gadgets in this window as well as some basic information about the RESTORE
gadget. Click on the CONTENTS gadget to display a table of contents of the
Ami-Back help information available. The RETRACE gadget will take you back
to the previous screen, and the two BROWSE gadgets will allow you to step
through the help information in sequential order, either forward or
backward. Select the HELP gadget for more information on the AmigaGuide help
system.

                                    -71-

AREXX

You may communicate with Ami-Back through the AMIBACKREXX port. The
functions BACKUP, RESTORE, LOAD and QUIT are supported. Ami-Back can be put
in rexx server mode by the REXXSERV command line argument or tooltype
switch. This will cause Ami-Back to wait for AREXX commands before
performing operations. A sample AREXX script is supplied on the program
disk called ABSCRIPT.REXX. This script demonstrates how to use the
Ami-Back AREXX port.

HARD AND SOFT LINKS

Ami-Back supports Hard and Soft links under AmigaDOS 2.0. Here are some
notes applicable to backing up or restoring linked files and directories. If
you perform a selective backup with a link file or directory in your source
device, you will see "link" in the right-most part of the file or directory
name. During restore operations these links will be re-established if the
actual directory or file that the link file linked to exists.

Hard links cannot be made across devices, so they are restored relative to
the destination device. For example, a link from DH0:S/LINK to
DH1:OTHER/TEST when restored to RAM: would result in a link from RAM:S/LINK
to DH1:OTHER/TEST.

See your AmigaDOS manual for more information on links and how to use them.

DISPLAY OPTIONS

SNAPSHOT - There is a SNAPSHOT option under the Project menu available from
the Ami-Back20 opening screem (only available in the Workbench screen mode).
This allows you to specify where on your Workbench window you wish Ami-Back
to appear when run. To use,

                                    -72-

just select the program main window drag bar and move it to the location you
want Ami-Back to appear. Then select the SNAPSHOT option. This will save the
location to the current program configuration. This option is convenient for
users who operate in PAL mode, overscan, or have larger than default
Workbench screens.

ZOOM GADGET - Clicking on the Zoom gadget (only available in the Workbench
screen mode) will reduce the Ami-Back window to a drag bar. If Ami-Back
needs to notify you of a required media change, a Workbench requestor will
appear. If any errors occur during the backup or restore, Ami-Back will
expand back to its full-sized window. When Ami-Back is reduced to a drag
bar, the percentage complete of the backup or restore and the percentage of
the destination full (if applicable) will be displayed.

SCREEN MODES - The Ami-Back window can open to either your Workbench window
or a Custom window of 640 x 200 pixels. To choose a window type, select
either WORKBENCH or CUSTOM under the screen item of Preferences in the main
screen menu.

ICON TOOLTYPE OPTIONS

You may use the tooltype CONFIG to start Ami-Back with different
configuration files when running from Workbench. For example:

   CONFIG=SYS:S/AMI-BACK.CONFIG2

This will run the program with the configuration file you have selected.

The same tooltype option exists in Ami-Sched (also in shell command line).
This works the same as Ami-Back's config option. This allows Ami-Sched to
use different configurations.

In addition to the tooltype CONFIG, you may also use the tooltype
"NOWINDOWS." By adding this tooltype, the program will run in the
background. There will be no windows opened. This works the same as doing a
bakground backup from shell.

                                    -73-

The NOMESSAGE tooltype is available to Ami-Sched. This works the same as the
shell command line option. It prevents the Starting/Aborting message window
from coming up during these operations.

When using NOWINDOWS and NOMESSAGE tooltypes in the AmigaDOS 1.3 version of
Ami-Back or Ami-Sched, you need to use an "=" after NOWINDOWS or NOMESSAGE.
For example, "NOWINDOWS=" is proper.

                                    -74-

APPENDIX I
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

QUESTION AND ANSWER

Q: Do I have to format my floppy disks before I can back up to them?
A: Only if your destination is an AmigaDOS file.

Q: Do I need any special drivers in order to use my tape drive?
A: No. SCSI tape drives are supported directly by Ami-Back.

Q: I lost my backup index file. Is this a problem?
A: No. You can still perform a complete restore, or you can use the
   Build Index option to create a new index.

Q: I've specified the Compression option for my backups, but I don't
   seem to be saving any space. Why not?
A: If Ami-Back encounters any files during the backup that have already
   been compressed efficently (so that only an additional 10% or less
   would be saved), it will not try to compress those files any further.
   Most likely, your files have already been compressed.

Q: I've forgotten the password to a backup that I made with the
   password option. How can I restore the data?
A: You can't. (Password protection is real protection - the password
   is essential!)

Q: I backed up my data with an older version of Ami-Back. Will this
   version restore my data all right?
A: Yes. But make sure you delete the old Ami-Back.config file.

Q: Can I run more than one copy of Ami-Back at a time?
A: No, even though Ami-Back is a multitasking program. Ami-Back contains
   an AMIBACKFIFOPORT which allows only one copy of the program to run
   at a time, and this prevents problems with multi-scheduled events.

                                    -75-

Q: I have Ami-Sched running, but Ami-Back doesn't backup when it's supposed
   to. What's wrong?
A: When this occurs, 9 times out of 10, the Scheduler Configuration is
   improperly set. Also, you want to be sure the program path is entered
   correctly (path including program name) in the Program CConfiguration
   window.

Q: If I use the compression option during backup, will Ami-Back be able to
   find a file in a selective restore without having to search through all
   my data disks?
A: Yes, in fact, Ami-Back will immediately prompt you for the correct data
   disk to insert.

                                    -76-

APPENDIX II
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

HARDWARE CCONFIGURATIONS

The following is a lsit of hard drive controllers and tape drives with
which Ami-Back has been tested.

CONTROLLER

   Commodore A3000 controller
   Commodore 2091
   ICD AdSCSI
   IVS Grandslam
   IVS Trumpcard
   GVP Series II
   Microbotics Hardframe
   Supra Wordsync

DRIVE

   Archive Python DAT drive
   Archive Sidewinder 250
   Archive Viper 2525s
   Commodore 3070
   Hewlet Packard DAT drive
   Xybyte 8mm (2.3 Gigabytes)
   Sony DAT drive
   Tallgrass TG-4040 (direct access)
   Tandberg TDC-3600 (with some controllers only)
   Tandberg TDC-3600 (with some controllers only)
   Tandberg 3640
   Teac MT-2ST
   3M MCD-40 (direct access)
   Wangtek 5125
   Wangtek 5150es
   Wangtek 5525es
   Wangtek 6200 DAT
   Wangtek SCSI-36

                                    -77-

APPENDIX III
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

TIPS AND TRICKS

PAUSING BACKUPS

If you need to pause the backup process (a backup may be in progress and you
may want to update a file without aborting then restarting the backup), you
may select the ABORT gadget at any time after beggining the backup. A
requestor will appear asking you "Are you sure you want to abort?" As long
as you do not respond to this requestor the backup will be suspended. When
you are ready to resume the backup process, simply select the NO gadget.
(Selecting the YES gadget will abort the backup.)

USING AMI-BACK TO TRANSFER DATA BETWEEN MACHINES

Ai-Back is a useful tool for transfering data between computers as well as
simply backing up data. You may use the compression option to backup your
data to as few floppy disks as possible, or you may use any other media that
Ami-Back supports for the backup. Then, using the same media, restore the
data from the destination machine. This method has the advantage of
maintaining the complete directory structure from the source computer.

DEFRAGMENTING YOUR HARD DISK

Ami-Back already gives you a compelling reason not to purchase a disk
utilities program: Ami-Back is capable of recovering data lost on hard
drives. Another disk utilities function that Ami-Back can also handle is the
task of optimizing your hard drive. To do so, simply back up the data on
whichever partitions that you wish to defragment and thereby optimize. When
this is done, reformat the backed up partition. Then, restore the data to
the hard drive partition.

                                    -79-

APPENDIX IV
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

ERROR MESSAGES

FLOPPY DISK DRIVE ERRORS

(Most of these errors indicate that something is wrong with the data on the
disk.)

Error Code        Explanation

    20            a general error
    21            Ami-Back couldn't find a sector header.
    22            A sector looked wrong.
    23            A sector looked wrong
    24            A sector header had an incorrect checksum
    25            Sector data had an incorrect checksum
    26            Ami-Back couldn't find enough sectors
    27            Sector header is bad.
    28            Can't write to a protected disk.
    29            There is no disk in the drive.
    30            Ami-Back couldn't find track 0.
    31            Ami-Back ran out of memory.

SCSI TAPE DRIVE ERRORS

Error Code        Explanation

Self Unit         Attempted to send a command to "ourselves"
                  (i.e., Unit is set to that of the controller).

DMA Error         Erorr occured while the controller was trying to
                  DMA data to/from memory.

Bad SCSI Phase    Controller is having problems communicating with drive.

SCSI Parity Error Parity error between controller and drive.

Recovered Error   Indicates that the last command completed successfully
                  with some recovery action performed by the target.
                  Details may be determinable by examining the additional
                  sense bytes and the information bytes.

                                    -81-

Error Code        Explanation

Select Timeout    Controller timed out while trying to send command to
                  drive.

Not Ready         Indicates that the logical unit addressed cannot be
                  accessed. Operator intervention may be required to
                  correct this sitution.

Medium Error      Indicates that the command terminated with a non-
                  recovered error condition that was probably caused
                  by a flaw in the medium or an error in the recorded
                  data.

Hardware Error    Indicates that the target detected a non-recoverable
                  hardware failure (for example, controller failure,
                  device failure, parity error, etc) while performing
                  the command or during a self test.

Illegal Request   Indicates that there was an illegal parameter in the
                  command descriptor block or in the additional
                  parameters supplied as data for some commands
                  (FORMAT UNIT, SEARCH DATA, etc). If the target
                  detects an invalid parameter in the command
                  descriptor block, then it shall terminate the
                  command without altering the medium. If the target
                  detects an invalid parameter in the additional
                  parameters supplied as data, then the target may
                  have already altered the medium.

Unit Attention    Indicates that the removable medium may have been
                  changed or the target has been reset.

Data Protect      Indicates that a command that reads or writes the
                  medium was attempted on a block that is protected
                  from this operation. The read or write operation
                  is not performed.

Blank Check       Indicates that a write-once read-multiple device or
                  a sequential-access device encountered a blank block
                  while reading or a write-once read-multiple device
                  encountered a non-blank block while writing.

                                    -82-

INDEX
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Adding Filter Parameters  30
Ami-Back.log file  15
Ami-Sched  43
amiback.guide  3,8
AmigaDOS Files  25,35
AmigaGuide  71
amigaguide.library  3
Appendix IV  81
Appendix I  75
Appendix II  77
Appenidx III  79
AREXX  72
asl13.library  3
Asynchronous operations  17
Auto Retension  25
Auto Tape Size  24
Backup Buffer  24
Backup Catalog  27,54
Backup Configuration  19
Backup Configuration Screen  19
Backup Destination Device  21
Backup Error Lost  55
Backup Filter Configuration Screen  28
Backup Filter Path  16
Backup Information Displays  52
Backup Information Screen  52
Backup Label  53
Backup Options  27
Backup Philosophy  9
Backup Source  19
Backup Types  25
Backup Write Notify  27
Backups per day  15
Beta Testers  iii
Block Size  24
Block Type  24
BUAmi-Back.filter  16
Build Index  37,66
CLI  69
Comic Motivation  iii
Compare Error Messages  65
Compare Options  64
Compare Restore Mode  64
Compare Rstores  36
Complete Backups  26,51
Complete Rstores  36,59
Completing Backups  56
Completing Restores  63
Config Tooltype  73
Configure Backup Filter  28
Copy protection  7
Copyrights  ii
Credits  iii
Data Filter  31
Defragmenting hard disk  79
Deleting Filter Parameters  30
Destination Device  33
Device Types  15
Direct Access Drives  23
Directory Structure  38
Display Alert  16
Display Options  72
DMA Activity  17
Error Messages  81
Errors During Restores  62
Event Type  45
Exiting Backup Configuration  31
Exiting Backups  56
Fast File System  26
Features  11
File Date  37
File Protection  38
File Protection Bits  39
File/Directory/Comment Filter  29
Floppy Disk Errors  81
Floppy Drives  21,35
Formatting Disks  41
Formatting Tapes  41
gadtools.library  3
Hard Disk Installation  7
Hard Disk Maintenance  9
Hard Links  72
Hardware Configurations  77
High Density Floppies  21
I/O Mode  23
Icon Credits  iii
Icon Tooltypes  73
Image Backup  26
Image Restores  37,66
Index  83
Index File Location  17
Index File Path  15
Installation  7
Introduction  1
Keyboard Equivalents  71
Kickstart version  5
Label Backup  27
License Agreements  ii
Log file length  15
Log File Path  15
MaxTransfer  24
Media Requirements  41

                                    -83-

INDEX
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Memory requirements  5
Modifying Filter Parameters  31
Moonlightr BBS  ii
Mounted devices  20
Multiple Configuration Files  46
Multiple Device Backups  21
Multiple Device Restores  34,61
Multiple Scheduler Configurations  45
Multitasking  9
NOMESSAGE Tooltype  69
Online Help  71
Overview  11
Package Contents  3
Package Design  iii
Password Protection  27,54,71
Pausing Backups  79
Performing Backups  51
Performing Backups from Shell  69
Performing Restores  59
Personalization  7,8
Photo Credits  iii
Program Configuration  13
Program Configuration Screen  14
Program Path  14
Protection Bit Filter  31
Question and Answer  75
Readme!  3
Recovery (911) Backups  26,57
Registration Card  3
Renaming Files  38
Restore Buffer  24
Restore Configuration  33
Restore Destination  33
Restore File Detection  60
Restore Filter Configuration Screen  39
Restore Filter Path  16
Restore Information Screen  59
Restore Source  35
Restore Type  36
RSAmi-Back.filter  16
Running Ami-Back  49
Running Ami-Sched  67
Saving Backup Error Lists  55
Saving Restore Error Lists  62
Scheduler Configuration  43
Scheduler Configuration Screen  43
Scheduler Default Settings  46
Scheduler Example 1  44
Scheduler Example 2  45
Sheduler Options  67
Screen Modes  73
SCSI Device  23
SCSI ID  24
SCSI Tape Errors  81
Searching Source Device Screen  51
Selective Backups  26,56
Selective Backup Screen  57
Selective Restores  63
Sequential Access Drives  23
Shell  69
Show Configuration First  17,52
Skip-Over  38
Snapshot  72
Soft Links  72
Special Thanks  iii
Support  ii
Synchronous operations  17
Systeem Requirements  5
Table of Contents  v
Tape Append  25
Tape Append Backups  55
Tape Append Restores  61
Tape Buffer  24
Tape Drive  35
Tape Drive Configuration Screen  22
Tape Drive Type  23
Tape Drive Configuration  22
Tape Size  24
Tips and Tricks  79
Trademarks  ii
Transfering Data  79
Updating Ami-Back  7
Upgrade Policy  ii
Use Backup Filter  28
Use Restore Filter  39
Warranty  ii
Write-Over  38
Write-Over (Date)  38
Zoom Gadget  71

                                    -84-


Facts about this doc:

Original supplied by Maker, Electronically Reproduced and Fixed to 100%
(the original was full of errors....) by Baser Evil, 9 hours and 57 minutes
taken to type the docs, 1 hour 13 minutes reformmating of text and error
correction, 2 hours miscellaneous time spent fucking off.....

See ya in another production!

Regards to everyone everywhere that has ever typed a doc, most notably
Rygar, Pazza, Munchie, Tim-Dog, Scooter, Razor Blade, Michtlantecuhtli,
Mike, Selim & Rudi, Foxy, Sidewinder, The Southern Starr, and anyone else
I may have forgotten! (some of these haven't done much in awhile, or even
in the scene anymore, but they are who comes to mind....)

                                               Baser Evil

     ------> The Courts of Chaos - 501-336-9661 - Call it now! <------

            ------------------------ END ----------------------