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From: moriarty@fluke.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Hard Disk Backup Software -- Archiving vs. Backup
Message-ID: <1306@sputnik.COM>
Date: Tue, 21-Jul-87 13:35:45 EDT
Article-I.D.: sputnik.1306
Posted: Tue Jul 21 13:35:45 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 23-Jul-87 01:46:08 EDT
References: <23795@sun.uucp>
Sender: news@tc.fluke.COM
Reply-To: moriarty@tc.fluke.COM (Jeff Meyer)
Organization: John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc., Everett, WA
Lines: 86
Keywords: review DiskFit HFS Backup archive
Summary: reviews and commentary

Glad you asked, Chuq -- I've been meaning to write an article on this, and
now here's the impetuous...

What I've found, out in the "hard disk backup" market, is that the ultimate
software does not yet exist (surprise, surprise).  What I need is software
to do two basic tasks: a) Backup my hard disk, i.e. make a copy of the
contents onto floppies so that if Anything Awful occurs, I can quickly
restore everything; and b) archive certain files onto floppies so that they
can be deleted from the hard disk, yet retrieved in a fairly organized
manner.

For each of these tasks, I've been using a specific application, and that
seems to be doing the trick fairly well -- the two programs together almost
make my ideal backup software a reality.  For "backup", I am using
SuperMac's DiskFit program; and I must tell you that this is quite possibly
THE ultimate backup program for floppy backup.  This program makes it almost
completely painless (after the initial backup) to backup your hard disk; it
is the first program in months to come along that I have been able to get
extremely enthusiastic about.  It allows me to backup my hard disk, every
week, in about 5 MINUTES!  That's faster than most tape drive archiving
programs; and I find that the speed of backup, and the ease of use, promotes
the habit of backing up my disk to a much greater degree.

DiskFit basically really is more of an "arranger" than a backup program; it
copies the various files on your hard disk onto floppies in as compact a
manner as possible.  Thus, each floppy has the files in standard,
Finder-accessible format; you can copy the file right off the floppy if you
need to.  The initial backup takes the usual half-hour, as DiskFit arranges
the hard disk's files onto your floppies, and saves a copy of the way it has
arranged everything on the floppies.  Then, for each subsequent backup,
DiskFit compares the contents of the hard disk to the files it backed up
during the previous session.  Any files that have been updated since the
previous backup are re-copied to the floppy disks, if possible over their
previous backed-up versions; any new files are fit wherever possible on the
floppies.  Often new floppies are needed -- but not always, because DiskFit
also DELETES files off the floppies which have disappeared off the hard disk
since the last DiskFit backup.  This conserves floppies wonderfully, and
makes DiskFit a very fast, "incremental" backup.  It has provisions for a
full restore (keeping track of folders and everything); and while it does
not do single-file restores (you accidently delete a file you needed), it
can generate a report during backup which tells which floppy disk each file
has been backed up to.  At this point, you can just use the Finder to copy
the file from the floppy disk, without any help from DiskFit.

However, the features which make DiskFit such a perfect disk backup program
make it fairly inappropriate as a disk archive program.  Since it deletes
files from floppy disks which are no longer on the hard disk, archiving
disks to floppies which will subsequently be deleted from the hard disk is
futile with this program.  Also, it's only good for backing up the entire
hard disk, not selected portions of it.  For archiving purposes, I am using
HFS Backup 2.01, which I am fairly pleased with, though I have one major
complaint.  It's fine for selecting specific files and archiving them to
floppy (they are transformed into a format that only HFS Backup can restore
from); however, for each backup it creates a new index of files, instead of
altering the previous one; and for restoring selected files (which I often
do with an archive program), I have to remember which set of floppies I
archived a file with HFS Backup.  What I'd like is a cumulative index which
grows with each new set of floppies added.  So some improvement is looked
for in archiving software.

At this time, the hope of a combined backup/archive software seems remote.
HFS Backup 2.01 is better than 1.2 in some ways, but it retains most of the
functional faults of its predecessor; the improvements are more flashy than
substantive.  I might hope that SuperMac would decided to improve DiskFit
so that it does archiving, also; but that would mean a drastic departure
from how they're doing things now, and I'm reluctant to ask for major
alterations to something which performs its current task so efficiently --
better to have a program that performs one task superbly, instead of two in
a mediocre fashion.

I should point out that DiskFit comes free to those of us who have DataFrame
drives -- SuperMac is nothing if not generous in its support to its user
base.  However, after experiencing how easy it has made backing up my 20 Meg
drive, I would have gladly paid the $80 to get it in the first place.

Hope this helps...

                        "You know, there are times when it's a source of
                         personal pride to not be human."
                                                -- Hobbes

                                        Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
INTERNET:     moriarty@tc.fluke.COM
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