Inside Multimedia 1995 February

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Text File | 1994-09-18 | 14.4 KB | 313 lines

Back Again/2 Professional Edition *** Evaluation Copy *** Program Copyright (C) 1994 by Box Turtle Software All Rights Reserved. Published by Computer Data Strategies Back Again/2 is a trademark of Computer Data Strategies Welcome ------- Thank you for evaluating Back Again/2 Professional Edition. Back Again/2 is a 32-bit backup utility for OS/2 2.1 that fully supports HPFS, long filenames, and extended attributes as well as processing files which are currently in use. In addition to most SCSI-1 and SCSI-2 tape devices, OS/2 logical devices are supported for backup, including but not limited to Novell Netware, LAN Server, and NFS network drives, floppy diskette drives, Bernoulli boxes, magneto optical devices, and more. For floppy diskettes, Back Again/2 can use a special skewed-sector format which, when combined with data compression, can backup 3-4MB per minute on 1.44MB drives, making it ideal for use with laptop and home machines. This special evaluation version is limited to backing up 5MB. After backing up 5MB, the software will display a warning message and will abort the backup. This software is identical to the full version in every other aspect, including the standalone restore utility. Ordering Information -------------------- Back Again/2 Professional Edition can be purchased directly from Computer Data Strategies for $149.00. We also have a competitive upgrade offer of $49.00 when you send in the first diskette of any competing tape backup software. We accept Visa, Mastercard, C.O.D, and prepayment as well as corporate purchase orders. We also offer a full thirty day money back guarentee. Back Again/2 Professional Edition is also available through leading OS/2 distributors such as Indelible Blue and OS/2 Express. System Requirements ------------------- Back Again/2 is designed to operate on machines running IBM OS/2 v2.1 or later. Back Again/2 does not require anything more than the minimum OS/2 system configuration, although it will run better (faster) when used on an greater-than-minimum system. This generally means the following : Intel 386/25 CPU or greater 6MB memory VGA display One 360KB, 1.2MB, 720KB, 1.44MB, or 2.88MB floppy diskette drive. Installing Back Again/2 ----------------------- If you received this software on diskette, simply open the Drive A object (there is usually a shadow on your OS/2 desktop) and then double-click on the install icon. If you received this software in compressed (.ZIP, .ARJ, etc.) form, simply run the INSTALL.EXE program from the directory where the file was uncompressed. Installation is straight forward. The default installation path is on the system's OS/2 boot drive in a directory called "\BA2". You may change this to your liking; we recommend that the software be installed on your OS/2 system partition but it does not have to be. You can also have the installation program create a folder with the Back Again/2 user's guide, this read.me file, and the Back Again/2 program object on the desktop. Additionally, the installation program can create a shadow of the Back Again/2 program on your desktop. By default, the LIBPATH, PATH, and HELP environment variables set in CONFIG.SYS are updated to include the Back Again/2 directory. You may uncheck the option if you wish. If the CONFIG.SYS file is updated, the old CONFIG.SYS file will be renamed CONFIG.BA2. Configuring Back Again/2 ------------------------ You may begin to use Back Again/2 once the installation is completed. However, for optimal performance, you may want to alter the default settings in the preferences notebook. For further information about advanced configuration of Back Again/2, please see the online user's guide. Note that in the case of SCSI tape drives, Back Again/2 will overwrite data from other applications as it uses a special file-system like format. We recommend using a blank tape to evaluate Back Again/2 Professional for this reason. Questions and Answers --------------------- Q) Does Back Again/2 Professional support command line operation for backups? A) Yes! Unfortunately, this feature was added after the documentation was printed. The command line format for invoking a backup is as follows : backup [options] <backup set name> ...where options is one or more of the following : /U - run in unattended mode i.e. no prompts. Any errors or messages are placed in the log file. /H - Hide the Back Again/2 Professional window during backup. Q) What kind of compression ratios can I expect from Back Again/2 Professional? A) The answer depends on what kind of data you are backing up, but a general rule of thumb is that the 'compress faster' will result in a rough average of 1.7-1.8:1, while 'compress smaller' will result in 1.9-2.2:1. Again, this is dependant on the type of data you are backing up. Note that .ZIP, .ARC, and other compressed files are not compressed by Back Again/2 - it knows they are compressed and so does not even try. Q) Is Back Again/2 Professional Edition compatible with disk compression utilities? A) Yes. Q) Back Again/2 lists tape devices SCSITAPE:1 through SCSITAPE:4. How do I tell which tape drive correlates to which device? A) If your system has more than one SCSI tape drive, SCSITAPE:1 correlates to the first tape (highest SCSI ID) on the first adapter, SCSITAPE:2 to the second highest ID, and so on. If you have only one tape drive, SCSITAPE:1 will specify that drive. Q) Which SCSI adapters are supported by Back Again/2? A) Back Again/2 doesn't explicitly support any single brand of adapter. Instead it uses the OS/2 SCSI interface provided by OS2SCSI.DMD. In theory, this should allow Back Again/2 to work with any SCSI adapter that provides a functional .ADD (adapter device driver) driver file. Q) What kind of performance can I expect from Back Again/2? A) Performance depends on your system. Listed below are some relative speeds measured on a PS/2 Model 77 486SX/33 with Wangtek 5525ES QIC and Archive 4320NT DAT drives backing up a popular DOS game (around 12MB of data). ,------------------------------------------------. | Tape type | 150MB QIC | 525MB QIC | 1.3GB DAT | |Compression | DC6150 | DC6525 | 60m DDS-1 | |------------+-----------+-----------+-----------| | None | 5.6 | 11.9 | 10.8 | | | | | | | Fast | 9.9 | 8.9 | 10.3 | | | | | | | Small | 4.2 | 4.3 | 4.2 | `------------+-----------+-----------+-----------' Note: All figures are megabytes per minute Note that faster systems will perform faster when used with data compression. For example, a 486/66 should compress data roughly 80% faster. Also, if your tape drive features built-in compression, disabling Back Again/2's compression should allow you to achieve the full capacity of the drive (typically 15-25MB per minute - your milage may vary). Q) What is "QFA", and does Back Again/2 support it? A) QFA, or Quick File Access, is a method of positioning the tape media to a specified location without the need to read all previous data. Not all tape units support QFA, and there are two popular 'flavors' of QFA - SCSI-1 and SCSI-2. Back Again/2 can accomodate all three varieties. If a specific drive uses a variety of QFA other than the above listed variations, Back Again/2 ignores the QFA ability of that drive. Note that very few drives with QFA do not support either the SCSI-1 or SCSI-2 variety. Q) Does Back Again/2 work with SCSI-2 devices? A) Yes - SCSI-2 is a superset of SCSI-1, so there should be no problem. If you do encounter a problem with a SCSI-2 tape device, try setting the device for SCSI-1 operation. Q) Does Back Again/2 use any form of Error Correction Code (ECC) to recover data even if the media is damaged? A) Back Again/2 will enable the on-board ECC capabilities of the SCSI tape drive, if they exist, to provide the fastest possible ECC data. Most popular tape units available today feature built in error correction. Q) What are the *.IDX files created by Back Again/2 for? A) They are the tape directory index files. Whenever a new tape is used, Back Again/2 assigns it a unique ID and keeps a copy of the tape index on the local hard drive. This allows you to quickly select backup sets to verify, recover, etc. without having to do a full scan of the tape. Q) What happens if I accidentally delete a tape index file? A) Back Again/2 will automatically recover the index from the tape when that tape is next used. Note that the time needed to do this can range from under 30 seconds on a DAT unit to several minutes on older QIC devices. Q) My tape drive functions normally when I do not select any data compression, but with compression selected, the tape drive runs erratically. A) The CPU is having a difficult time keeping up with the tape drive. You can adjust the 'optimize compression' setting on the Options page of the notebook - the compression ratio may not be as high but the backup should run at a better pace. Q) I have an Archive Viper SCSI tape drive that supports Quick File Access (QFA), but Back Again/2 doesn't seem to take advantage of it. A) Although the Archive Vipers generally support QFA, the drive firmware is such that querying the current tape position causes the tape buffer to be flushed and tape motion to stop. This degrades performance, reducing the throughput to less than 2MB per minute. We are investigating possible alternatives, but it appears that the drive firmware needs to be changed. Upgrading from Back Again/2 v1.10 - *** IMPORTANT *** ------------------------------------------------------ If you are upgrading from Back Again/2 v1.x, please note that Back Again/2 Professional is not compatible with any of the backup sets or catalog files and as such cannot restore data backed up with that version of Back Again/2. We apologize for any inconvienience this may cause - the change was neccesary in order to add support for SCSI tape devices. If you have already installed Back Again/2 Professional over your copy of Back Again/2 v1.x, you can still recover any saved data using the demo version of Back Again/2 v1.x. Technical support ----------------- Technical support for Back Again/2 is available via several means. Our preferred support avenue is our bulletin board system (BBS) which can be reached at (612)730-4157, 2400-14.4K bps. On this BBS you may leave messages for the technical support and programming staff as well as obtain the latest information, demos, and fixes for Back Again/2 We will also provide technical support for Back Again/2 by telephone at (612)730-4156 Monday through Friday, from 8:00am to 5:00pm CST. Before calling, please have the version numbers of both the OS/2 operating system and Back Again/2 ready. If the technical support request involves an error message, please have the error message number along with the result codes handy. We can also accept technical support requests via Compuserve. Address the message to 73662,3011. Please note that items submitted to us via Compuserve e-mail may require one or two days time for a reply. Disclaimer --------- In no event, unless agreed to in writing, will Computer Data Strategies (CDS) or Box Turtle Software (BTS) be held liable for damages, including any general, special, incidental, or consequential damages arising from the use of or the inability to use the software generally known as Back Again/2 Professional Edition, even if advised of such potential loss. This includes but is not limited to loss or corruption of data, the inability of this software to operate with other software programs. Back Again/2 is provided "as is", with a thirty day money back guarentee. In the event of dissatisfaction on the part of the purchaser, the sole responsibility of CDS and BTS will be to refund payment to the original purchaser so long as the original Back Again/2 software and packaging is received by CDS within thirty days of the order shipment date. Notices ------- Back Again/2 is a trademark of Computer Data Strategies. Program code is property of and Copyright (C) 1994 by Box Turtle Software. All Rights Reserved. OS/2 and LAN Server are trademarks of the IBM Corporation. Bernoulli Box is a trademark of Iomega Corp. Novell and Netware are trademarks of Novell Corp.