BackMaster DEMO README File. Updated : September 28, 1994. _______________________________________________________________________________ !!!!!!!!!! Notice !!!!!!!!!! This demo is intended to allow interested persons to preview BackMaster before making a purchase decision. This is a feature complete version of the software with the exception of the disaster recovery utilities. All other user functions may be performed with data amounts up to 5 MB. This demo may be freely copied and distributed, providing that this text file is included with the demo. The user agrees, by the usage of this demo, to accept full responsibility for the protection of their data. This demo is not intended to be used as a final backup solution. MSR Development shall not be held liable for any loss or damage, either actual or incidental, related to the use of this demo. _______________________________________________________________________________ This file contains information about specific problems you may encounter and specific system configurations. Topics covered in this readme file: - About this demo - Adaptec controllers - Bus timing and BackMaster DMA overrun error - CoreTape 250 tape drive support - Creating recovery diskettes - Device driver conflicts - Incompatibility with TAPE.EXE 4.03 or greater - Low memory systems (8MB or less) - Older tape drives (Hard Select) - Ordering information - Stacker and DCF2 - TC-15M high-speed adapter - Time critical - Version of OS/2 - Write errors About this demo: See BMDEMO.DOC (located in the BackMaster program folder) for more information. Adaptec controllers: If you have an Adaptec Busmaster controller, the following CONFIG.SYS setting is suggested: BASEDEV=AHA154X.ADD /V /A:0 /BON:4 /A:0 /BOFF:12 /V displays messages during bootup. /A:0 specifies the first of four possible adapters, and is necessary even if only one adapter is installed. /BON:4 sets the bus on time to 4 microseconds. /BOFF:12 sets the bus off time to 12 microseconds. Most of this information may be found in the Command Reference under BASEDEV. The above BASEDEV setting gives the floppy controller enough time on the bus to transfer enough data (by DMA) to keep the tape moving. Special thanks to Beta Tester Jay Vanderbilt for this information. Bus timing and BackMaster DMA overrun error: BackMaster may not work correctly if your system bus timing is set higher than 8 MHZ. Tape drives are very sensitive to hardware timing and an abnormal bus speed may result in operational problems or errors reported by BackMaster. If you are consistently getting a DMA overrun error message (error number 51) we suggest checking your hardware settings. Experiment with the bus speed, setting it as close to 8MHz as possible. If your system supports the 7.15MHz or 7.25MHz settings, these will usually work best. CoreTape 250 tape drive support: The BackMaster 1.1 release does not support the CoreTape 250. Creating recovery diskettes: Now is a good time to create a set of custom recovery diskettes for your computer. The recovery diskettes can be used with a complete system backup to restore your system or move your system to a new hard drive. BMRCVR (in the BackMaster folder) will create the recovery diskettes automatically. You may, if you wish, create the recovery diskettes manually. Instructions for doing so are given in the file BOOT.TXT, which is located in the directory to which BackMaster was installed. Device driver conflicts: The BackMaster device drivers, FTDVR.SYS, TC15DVR.SYS, and PTDVR.SYS, may on some systems have conflicts with the Multimedia Presentation Manager (MMPM) drivers, some cdrom device drivers, the Diamond P9000 video drivers, and ATI Graphics Ultra video drivers. The driver conflicts may cause an "Unable to open driver" error message or an OS/2 TRAP 000D. To avoid the driver conflicts, make sure that FTDVR.SYS, TC15DVR.SYS, and PTDVR.SYS are loaded in CONFIG.SYS after the CDROM drivers, Diamond P9000 video drivers, and ATI Graphics Ultra video drivers, but before the MMPM drivers. Note: We recommend locating FTDVR.SYS and PTDVR.SYS immediately following the IFS= statement (if present) in CONFIG.SYS. However, some drivers (such as CDROM drivers) may have to be loaded before our driver. Some experimentation on your part may be required to find the optimal location for FTDVR.SYS and PTDVR.SYS. Concerning the Diamond P9000 video drivers: The driver conflict with the P9000 and BackMaster drivers has been known to cause OS/2 command windows to indefinitely scroll, as if the enter key was continually pressed. This symptom disappears when the video drivers are loaded ahead of the BackMaster drivers. Concerning the ATI Graphics Ultra video drivers: Confilicts with these drivers are infrequent. The BackMaster installation program, BMINST, will place the FTDVR.SYS, TC15DVR.SYS, and PTDVR.SYS in the correct location in CONFIG.SYS for most machines (except in the case of the Diamond P9000 and ATI Graphics Ultra video drivers). The driver conflicts are mentioned here for the case of a manual installation or a driver conflict with specific systems. Incompatibility with Colorado's TAPE.EXE 4.03 or greater: BackMaster will not read compressed tapes made with any version of TAPE.EXE 4.03 or greater, but BackMaster will read the uncompressed volumes made with this software. (This will be corrected in a future release.) Low memory: BackMaster may not work correctly on machines with less than 8 MB of memory. Machines with 8 MB of memory that have network software loaded may also fall into this category. In the case of a low memory machine, BackMaster will report one of these errors: "Unable to load device driver", or "Unable to allocate memory in device driver". Note: This problem may be resolved in future versions of BackMaster or OS/2. Older tape drives (Hard Select): The list of tape drives in the "Configuration Options" dialog refer to Soft Select tape drives (most of the newer tape drives are Soft Select), and will not correctly select the older Hard Select type of tape drive. If you have a Hard Select tape drive, select the "Generic QIC 40/80" tape drive from the "Configuration Options" list. Refer to the documentation that came with your tape drive to determine which type of tape drive (Hard Select or Soft Select) you have. In general, Hard Select drives may have jumpers to select the drive (A or B) and will only function as the A or B device, but not as a third floppy device. Ordering information: See ORDERFRM.TXT (located in the BackMaster desktop folder) for more information. Stacker and DCF2: If FTDVR.SYS (or PTDVR.SYS) resides on a stacked volume, the DEVICE=FTDVR.SYS statement should be placed after the Stacker device drivers. Some conflicts have been reported when BackMaster accesses files in a DCF2 Virtual Disk Unit, resulting in a SYS3175 in DOSCALL1. If you encounter this problem, please report it to Proportional Software. TC-15M high-speed adapter: BackMaster supports the TC-15 high-speed adapter, but does not support the TC-15M high-speed adapter, which is the microchannel version of the TC-15. (Please consult MSR for the latest information) Time critical: During normal tape drive operations, BackMaster must respond to the tape drive signals within a certain amount of time, or the tape drive may start to behave unpredictably, causing BackMaster to abort the current tape operation. Active DOS and Windows sessions may deny BackMaster the CPU time needed to respond quickly to tape drive signals. If BackMaster aborts in the middle of a tape operation, make sure that the "Time Critical" check box in the "Device" page of the configuration notebook is checked before retrying the tape operation. Time critical will ensure that BackMaster is given enough CPU time to respond quickly to the tape drive requests. Version of OS/2: BackMaster is designed for OS/2 versions 2.1 and above. It may be used with OS/2 2.0, but unexplained failures (ie. BackMaster may abort and close without warning due to a PM bug) may occur, especially during the file selection process. If you must use BackMaster with OS/2 2.0, we suggest that you avoid extensive use of the PM interface. (ie. use command line options where possible) Write errors: Write errors during a backup are fatal. If BackMaster detects a write error, it will report the error and abort the backup. It will be necessary to reformat the tape before making further backups, since version 1.1 of BackMaster will not update the bad sector map if bad sectors are found during a backup.