What Tape Back-up? __________________ What Tape Back-up? Tape Rotation Tracking & Back-up Controller Copyright (c) Angel Babudro 1991-1994. All rights reserved. I. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 II. COPYRIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 III. LICENSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 IV. TECHNICAL SUPPORT (HOW TO REACH ME) . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Support & Updates from Bulletin Boards . . . . . . . . . 2 V. GENERAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 VI. FILE LIST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 VII. WHY USE WTB? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 VIII. What Tape Back-up? COMMAND LINE OPTIONS . . . . . . . . . 5 A. Specifying the Number of Tape Sets . . . . . . . . . . 5 B. Specifying a Range of Hard Disk Drives . . . . . . . . 5 1. With disk statistics (/D) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2. Without disk statistics (/N) . . . . . . . . . . . 5 C. Using Other Tape Software (/T) . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 D. Backing-up Modified Files Only (/M) . . . . . . . . . 6 E. Appending to the End of a Tape (/A) . . . . . . . . . 6 F. Command-line Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 IX. USING What Tape Back-up? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 A. Go . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 B. Cancel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 C. Verify . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 D. Set-up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 E. Selecting Tape Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 X. REGISTERING What Tape Back-up? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 - i - What Tape Back-up? __________________ I. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THOSE CONCERNING MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NEITHER ANGEL BABUDRO NOR ANYONE ELSE WHO HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN THE CREATION, PRODUCTION, OR DELIVERY OF THIS SOFTWARE SHALL BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THIS SOFTWARE EVEN IF ANGEL BABUDRO HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES OR CLAIMS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR'S LIABILITY FOR ANY DAMAGES EVER EXCEED THE PRICE PAID FOR THE LICENSE TO USE THE SOFTWARE, REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF CLAIM. THE PERSON USING THE SOFTWARE BEARS ALL RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE. Some States do not allow the exclusion of the limit of liability for consequential or incidental damages, so the above limitation may not apply to you. This agreement shall be governed by the State of Colorado and shall inure to the benefit of Angel Babudro and any successors, administrators, heirs and assigns. Any action or proceeding brought by either party against the other arising out of or related to this agreement shall be brought only in a State or Federal Court of competent jurisdiction located in Delta County, Colorado. The parties hereby consent to in personam jurisdiction of said courts. II. COPYRIGHT WTB is owned and copyright (c) 1991-1994 by Angel Babudro, all rights reserved. You may only use and/or distribute WTB under the License terms below. III. LICENSE The following terms and conditions apply to the use and/or distribution of What Tape Back-up?: __________________ 1. WTB is being distributed as copyright-protected Freeware. There is no registration fee and you are licensed to use it for an unlimited time. 2. All files originally distributed as part of the package (including this notice) must be included without modification. The complete list of files can be found in the PACKING.LST file which is part of this package. 3. Individual users may freely copy this disk and share it with friends, family, and acquaintances. Non-profit groups - 1 - What Tape Back-up? __________________ (including user groups and BBSs) may distribute copies of this disk. A fee of no more than $5 may be charged to cover disk copying costs. If the files on this disk have dates more than a year old please contact the author for a free update to the current version. 4. Disk distributors and dealers must have written permission before selling copies of this software. When you contact me you will receive a free copy of the latest version and you will be placed on my mailing list to receive updates as they are released. Disk distributors may charge no more than $10 per disk for copies of this software. If, as a distributor, you supply copies to other resellers, the end price to the user may not exceed $10. 5. You must obtain written permission prior to distribution as part of any "bundled" packages (e.g., CD-ROM, placing on new computer systems, etc.). Such permission is often granted; the author is a nice guy - please write to him with your ideas. 6. You must immediately stop selling/distributing copies of this software upon notice from the author. IV. TECHNICAL SUPPORT (HOW TO REACH ME) If you have questions or need help, just send a note to me through the mail or a BBS listed below. Gripes, moans, wails, throes, and throngs are promptly rejected, but all other types of communications & modest crowds are graciously accepted - and thank goodness for that! :) Unless you are in dire straits, please write rather than telephone with questions about WTB since I do not charge any money for it. If you telephone for consultation I ask that you pay $40 per hour. Mail Angel Babudro, "Organic Computer Wizardry", Box 132, Paonia, CO 81428 USA Support & Updates from Bulletin Boards My software packages are "free" downloads on the BBSs listed below - you need not subscribe to download my shareware (although other files or functions may require subscription). You may send questions or comments to me on The Researcher's BBS and Expanding Horizons - address your comments to "Angelo Babudro" (I use "Angelo" to avoid gender confusion, and I'm used to both names anyway). Scan for the file name WTB*.* to locate the latest version. - 2 - What Tape Back-up? __________________ West Coast Researcher's BBS (CA) USR Dual (805) 949-8151 Enter "J;136" to join the OrganicSftwr conference then use "F" to list files and "E" to post messages for me. Over 4 gigabytes of files on-line; anything you want is here. Messages can be sent to this board for me via FidoNet 1:102/1310. Expanding Horizons (CO) 14.4k V.32 (303) 241-2847 This is my local BBS so it is the one I most often update and check for messages. Log on to this board with the name "OC WIZ" and the password "WHAT" - this will bypass the usual questionnaire so you can begin downloading right away. Next, enter "J;3" to join conference #3, then type "F" to view the list of my software. Midwest Rusty 'n Edie's BBS (Ohio), six phone numbers: HST 16.8 (216) 726-1804 Hayes 28.8 (216) 726-3642 Hayes V-series (216) 726-3610 2400/V32/ZyXEL 19.2 (216) 726-2620 USR HST Turbo 21 (216) 726-3628 CompuCom Speed (216) 726-3584 East Coast Excalibur (Central NY) USR Dual (315) 736-3792 FREQ (File REQuest) from this board via RBBS address A:954/401, FIDO address 1:26501, or ICN address 91:315/101. WhiTech BBS (NC) ZyXEL 14.4 V32b/V42b (910) 944-1165 File Request (FREQ) via Fido address 1:3636/2. Software Creations (MA) - over 120 lines. Home of Night Owl CD-ROM. USR Courier 2400 MNP5 (508) 365-2359 USR Dual Standard 14.4k (508) 368-7036 USR HST/Dual Std 16.8k (508) 365-2032 USR Dual Std v.32Terbo (508) 368-6604 V. GENERAL What Tape Back-up? (WTB) helps you manage sets of back-up tapes for multiple hard disk partitions. It might be helpful to use WTB with a single partition (C:), but it's when you've got more than one that it really shines. When I wrote WTB I had six partitions (C: through H:) and I hated backing them up one-by-one or trying to develop a batch file that was sophisticated enough to handle the task, so I wrote WTB. - 3 - What Tape Back-up? __________________ WTB is provided with the commands for CMS Jumbo 2.5, CMS Jumbo 2.54, and Mountain 5.x software. If you have other tape software you can configure WTB to work with it by using an ASCII text editor or just about any word processor that can edit ASCII text. To use WTB you will need: * PC with MS/PC-DOS 3.1 or higher * About 120k free memory plus memory for your tape drive software (the more the better, since most tape software will use it as a buffer to speed up operations). * Monochrome or colour monitor * A tape drive * CMS Jumbo 2.5x or Mountain 5.x tape software or some other tape software which can be controlled via batch WTB stores your configuration within the executable file WTB.EXE. In order to do this, WTB.EXE must remain in its full size, unmodified by such things as LZEXE (which is otherwise a wonderful product) or PKLite (a similar product). VI. FILE LIST The following files comprise the complete What Tape Back-up? package: * WTB.EXE -- the executable (programme) file * WTB.WP -- WordPerfect document file * WTB.TXT -- ASCII document file * WTB.CMD - tape software command file * FKEY.LST -- a support file * ORDER.FRM -- order form for all of my products * FILE_ID.DIZ & DESC.SDI -- Description files for BBSs. You can delete these from your hard disk, but please distribute them with any copies of WTB you share VII. WHY USE WTB? I wrote What Tape Back-up? as a way to manage and track my ___________________ sets of back-up tapes. Although most tape software (including Mountain and CMS) have an automatic scheduling feature, this does not help in tracking which tape was last used, the dates of each back-up, and whether or not the tapes were verified for accuracy. Besides this, I believe that making it simple helps to get it done. I'd've sooner cared to stub my toe than remember manual back-up procedures for 200Mb of grey matter in electronic form... - 4 - What Tape Back-up? __________________ What Tape Back-up? makes things simple. Set it up once, put ___________________ it in your computer's menu, and run once a day or whenever you feel you need a back-up tape. VIII. What Tape Back-up? COMMAND LINE OPTIONS To use WTB with default values just type, "wtb" at the DOS prompt. In a few seconds three windows will appear: One with statistics about your disk drives (the Disk Window), another with statistics about your back-up tape set (the Tape Window), and a third with information on how the current back-up will be performed (the Back-up Window). Note: I refer to "sets" of tapes because many people, like myself, use more than one tape per back-up. I strongly recommend using at least three sets of back-up tapes. This way if the worst possible case happens -- your system goes down will making a back-up -- you will have other tape copies from which to retrieve your data. WTB has the following command-line syntax: WTB [#oftapes] [/Dxy] [/Nxy] [/T] [/A] [/M] Note: DOS command-line options are NOT case sensitive. You can use upper- or lower-case letters as you wish. A. Specifying the Number of Tape Sets If you use more than one set of tapes to back-up (use at least three sets of tapes!) use the command "WTB x" where "x" is the number of tapes you use. For example, "WTB 4" would manage four sets of tapes. B. Specifying a Range of Hard Disk Drives 1. With disk statistics (/D) You may only want to back-up a certain range of hard disk drives rather than all of your drives. Say, for example, you have hard disk drives C: through J: and a CD-ROM as drive H: You will only want to back-up C: through J: since H: is in little danger of being lost. To do this, use the "/Dxy" option where "x" and "y" are the first and last drives to back-up to tape. For example, "/Dcj" will back-up drives C: through J: 2. Without disk statistics (/N) - 5 - What Tape Back-up? __________________ You may wish to bypass the Disk Window, especially if you have a large system (such as a network) with a large number of logical drive letters or ridiculously large amounts of storage (if so, I'm jealous!). To turn the drive statistics off, use the /N option followed by the first and last (contiguous) disk drive letters you wish to back-up. For example, if you have drives C: through J: on your system and you want to bypass the Disk Window, use, "WTB /Ncj". C. Using Other Tape Software (/T) You may wish to bypass the tape back-up function of WTB and use it only to display disk statistics and prompt for the tape to use. If you already have a batch file that works well you might choose this route. Use "WTB /T" and WTB will end after the tape selection is made, passing the Tape Set Number to DOS via the ERRORLEVEL. This way you can have a batch file which calls WTB then checks the errorlevel to see which tape set to use (if errorlevel == 2, that means to use set 2, etc.). D. Backing-up Modified Files Only (/M) The default back-up mode for WTB is a full back-up of all drives. Periodically you may wish to only back-up the files which have changed since your last full back-up since this is normally much faster than doing a full back-up. To do this use the /M command. For example, "WTB /dcj /m" will back-up only the files that have changed on drives C: through J: since the last time a full back-up was made. E. Appending to the End of a Tape (/A) Normally WTB will over-write the data on the tape(s) with the new back-up information since locating the end of tape is such a time-consuming process. If you don't have many tapes or your tape drive is faster than mine at finding the end of top, you can append the new information to the end of a tape use the "/A" option. For example, "WTB /M /A" will back-up modified files only and put the information at the end of the tape. F. Command-line Examples To illustrate use of the options, let's say you have disk drives C: through R:, you don't want the system to calculate statistics on all 16 drives, you use 5 sets of back-up tapes (one for each day of the week), and you use something other than CMS or Mountain software. In your batch file do this: - 6 - What Tape Back-up? __________________ WTB 5 /ncr /t if errorlevel 99 goto end if errorlevel 5 goto TapeSet5 if errorlevel 4 goto TapeSet4 ...etc... Note: An errorlevel of 99 indicates that "Cancel" was selected from the WTB menu or that a tape error occurred. Or, let's say you have drives C: through R: but only want to back-up C: through F:, you want hard disk statistics, you use 5 sets of tapes, and you have CMS or Mountain tape software. Just use: WTB 5 /dcf and WTB will perform the complete back-up for you. IX. USING What Tape Back-up? Once you enter the command "WTB" along with any command-line options, several windows will open showing you the operating environment and a menu of options at the top of the screen. You can press the highlighted (first) letter for each option or use a mouse to select the options. A. Go This option begins the back-up as specified. B. Cancel This cancels the back-up and returns you to DOS. C. Verify This toggles the verify flag on and off. When verify is "on" the tape(s) will be verified after the back-up is complete. When "off" only a back-up will be done. Because verifying a tape doubles the back-up time, I found it more convenient (and virtually as safe) to verify my tapes on a rotating basis. If you use four tapes (like I am) and you verify tape #1, then tape #4 will next be scheduled to be verified, then tape #3, then #2, then #1, then back to #4. This way all tapes are verified on a regular basis. I found that by saving time this way I was less tempted to avoid verifying at all (or even, heaven forbid, backing-up at all!). - 7 - What Tape Back-up? __________________ D. Set-up The set-up screen defines how WTB will operate. To set an item, move the cursor (using the keyboard arrow keys) to the item you want to change then press F3. When you press F3 on the Tape Software field you will be presented with a menu of choices. These choices are the software packages which are in the WTB.CMD file. WTB.CMD is an ASCII file which you can look at and edit yourself using any ASCII text editor. I have put commands in there for Mountain 5.x and Jumbo 2.5 & 2.54 software - if you have someting else, just look inside the file for instructions on how to add your tape's commands. The second field is the type of tape you use. WTB really doesn't need to know this except for predicting how many tapes you will need for the back-up. This prediction is not accurate if you use compression (such as with the Jumbo software) which can double amount of information crunched onto a tape. In any case, just press F3 to get a list of tape types and select the type you will be using. The next item is the number of tape sets you will be using. You use a tape drive in case of some far-off unforeseen disaster that may never happen, and the most expensive piece was the tape drive. Splurge and get at least three sets of tapes - you might be really glad you did someday. I have seven sets and I actually have gone back a couple of back-ups to retrieve a file that somehow got erased from my hard disk. You may be just as grateful for multiple tape sets someday! Finally is the field for the back-up method. WTB does not yet use this field. I have not had the encouragement to develop this feature to completion (exactly zero people have contacted me with comments about WTB; maybe I'm just writing to myself?...) Anyhow, the idea of this field is to let you decide HOW you want to rotate your tapes: in a linear fashion (#1, #2, #3, etc. then back to #1, #2, etc.) or using a Father/Son/Grandfather scheme which uses ten tapes to give you a three-month back-up history (four daily tapes for Monday through Thursday, four Friday tapes, and two month-end tapes). E. Selecting Tape Sets In the Tape Window you will see an arrow pointing to the tape set to be used (this is, of course, a recommendation, since you are the one who must put the proper tape(s) in the drive!). WTB recommends the tape set following the last set - 8 - What Tape Back-up? __________________ used (which is normally the oldest set). In other words, it rotates the back-up tapes. If you want to use a different tape set, use the arrow keys to move the pointer between the available tape sets. X. REGISTERING What Tape Back-up? WTB is copyright-protected Freeware -- I am not asking any money for the registration of WTB. You can, however, order my Organic Software Sampler disk, containing the latest versions of all my Shareware (see the file ORDER.FRM - to print it enter "type order.frm > prn" at the DOS prompt, without the quotation marks). In addition, letters of appreciation, suggestions, or criticism are always welcome. May this software find you happy & well! - 9 -