BackMaster README File. Original: October 7, 1993. Updated : May 24,1994. This file contains information about specific problems you may encounter or specific system configurations. 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: 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. Device driver conflicts: The BackMaster device drivers, FTDVR.SYS and PTDVR.SYS, have conflicts with the Multimedia Presentation Manager (MMPM) drivers and some cdrom device 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 and PTDVR.SYS are loaded in CONFIG.SYS after the CDROM 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. The BackMaster installation program, BMINST, will place the FTDVR.SYS and PTDVR.SYS in the correct location in CONFIG.SYS for most machines. The driver conflicts are mentioned here for the case of a manual installation or a driver conflict with specific systems. 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 the error: "Unable to load 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. Stacker: If FTDVR.SYS (or PTDVR.SYS) resides on a stacked volume, the DEVICE=FTDVR.SYS statement should be placed after the stacker device drivers. 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 unexpected crashes may occur, especially during the file selection process. If you must use BackMaster with OS/2 2.0, we suggest that you avoid extensive opening and closing of directory folders during the file selection process. 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. 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 below. The following method for creating recovery boot diskettes requires COPIES of OS/2 installation diskettes 0 and 1. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD THE ORIGINAL OS/2 INSTALLATION DISKETTES BE MODIFIED IN ANY WAY. Obtain three blank, formatted diskettes. Label them "Recovery disk 0", "Recovery disk 1", and "Utility disk". Start an OS/2 Window, located in "OS/2 System" folder; "Command Prompts". Use DISKCOPY to make duplicates of the OS/2 installation diskettes 0 and 1 on recovery diskettes 0 and 1 respectively: DISKCOPY A: A: Execute the command once for each diskette to be copied. Note: Since no modifications are made to recovery diskette 0, you do not actually have to make a copy of OS/2 installation diskette 0. You could use the original OS/2 installation diskette 0 in place of recovery diskette 0 when booting with recovery diskettes. If you have a CDROM version of OS/2, refer to the readme on the CDROM for instructions on creating floppy boot diskettes. Now, at this point, put the original OS/2 diskettes away. You will not need to use them again in creating the recovery diskettes. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU USE THE ORIGINAL OS/2 INSTALLATION DISKETTES WITH THE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW. IF YOU DO, THEY WILL NO LONGER BE ABLE TO INSTALL OS/2. Insert recovery diskette 1 in the floppy drive. Delete the file BUNDLE using the following command (remember to substitute B: for A: if you are using drive B: in the commands below): DEL A:\BUNDLE Now copy the FTDVR.SYS and PTDVR.SYS files to the A: drive. These files can be found in the directory in which BackMaster was installed. If you took the defaults when installing BackMaster, the files will be in a directory called BACKMAST in the root directory of the drive from which the system boots (this is the drive that the OS/2 Window was set to when started). Suppose that BackMaster was installed to C:\BACKMAST. In this case, use the following command: COPY C:\BACKMAST\*.SYS A: Once the files are copied, you will need to edit the CONFIG.SYS file on A:. Use the following command: E A:\CONFIG.SYS Add the following two lines to the end of CONFIG.SYS: DEVICE=A:\FTDVR.SYS DEVICE=A:\PTDVR.SYS Now save the file CONFIG.SYS file to the A: drive and exit the editor. At this point, you have a bootable set of recovery diskettes. If you have 8 MB of memory or less, you will need to enable swapping to hard drive before using BMREST to restore files. When swapping is enabled, a file named SWAPPER.DAT is written to a hard drive. In order to write the SWAPPER.DAT file, the hard drive that SWAPPER.DAT is on must be formatted. Since this will not always be the case when using the recovery boot diskettes, you cannot always boot with swapping enabled. We suggest creating an additional set of recovery diskettes 0 and 1 with swapping enabled in the case of a machine with 8 MB of memory or less. Obtain two additional blank, formatted diskettes. Label them "Recovery diskette 0 (swap)", and "Recovery diskette 1 (swap)". Follow the steps for creating the recovery diskettes 0 and 1 and add the following: Insert Recovery diskette 1 (swap) and edit the CONFIG.SYS file using the following command: E A:\CONFIG.SYS Find the following line in A:\CONFIG.SYS (it should be near the top of the file): MEMMAN=NOSWAP Change this line to read: MEMMAN=SWAP,PROTECT Directly after the MEMMAN line, insert the following line.: SWAPPATH=C:\ If want to place the swapfile on a drive other than drive C:, substitute the appropriate drive letter in place of C: above. Now save the file CONFIG.SYS to the A: drive and exit the editor. Remember, if you have 8 MB or more of memory, you will probably not need the set of recovery boot diskettes with swapping enabled. Insert the blank, formatted diskette labeled "Utility diskette" in floppy drive (remember to substitute B: for A: if you are using drive B: in the commands below). If your system does not boot from C: substitute the appropriate drive letter in place of C: in the commands below. The drive your system boots from is the drive letter displayed in the OS/2 Window prompt when it first starts. From the BackMaster directory (which is the same directory that FTDVR.SYS and PTDVR.SYS -- described above -- are in) copy the following two files to the A: drive: COPY C:\BACKMAST\BMREST.EXE A:\ COPY C:\BACKMAST\QICCOMPR.DLL A:\ COPY C:\BACKMAST\T2.EXE A:\T2.EXE COPY C:\BACKMAST\THELP.HLP A:\ From the OS/2 system directory on the default boot drive copy the following files to the A: drive: COPY C:\OS2\CHKDSK.COM A:\ COPY C:\OS2\FDISK.COM A:\ COPY C:\OS2\FORMAT.COM A:\ COPY C:\OS2\ATTRIB.EXE A:\ COPY C:\OS2\SYSTEM\OSO001.MSG A:\ COPY C:\OS2\UHPFS.DLL A:\ Note: You will be unable to copy UHPFS.DLL if your system does not have at least one HPFS partition. UHPFS.DLL will be found only on systems with HPFS installed. If you do not have HPFS installed, you will not need UHPFS.DLL on the utility diskette. At this point, your recovery diskettes should be created. It is a good idea to test the recovery diskettes to make sure that they work, and that you understand how to use the recovery diskettes and BMREST. See the section in this README on "Using the recovery diskettes" for more information. Using the recovery diskettes: Insert recovery diskette 0 into drive A: and allow the computer to boot. When the message prompting for install disk 1 appears, insert recovery diskette 1 instead. Press the enter key. If you created the recovery diskettes manually, a screen will appear informing you that the OS/2 installation process is about to begin. You will be given the option to cancel by pressing the escape key (ESC). Press the escape key at this time. A full screen OS/2 command window should now appear. If you used BMRCVR to create the recovery diskettes, you will go directly to the command window. Remove recovery diskette 1 and insert your recovery "Utility diskette" in drive A:. Use FDISK and FORMAT to prepare the drive that you are restoring files to if the drive is not already formatted. More detailed instructions on using FDISK and FORMAT may be found in the OS/2 "Command Reference" online help (located in the "Information" folder). If the drive is already formatted, run CHKDSK /F on that drive. For example, if you were restoring files to drive C:, use: CHKDSK C: /F After the drive is prepared, you are almost ready to start restoring files. But before you begin, does your machine have more than 8 MB of memory? If it does, skip ahead to the "Using BMREST to restore files" section. If not, you will need to reboot the system using the recovery boot diskettes that have swapping enabled. Make sure that the SWAPPATH points to a valid, formatted drive. Using BMREST to restore files: If you have an 8 MB or less system, make sure that you have booted the system with swapping enabled. See the section on "Creating recovery diskettes" for more information. If the drive you wish to restore files to is not yet formatted, see the above section on "Using the recovery diskettes" first. To run BMREST, simply type BMREST at the command prompt. If this is the first time you have run BMREST, a configuration file will be created, and BMREST will display a message informing you that a default configuration file has been created. The first major screen that you will see is the configuration screen. This screen will allow you to select the destination drive for the restore, the type of tape drive your system has, as well as setting any high-speed adapter information. Notice that some of the boxes containing the choices have arrow symbols on the right top and bottom of the boxes. This indicates that the choices in those particular boxes may be scrolled up or down to display further choices. Do this if necessary. When all choices have been made, press the ENTER key to continue. Tape volumes will be read. Select the volume you wish to restore. After the volume has been selected, the directory tree for that volume will be read, and you will be able to perform a total or selective restore for that volume. More information on using BMREST may be found in the BackMaster manual or in the online help of the main BackMaster application. Using file selection sets: Version 1.1 of BackMaster supports File Selection Sets. File Selection Sets are created by selecting a group of files using BackMaster and saving those selections with the "Save file selections" option under the backup menu. By default, File Selection Sets will be saved in the FSS folder that is located in the BackMaster desktop folder. All File Selection Sets will have the extension .FSS. A created File Selection Set may used in any of the following ways: From the "Load file selections" under the BackMaster "Backup" menu. Double click the File Selection Set to start BackMaster and apply the saved file selections. Drop the File Selection Set on the BackMaster program icon to start BackMaster and apply the saved file selections. Drop the File Selection Set on a running copy of BackMaster to apply the saved file selections. A File Selection Set may be applied to any drive by applying the File Selection Set AFTER the drive is selected (from the BackMaster menu or by dropping the File Selection Set on the already opened BackMaster directory tree). Otherwise, the File Selection Set will be applied to the drive that its file selections were originally made from. File Selection Sets do not deselect files, and more than one File Selection Set may be applied to the same BackMaster directory tree and the files in BOTH File Selection Sets will be selected. Creating or modifying File Selection Sets with an editor: If you wish to create a customized version of a File Selection Set, look at the example (EXAMPLE.FSS) in the directory to which BackMaster was installed. The two sections of primary interest are the directory selection section, and the file selection section. Both sections contain the complete pathnames (minus drive letter) of files/directories to be selected. Any directory specified in the directory selection will cause all files in that directory (and its subdirectories) to be selected when the File Selection Set is applied. For example, a directory name of '\' would select the entire drive. In the files section, any file listed will be selected. When BackMaster saves a File Selection Set, only complete pathnames (no wildcards) are used. However, if you add wildcards to the directory or file names with a text editor, BackMaster will process those wildcards when the file selection set is next used. Suppose that you wanted to create a custom File Selection Set to select all files with the extension .EXE in the OS2 directory. In the files section, the following line would be used: \OS2\*.EXE Wildcards may also be used in the directory paths as in: \DATA\FOLDER*\*.DAT The above line would select all files with an extension of .DAT in all subdirectories of the directory DATA that started with FOLDER, such as FOLDER1, FOLDER2, FOLDERTEMP, etc. Wildcards will not cross the '\' character in a path name, so the above line would NOT select this file: \DATA\FOLDER5\SUBDIR\MYFILE.DAT DATA would match, then FOLDER5 would match FOLDER*, but *.DAT would not match SUBDIR.