Conference 7.286::atarist

    You could create a RAM disk and copy the system disk to it. You can
    then insert a new disk and copy from the RAM disk to it.
    
    This is much faster than swapping two disks in and out of the same
    drive.
    
    
    
    Stephen.

    hi,
    
    You can backup all your data and homebrewed proggies, and some
    commercial stuff, but the majority of commercial and games disks are
    protected with anti copy devices. This normally causes howls of
    protest. However if one legally owns the software and the disk breaks,
    then the publishing company is normally willing to exchange faulty
    disks for new copies. There are a couple of Gotcha's here. One is that
    the software house still has to be in business, or two, by the time
    the disk goes wrong, there is a new rev of the software out, which is
    all the software company has available, so they try to charge you a
    swingeing upgrade fee!.
    
    Have fun !
    
    Pat K.
    

    In truth nearly all available software can be backed up by buying
    suitable copying programs. While their use for pirating oft makes their
    mention taboo, they do have a rightful place in the backup capacity of
    a serious user too. There are obvious exceptions to this rule, coming
    from the top end of the market who must spend half their time
    developing anti-pirate methods such as the dubiously dangerous ploy of
    burning a small hole in the disk material itself.
    
    If you really do get into backing up such programs, then the RAM
    trapping devices which save the entire machine state at the press of a
    button may be your baby. These expensive gismo's allow virtually
    anything to be secured in backup. The cathch for the would be mass
    producing pirate is that you need to have the gismo attached to run the
    copy.
    
    
    Hope this helps,
    
    John

ProCopy by ProCo products is pretty good at backing up floppy to floppy
with a minimum of disk swapping.  (Almost never on a 1040.)

It's pretty cheap too, about $25-$30 U.S.

It also copies most copy protected disks, and seems to be the standard program
used for copying PD library disks at computer clubs.

If you are talking about backing up hard disks, David Chiquelin's BACKUP
program is a good sharware program.

    There are several ST users in the Leeds Office. If you want to get
    some advise on buying a machine then why not drop in for a coffee
    some time.
    
    Kev.
    

    
    	Well, I've gotta gripe somewhere. A few months ago, I downline
    loaded the self extracting tos programs for Backup and a few other
    things from the system. This past weekend (Here it is the gripe) I lost
    my 71 meg drive partition "C". As I was unable to utilize the AdSCSI
    programs to restore it, (for some reason as it was re-writting the FAT
    it bombed with 3 bombs) I had to (cry,cry whimper) re-format the entire
    drive and rename all my partitions..... Of course, I had a re-liable
    backup so I was not too worried. The backup was done about a month ago
    and though I realize that I would loose about 100 files, I was not
    concerned. Anyways, I went to do a restore last night, I found the
    floppy with the backup on  it, restored it to the Harddrive and booted
    BACUP.PRG. It camed up with the screen and asked me to proceed, so I
    did. I went to the top right of the screen, pulled down on option and
    told it to restore harddisk. It came back and asked which partition and
    I gave it "C", then from which disk "A" then it asked me to make sure I
    had put in the BACKUP DATA DISK from partition "C". I did, but, low and
    behold.........
    
    
    ******* (count 7) BOMBS and the desktop appeared....
    
    
    Can anyone help?. I would like to restore this disk using backup if
    possible, but this will not work. I don't relish the thought of putting
    in each disk to "A" and copying it... ANY HELP WILL DO.......
    
    
    Muchly Appreciated
    
    
    	Swaff B-(

Did you check the floppy to see if it was readable?

>    had put in the BACKUP DATA DISK from partition "C". I did, but, low and
Did you put in the first of the series of disks which contain your HD files,
or did you put in the disk which contains the information about what was
backed up? If this is David Chiquilen's (I sure that's spelled wrong) backup
program then it is the later that the program is looking for.

	Ray

    
    
    	Ray,
    
    	The program asked for the BACKUP DATA DISK. I believe that this
    disk is the one created at the end of all the backups. I tried this one
    first, as I had labelled it BACKUP DATA DISK PARTITION "C". I also
    (when this didn't work) tried disk 1 of 13 (<-- hmm... unluckey 13,
    maybe.... Nah), the BACKUP DATA DISK bombed out the program, the other
    just asked for the right disk to be installed....
    
    
    Thanks for the suggestion though..
    
    Any more?
    
    	Swaff B-(

>    Thanks for the suggestion though..
>    Any more?

Only to look at the files on the data disk to see if they are corrupt, may
sure you can read the files (ie: that there isn't a bad spot on the disk,
etc..). If the data files/disk are corrupt, you may be able to rebuild them
(I forget what they look like).

If all else buy a copy of the GOOD Backup Utility by TidBit. GOOD will
restore your backup for you even though it didn't create it. I don't know if
there are any PD programs that will do that for you or not.

	Ray

FYI: In the past I have done a LOT of backups AND restores using David's
backup program. The only time I ever had trouble with it, was when I did a
restore which needed to create more than 40 directories, after backup created
40 directories it would complain and exit, I just did the restore a few times
until all the directories were created and the restore completed with no other
trouble.

	Ray

    Thanks for the replies....
    
    
    I will look into the program and see if modification should be made
    etc... I will also look for a GOOD backup program and purchase....
    
    Figures eh? I have been a musician all my life, finally get into the
    midi, start writing songs on the computer and......GOODBYE files....
    
    S'well that n'swell they can be re-written, but I think I'll backup in
    future with hard copy music as well.... Idea's lost...
    
    Thanks Again...
    
    	Swaff B-(