HardUp: Hard Disk Backup Utility -------------------------------- First a little lore, there is an old saying that goes something like, "The more important your data is, the more likely you are to lose it". Last week I proved that to be true. An almighty, and inexplicable OS cock up resulted in my working partion to be 80% trashed. Naturally in the two weeks since my last backup I had done a lot of important programming; I cried all the way to the pub. The only reason why I had not taken more frequent backups was due to the lack of a simple to use PD backup utility. Hence 'HardUp' rose from the ashes of my mangled FAT. Getting started --------------- HardUp works in any screen mode, just double-click on HARDUP.PRG and wait until it loads. Firstly, before you make any attempt to back anything up you need to tell HardUp a few simple things about your hardware... 1) Set the 'Drive A is' parameter under the 'Options' menu to the size of your drive 'A'. 2) Set the 'Drive B is' parameter in the same way. If you don't have a drive 'B', just ignore this option. 3) Set the 'Backup to' option to the drive or drives that you wish to backup to. If you have 2 drives, and they are both the same size, backing up to both drives will result in less disk swaps. 4) The 'Misc.' options are for squeezing that extra bit of speed out of the backup. If you understand what 'Interleave' means then set it to the best value, otherwise values of 1 or 6 are recommended. Write verifying is best left on unless you are using branded disks with a good quality disk drive, or you eat three Shredded Wheat for breakfast. 5) If you are going to be backing up from only one drive most of the time, then you might as well set the 'Source drive' option now. OK, now you've done that, go to the 'File' menu and select the 'Save' option from the 'Setup' sub-menu. The settings that you have just set will be saved to disk, and auto-loaded each time that you load HardUp. Backing up a drive ------------------ Just select the 'Backup' option from the 'Options' menu. You will be presented with a dialogue informing you how many disks will be required for the backup, and how many sectors need to be backed up from the hard disk (HardUp only backs up the used sectors). You should now find the required number of disks and clearly label them from 1 to the total number. HardUp requires its disks to be formatted in a special way, and will refuse to use disks formatted from the desktop. Each time the backup asks you to insert a new disk, you get the opportunity to initialise it. Once a disk has been initialised once, it need never be initialised again unless you change your settings and decide to use it in a drive of different capacity. If you prefer, you may initialise your backup disks all in one go by selecting the 'Initialise' option from the 'Options' menu. During the backup you will be prompted to do all the necessary disk swaps, and you get a running countdown of the sectors left to backup. Once the backup is complete, write protect your floppies and put them somewhere safe. If your data is particularly valuable, it would be wise to store them off site: fire does not care whether you put the disks in that cupboard over the other side of the room along with last month's Playboy. Finally, do not try and open one of your backup disks from the desktop: At best you will see garbage, at worst the ST will crash in a big way. Restoring a drive ----------------- OK, so the Grim Reaper has visited your hard disk and had his merry way with it, now what do you do ? Well, suppress your tears, retrieve your stack of backup disks (you did make that backup last night, didn't you ?) and load HardUp. Just select the 'Restore' Option from the 'Options' menu. In order for HardUp to determine some information about the backup, it will ask you to insert any disk from your stack of backup disks into the drive - it makes sense to insert disk 1, as this is the one that it will ask you to insert next. The restoration process is very simple, you are prompted to do all the necessary disk swaps. You should realise that when you made the backup, HardUp stored the information about your disk drive configuration on the backup disks and it will use this configuration to restore your mangled data. Interrogating a backup disk --------------------------- If you have a backup disk, and want to know what's on it, then just shove it in a disk drive and select the 'Interrogate' option from the 'Options' menu. The disk drive will be examined by HardUp, and the information gleaned will be presented to you. This includes the disk number, total disks, time & date of the backup, and backup comment. The 'Unique ID' number is used by HardUp during the restoration of data to ensure that you don't put the correct disk number, but from a different backup in the drive: that would be a disastrous move. Disclaimer ---------- Whilst every possible measure has been taken to ensure that 'HardUp' performs as documented above, the author cannot be held responsible for any losses, material or financial, that may arise from the use or misuse of 'HardUp'. You use this program entirely at your own risk. Shareware --------- HardUp is shareware. That means that you may copy and distribute the program without charge, provided that... 1. No profit is made from the distribution/copying 2. This unedited documentation accompanies all copies made 3. If you should find this program useful then you are obliged to register your support to the author by sending a registration fee of œ15 to the address below. This will earn you a copy of the latest version and a laser printed manual. Andrew Brown 2 Ullswater Drive Wetherby West Yorkshire LS22 4YF