 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Backing Up Tom Coleman |
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Just recently I have come across a couple of cases where the causes of lost data was unforgiving nature of the DOS Backup command which can be a bit of a problem. It should not be used by inexperienced users. Uses with enough experience to use it know better and wont use it.
OK so the DOS Backup is not the best. Which one is best. PC TOOLS is supposed to be pretty good and so is FASTBACK. There are couple of other good back up programs on the market as well as these. Its a bit hard to know just which one is the one for you.
I belong to a school that says these programs can be a bit of over kill if they are not fine tuned. For the most part with the average user and the average small business you will get adequate service out of XCOPY if you want to.
Do you detect a certain amount of indecisive waffle in the foregoing. I certainly feel that I am writing a lot and saying nothing. All that is the same old tired codswallop that we have been hearing for yonks about what you need to back up.
What a lot of old cobblers.
What you need to back up is the will to do it.
The DOS Copy command will save your data if you only use the bloody thing.
Most people don't backup because they lack the organization and self discipline to do it. All the software in the world is no use to them.
Backing up is a routine, a habit, a culture. It has no real association with software. Don t tell me you need this or that piece of software. You need a computer and a plug to plug it in.
Backing up is something YOU do. The software is only the tool you do it with. If you have not backed up it is you that is failing not your software.
The "Later on, Soon, Next time" syndrome. The human failing is what causes the heartbreak.
I can sympathise with a person who backs up and loses the lot in a fire, but off site data storage is part of a backup routine.
You not only have to make copies of your data but you must do something to organize your copy, to store it, to keep track of it too.
It's no good storing your backup copies next to your computer where the gentleman who comes it through the flywire can easily find it.
Swap your backup copy once a week with your neighbour or the man in the fish and chip shop. Ii you can afford it, Brambles will do it for you. As a minimum, not in the same room but that wont save it if the house burns down.
Your friendly insurance company will buy you a new computer, even new software but they will only replace the media, not the data on your backup discs.
All this is pretty academic really because most readers don't have any backup to speak of. There is a general intention to have a backup but no actual plan that can be executed.
It would all be pretty straight forward if we could just remove the human element Maybe that will never happen but the following batch file might help to meet the problem half way.
It is assumed that the application files are in a subdirectory called PCW (For PC WRITE) It could be LOTUS or WP51 or anything else. It is also assumed that all the DOS files are in a subdirectory that is in the PATH. Also that the utility QUESTION.COM is either in the default directory or the PATH.
| ECHO OFF C: CD\PCW ED %1 :START CLS ECHO DO YOU WISH TO BACK UP THE *.TXT ECHO AND *.DOC FILES ONTO DRIVE A: QUESTION IF NOT ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO NOBACKUP ATTRIB C:\PCW\*.TXT +A ATTRIB C:\PCW\*.DOC +A CLS :BACKUP ECHO IS THERE A DISC TO RECEIVE THE DATA IN DRIVE A: QUESTION IF NOT ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO START XCOPY C:\PCW\*.TXT A: /M IF NOT ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO DOC GOTO BACKUP :DOC XCOPY C:\PCW\*.DOC A: /M IF NOT ERRORLEVEL I GOTO NOBACKUP GOTO BACKUP :NOBACKUP CLS ECHO HAVE A NICE DAY |
Files similar to this can be used to impose a certain discipline on the user. By giving it an easy name like PCW.BAT and putting it in a subdirectory in the PATH, it is accessible from anywhere anytime you want to use PCWRITE.
Apart from that convenience its principal virtue is that it prods you to backup every time you use it. It makes it easier by reminding you and doing half of the job for you.
Try it - If you like it, use it.
If you don't use it, use something else.
Either way don't come weeping to me.
Reprinted from the June 1991 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
