CompuServe Messages

Don: >> which problem do you have with respect to backup/restore << Compared to the frame*128 problem that others report, my troubles are few indeed! In fact, they only arise if I NEED to restore a backup or WANT to verify that a backup is valid. So far this has only bit me once, when I ignorantly deleted a project from the PAR drive and scrambled it in the process! I was ultimately able to recover everything that was "mission critical", but it cost me a lot of time and a large percentage of my remaining hair. The incident prompted me to push for a reliable backup solution. Basically, my situation is this: I can backup from PAR to 4mm tape, but if I want to verify that I have a good backup I have to go through a number of very time consuming steps: 1) clear enough space from the DOS drive for the .ANI files 2) restore the .ANI files from tape to DOS 3) create batch files to copy the files from DOS to PAR, one at a time (copy *.* doesn't work — stops after the first file for some reason) 4) clear enough space on the PAR drive that I can restore the copy of the .ANI files for inspection — this may not be easy, as I'll discuss later. (remember, the goal of the verify is to make sure I backed up the .ANI files without error, so I can't restore to the original location — I want to keep those files until I'm done with the verify) 5) execute the batch file to copy the .ANI files from DOS to PAR 6) use PAR.EXE to play the .ANI files and visually inspect them for errors. I'd much prefer a binary compare, but for some reason, files copied from DOS to PAR do not compare, even though the copy on PAR plays OK. Copying the files from PAR to DOS does seem to allow a binary compare to succeed – curiouser and curiouser. My problem — mostly a head-space problem — is that its such a royal pain to verify a backup, and there seems little point to doing a backup that MAY OR MAY NOT be good, that I tend to put off backups. The result is that I wind up with so much stuff on my PAR drive that its hard to find free space to restore the files for inspection. Paranoia usually forces me into a backup/verify when I approach that magic moment when rerender time exceeds available machine time. Unfortunately, this is always the point when project related stress is greatest and time at a premium. Plus I need the machines for RENDERING, not file transfer related fun-and-games! I wish I could justify a second PAR station so I could lay critical animations down redundantly, then I wouldn't loose sleep worrying about a crash of the PAR drive or something. I've considered alternatives: A) Render to .TGAs on the DOS drive, backup and verify the .TGAs, then send em to the PAR station. This requires huge amounts of disk space, and removes a lot of the benefit from the PAR system. B) Backup by clearing space on C:, copying .ANI files to C:, verifying DOS to PAR, backing up the C: files to tape with verify. But I just don't trust this approach at this instant in time. I figure that if I can load a file onto PAR and it plays OK, I can do it again. The idiosyncrasies in file compares from PAR to DOS just make me nervous. Its more of a piece-of-mind issue than anything else. As you have noticed, a restore operation is a subset of a verify operation a la Cal. So if I can verify, I can restore. The problem is ultimately one of TIME! Damnit, I figure if I can COPY a file from DOS to PAR, I should be able to copy from 4mm to PAR, but Corel SCSI backup won't do it nor will the QIC-80 lash ups that I've tried. Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Cal