The Sinclair QL Forum

Mr Bredenbeek (or anyone else who may know),

Does 'Hardback' allow the use of a QNET target as the destination, e.g. n1_win1_backup_. There is no mention in the readme.

Just wondered before I try it, as I don't want to start backing up an entire win1_ over QNET and possibly have or cause issues etc.

Thanks.

Hi,

You can use: NFS_USE, DEV SUB etc...

I used to back my BBS QL to a QXL with:

NFS_USE QXL,n1_win1_

using a backup programme, using the backup detination as QXL1_ which the WIN1 on the QXL

or if you have DEV on your system, you voukd say:

DEV_USE 1,"n1_win1_"

So DEV1_ is directed to your QXL WIN1 drive.

Derek_Stewart wrote:Hi,

You can use: NFS_USE, DEV SUB etc...

I used to back my BBS QL to a QXL with:

NFS_USE QXL,n1_win1_

using a backup programme, using the backup detination as QXL1_ which the WIN1 on the QXL

or if you have DEV on your system, you voukd say:

DEV_USE 1,"n1_win1_"

So DEV1_ is directed to your QXL WIN1 drive.

Ah yes, that all sounds very sensible. Do you know, I haven't done anything much with DEV_USE yet, apart from the whole FLP1_/MDV1_ swapping thing. I now have DEV1_ on the BBQL set as the backup directory that I want everything to go to on the QXLII. I will play around, but I have a feeling the data transfer will take a while, so best to start it all off tomorrow so I can keep an eye on it and so I don't have to have the old beasts running all night long.

Chr$ wrote:Mr Bredenbeek (or anyone else who may know),
Does 'Hardback' allow the use of a QNET target as the destination, e.g. n1_win1_backup_. There is no mention in the readme.

Oh dear, I haven't used it for 25 years or so... Well, it should work with any directory device, including networked drives. One thing to notice though: it doesn't recreate the hard directories on the destination medium as they exist on the source medium, it only puts the directory name in front of the file names. You can do a MAKE_DIR beforehand or afterwards to correct this.
Another issue is that it changes the system clock to make the time stamps on the destination files (almost) equal to the source files. This is bad practice nowadays, but back in 1989 when I wrote it there were no V2 drivers for the flp device so MAKE_DIR and SET_FUPDT wouldn't work. I'm wondering if they would on a networked drive anyway... they might work when the destination is on SMSQ/E or a Gold Card but probably not on a QL with Trump Card.

One final note: if you backup to a networked drive, the remote device's name length will count towards the maximum of 36 characters that QDOS/SMSQ can handle. So if you backup to n1_win1_ then the length of any file name should be no more than 31 characters...

Jan

Without wishing to detract from Jan's Hardback program, my old WinBack utility - available from Dilwyn's excellent site - has a utility to scan the hard drive for directories and will create a small SuperBASIC program you can run prior to restoring, to recreate the full directory tree. This is useful for two reasons:

* Simplicity - it saves time typing in lots and lots of MAKE_DIR commands;
* Efficiency - it's better to pre-create the directories before importing the files otherwise all the files get put in the root directory, which becomes large, then get moved to the various sub-directories leaving the root massively fragmented and full of holes, in a manner resembling a Swiss Cheese!

I've attached the file somewhere around here, in case it's useful. I don't think it needs any assembly extensions. It has been compressed on Linux, so no QL headers will be present, but it's a non-executable anyway. I had to zip it as the forum doesn't like files with _bas, .bas or .txt as an extension.


Cheers,
Norm.

Hi,

I think Norback is a good backup programme, but I usually take a more simple approach and always do a full backup, without incremental backups.

I usually use ProWesS DIRCOPY to copy the directory tree of the source files and use QPAC2 Files with the tree option on to copy the source files to the backup media.

It seems to work, but that as efficient as a dedicated Backup programme.

Dilwyn also has a kind of "Sync" program at his site.

http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/files/sync.zip

I havent used any of the backup programs out there for real as, typically for us QLers, Ive gone and re-invented the wheel myself and have my own private solution. However, of those Ive tested, I found a very good one in Wolfgang Lenerz' Backup. Its modern (directories and stuff are a non-issue), easy to use and has some nice features. I dont know how it fares with networked drives though. For those who hate this stuff, be warned: It is a PE program!

Oh, I forgot. Its at https://www.wlenerz.com/qlstuff/

Thanks for the replies.