need for help in backup/archive process

[pbareges]

hi there!

i have an a1200 8mb fastram with a 4gig cf card plugged into IDE internal port...it's split in 6 partitions from 50Mbytes to 1.5Gbytes. until now i was backing it up on my other 4gig cf card plugged in PCMCIA by simply copying all files from each partition to a dedicated folder....

but then i realized that my PCMCIA mounted card uses FAT filesystem so this may conflict with FFS filenames..right?

so i tried to archive each partition with "lha -aerxz a pc0:hd0.lha hd0:" command to avoid compression time consumption (i could then compress the files on my pc). it worked fine for small partitions, but the huge ones fail before it starts archiving...i think it crashes in the process of scanning the device to list all the files to be archived...maybe because fastmem is disabled because of PCMCIA (i use nofastmem command to avoid conflicts) and the file list consumes more than the 2mb chipram available (i use the boot without startup option in order to consume as little mem as possible)...i'm using last aminet version of lha (2.12)..

could somebody help and suggest another way to safely backup my partitions on my PCMCIA mounted cf card ?

thanks in advance,

phil.

[pbareges]

i just found flat handler on aminet that assimilates devices to files...will give it a try!

[pbareges]

won't work...because based on the tracks/sectors structure...won't be able to restore it on another disk with a slighlty different structure....really need an archive process based on files, saving full paths & attributes.. thanks to let me know

[DamienD]

Hello pbareges,

Maybe you should try Quarterback?

Product Information:

Advanced backup and archiving program for the Amiga. While hard drives represent some of the highest technology that exists in the computer industry, all hard drives will eventually fail. It is not a matter of if, but simply a question of when. If you've invested hours creating pictures, manuscripts, 3-D ray-traces, or spreadsheets, then you need some way to protect your investment. Quarterback gives you that protection by safeguarding your work against any possible loss.


Features:

Backup to or restore from floppy disks, high density floppies, hard disks, hard disk partitions, AmigaDOS files, removable media, tape drives, and any AmigaDOS compatible devices. Support for special features of newer, more advanced tape drives. There is support for hardware-based compression, fast tape advance, and quick erase features. Support for multiple tapes per backup session. This means that you can back up the entire contents of very large hard disks onto several smaller- sized tapes. Automatically formats floppies as it writes. Complete or Selective backups and restores. A powerful Tag Filter allows you to include or exclude files by name (with wild cards), date, or archive bit. Full macro and ARexx support, allowing you total control over the Quarterback program. Optional password protection and encryption, to give you the best in security. Fast compression during backups. In many cases, Quarterback can compress the data as fast as it can be written to your floppy drive. Innovative "Interrogator" retrieves device information from SCSI devices. Save to a file or print catalogs or session logs. Can verify data as it is written. Automatically detects and warns about bad media during backup and restore. Writes file catalog to both first and last disks for extra data protection. Supports unlimited file lengths, any number of subdirectories, and any number of files per subdirectory. Supports both hard and soft links. Includes Schedule Pro - a program which allows you to set up Quarterback for unattended backup sessions! Not only can you use Schedule Pro to set up Quarterback to automatically back up your hard disk at any time, or on any schedule, but you can use it to automatically start any program or ARexx script at a particular time or on a particular schedule. You can even use it to automatically dsiplay reminders when you need them.

[pbareges]

thanks for your help damiend but i don't think quarterback may help as according to the doc, it needs to build a catalog of the entire device wich i cannot afford with 2mbytes available...i was wondering if anyone knows of an archiver scanning/archiving the device in a way similar to the dos copy command..ie it finds one folder, scans the entire contents and add it the archive then goes to the next folder...etc...instead of trying to scan the whole device at once before starting to archive...

if any lha developper/maintener around...would it be difficult to implement an alternate -r option allowing for switching between scanning/archiving to avoid too much memory consumption?

if i go back to my first solution (ie copy hd0: pc0:hd0/ all), what risks may i face because of the 2 filesystems being different (FFS and FAT) ? will the attributes/filenames/paths be perfectly preserved ? will empty files/directories be copied ?

[pbareges]

PLEASE!! any techie around (Zetro, StarLab, galahad, anyone) to highlight the issues related to backing my FFS partition files on a FAT partition and restoring them up on a FFS partition with a simple copy all command? (as explain earlier, filenames limitations / attributes consistency / empty files & directories, etc...)

[ppill]

You can format the other CF card like the one you use with the CF->IDE adapter (just switch from scsi.device to compactflash.device in HDToolBox; DEVICE= tooltype). You would be able to access it on the PC side using WinUAE. Or you can create HDF files (one for every partition) on the FAT formatted card and mount them as drives and copy the files over.
Check these two threads on how to do it:
Click
Click

[pbareges]

thank you very much!! i chose to go with the diskimage option on fat filesystem...in case anyone interested : i used the diskimage.lha package from aminet..i used the createimage tool to create empty images with the same structure as each one of my partitions...it generates hdf file + mountlist for each image..i don't know why but i had to manually change the blocksize parameter in each mountlist (set to 128 instead of 512 by createimage)...then you just have to mount your device and load the corresponding image in diskimagectrl...i was able to format the image in ffs format then and copy anything to it!

[ppill]

Originally Posted by pbareges

thank you very much!!

You're welcome

I tried Diskimage but found it a tad slow (maybe I messed up the mountlist entries or somethin'). I use filedisk.device for mounting HDF files as drives (mind you that they have to be created and prepped under WinUAE with the RDB-Enabled option). I use giggledisk to create the mountlist like so:

giggledisk uaehf.device x to RAM:

where x is the unit and end up with a GGD0 and GGD0.info files with correct entries

On the Amiga you change the device to filedisk and the unit entry to the path where the HDF file is placed ("CF0:BackUps/System.hdf" for example), mount the device (mount GGD0:; you can of course change the drive's name) and Bob's your uncle
You'll find an example in the CF_Boot_LITE ADF

Anyways... glad to hear my advice was helpful

You'll find filedisk.device here