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This how-to article on backing up files in Windows'95 was originally published in the "Blue Chip News", a publication of the Saginaw Valley Computer Association, Saginaw, MI


Are You Having Trouble
Backing Up Your System?

By Ed Stroiwas

Before I upgraded to Windows 95, I had been backing up my computer system using the MS-DOS 6.22 backup utility. I had no problems in either backing up the system or restoring individual files or the entire system.

When I upgraded to Windows 95, I installed the Windows 95 Backup program. After optimizing the look and feel of the new system, and before really getting into more demanding things, I backed up the system. I have a second hard-drive installed that is used exclusively for backing up my system. I had been backing up to it using MS-DOS backup and had no problem worrying whether it was compatible with my system, if the tape would hold all of the data and so on.

I normally created a directory my Drive D: and let the backup roll until completed. When I felt it would feel good to backup the system again, I would create another directory on Drive D: and let the backup roll. This way I could have 2 or 3 full backups to the system. If one backup failed me I could revert to another one. Now that I have Windows 95 installed, I use the Windows 95 backup program and backup to Drive D: as before.

One Significant Difference

When I used the "Restore" feature of MS-DOS, the restoration would show a line "Overwrite Always". The restoration would complete without any error messages. If there were 3,710 files, it would show that it restored [or looked at?] 3,710 files. In the Windows 95 "Restore", I now have a choice of:

When I choose to Restore the files and select "Overwrite Files", the new backup-restore now creates an ERROR.LOG file in the

C:\Program Files\Accessories\Log directory.

This Log file initially pops up on the screen in Notepad when the Restore is completed so you can view and read it.


Why So Many Errors In Restore?

I got sort of excited when I first saw the number of errors reported. There was a list of 86 errors in the restore process. On closer examination I reasoned it out-every error had the same message. An example is:

D38(D438,1) - C:\Program Files\Accessories\BACKUP.EXE ...

A file is needed that is in use by another program. Quit all programs not currently needed, and then try again.

This made sense to me. The BACKUP.EXE file was in use, so the Restore would not overwrite it. The same was true for VGASYS.FON, SND16.DRV and so on for the rest of the 86 files in use. The MS-DOS Restore probably did the same thing, but did not inform me of it.

Another thought-If a file was corrupted or missing, it would not have loaded to begin with. Then, Restore would have overwritten it without an error message.

Oh No!-More-Bigger Errors

I decided to do something different. I backed up Drive F: which has 155 files [58.6 Megabytes] on it, then immediately restored the files to their original locations. I selected "Overwrite All Files". It restored all of the files without any error messages because none of the files were in use [document files, spreadsheets, bitmaps and so on.]

I restored the files again, but this time I selected "Overwrite Older Files Only".

This time I was shown a list of 155 [all of the files] error messages in Notepad. The following is an example of the typical error message:

408(4502,1) - F:\PPOINT\TEMPLATE\CLROVRHD\TROPICC.PPT ... An attempt to restore a file failed because the disk file is the same date or newer than the file being restored.

Notepad Cannot Handle The Load

The Error messages for the 155 files described above produced a LOG file that was 25Kb in size. Notepad will only handle a file size of 64Kb maximum. This worked fine in this instance.

When I tried my first backup restore on drive C: which contains all of my program files, I selected Overwrite Older Files Only. At that time Drive C: had about 3,700 files on it. As you can easily see, the number of error messages was 3,700. This produced a file size of about 590,000 bytes or more than Notepad could handle. The result was that Notepad could not open, which in turn frustrated and confused Windows 95. An error message came up something like the Backup Program might have to be reloaded.

I acknowledged the error message and everything was fine. I did however have to delete the 590,000 byte file that was dumped into the C:\WINDOWS\TEMP directory.

Wanna Dance The DOS e DOS One More Time?

I thought to myself-let's backup and restore from MS-DOS Backup one more time for old times sake. I know that the literature says that the new Windows 95 version of Microsoft Backup does not support restoring backup sets created by MS-DOS version 6.x backup utilities.

The literature also says that some tape backup software, may not recognize long filenames as used by Windows 95 and may destroy the long filename entries in the FAT. However, the corresponding system defined 8 dot 3 filename will be preserved so there is no loss of data if the long filename entry is destroyed.

Backup and Restore Drive F: Using MS-DOS

This drive contains document, spreadsheet, bitmap and text files. It does not contain any program files or files of the 8 dot 3 filename variety. The MS-DOS Backup of these files went smoothly and I had a good backup set. I then restored the backup and that went smoothly. It replaced all of the missing files that I had purposely removed. The MS-DOS Restore and the Windows 95 Restore worked the same on files with the normal 8 dot 3 filenames.

I then started the Windows 95 backup and tried to restore the same MS-DOS backup file. The Restore program would not allow me to highlight or select that backup file. However, I had another backup file of the same files that were backed up using Windows 95 Backup. I could highlight that file and proceed to the next step. The backup program was preventing me from getting into trouble.

Backup And Restore Drive C: Using MS-DOS

This drive has all of my program files on it. It has Windows 95, and MS-Office 95 plus all of the other goodies. This added up to a lot of long filenames.

I had already backed up the entire contents of Drive C: using Windows 95 Backup and had practiced restoring individual files and the entire Drive C: so I knew that I had a decent backup file.

I then backed up Drive C: using the MS-DOS backup. Everything went smoothly and I had a good backup set. Before I used the system for anything else I Restored the files. Again, everything went smoothly and the Restore was completed.

What A Mess!!!

Everything was truncated with tildes. I should hav~ listen~ to Microso~ advic~ an~ no~ use~ the MS-DOS Restore for a drive that contains long filenames. Everything was still there and worked fine. The only problem was that I had no idea what was going to start when I clicked on it. It was like tearing off all of the labels on canned goods. The veggies are still there, but try to find a can of pea soup. Some examples are:
Micros~1 for Microsoft Money
Micros~2 for Microsoft Multimedia
Micros~3 for Microsoft Office
Worlda~1 for World Atlas MPC
Valuem~1 for Value Media Audio

How Do I Straighten Out This Mess?

I was lucky. I reloaded Windows 95, then restored the backup file that I had previously made using Windows 95 Backup. When I was preparing to restore the files I looked for someplace where I could change the wording of the restore option to-Please Overwrite All Files, but I didn't need to. By restoring the backup files, I was able to regain all of my personal settings so the appearance was the way I wanted it.

Final Farewell

I bid farewell to MS-DOS and said that I would not B:\BACKUP anymore and also thanked her for this last C:\Disk-o-dance. It has been good knowing you.

Discussion

Now that I better understand how the new Windows 95 Backup and Restore work, I am very well pleased with it. If you have a Tape Back up, chances are pretty good that the software program is still using the MS-DOS system of backup and restore.

One suggestion of how to see if it works is to create a small directory with a long file name, Add several files to it and give them long names. You can then back up and restore that small directory and find out if it restores the long or short file names. Using this method will not mess up your entire system.

Windows 95 Backup also has a feature where you can allow it to re-detect a tape drive. If it detects one it will try to configure it for you. If it can't it will advise you so.

Ed Stroiwas


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