Re: Trying to backup FOCUS.1 with Archiver (fwd)

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

James OReilly writes ...
> 
> I have experienced difficulty trying to backup my FOCUS.1 hard drive using
> Archiver.  If anyone has the patience to wade through my sad story below,
> and has any suggestions, I'd appreciate their remarks.
> 
> I booted from the FOCUS.1 hard disk.
> 
> I formatted a 3.5" floppy which I named :untitled, and put it in the 3.5"
> disk drive (slot 5, drive 1).
> 
> I looked at memory under the Control Panel before I began.  RAM Disk and
> RAM Cache were both at 0K.  Memory in use was 1053K, Available memory
> 4194K (for a total of 5247K RAM), and the maximum block size was 3922K.
> 
> I then exited the Control Panel, back to the GS/OS System 6.0.1 main
> screen.
 ....

> The following screen had a thermometer and said "Backing up volume
> date...", but the thermometer remained empty, and was replaced quickly by
> a blank blue screen.  There was no indication of any activity and the
> lights on the disk drives remained off.  After about 10 minutes I hit
> <Ctl>-<OA>-<Reset> and there appeared briefly on the screen the error
> message:
> 
> Detected trashed memory or (less likely) bad RAM.  Error $
> 
> I hope I captured the whole message as it disappeared quickly.  I had to
> repeat the whole process to document it.
> 
> At the suggestion of a friend, I have run Archiver again, from a 3.5"
> floppy drive, and with an 800K RAM Disk, with the same results.
> 
> Do you have any idea what has happened?
 ....

     Only guesses. It looks like something messed up Memory Manager.

     Assuming RAM is okay and that the Archiver program does not have a serious
bug, perhaps some CDA or NDA (stuff in the SYSTEM/DESK.ACCS folder) or an Init
you are loading is causing a problem. You could try using Archiver after a
Shift-boot.

     Another possibility: from your description it is not clear that, when you
started Archive, you had a stable memory setup. When you modify the RAM Memory
setting for RAM Disk from the old CDA Control Panel, Min and Max RAM Disk size
should be the same. Also, you need to power down the computer, and, after a
brief wait, turn it ON again to have the changed RAM setup fully recognized.

     For just a change to Cache Size, it seems like a good idea to restart GS/OS
and the Finder. Rebooting is a way to do this.


     On the other hand, you could reconsider doing a full backup. Backing up
even just 6MB is time consuming. Since you will immediately start adding new
files and changing others, a full backup is not all that useful. Besides, if one
of your archive diskettes should become corrupted, you may find it very
difficult to restore the contents of non-corrupted disks in the set.

     The most useful and easiest way to back up a hard disk volume is to use
GS-ShrinkIt to save the files you can not easily replace on diskette. Since each
of these-- for example, projects in Appleworks files-- can quickly be updated,
you are more likely to have reasonably up-to-date backups.

     Along with the above, you want to have a diskette-bootable copy of Sys
6.0.1 with at least GS-ShrinkIt on the disk, a set of Sys 6.0.1 Install
diskettes, and bootable ProDOS 8 diskettes with utilities like Copy II+
v7.1-8.3, ShrinkIt v3.4, DSK2FILE, Block Warden, and a telecom program.

     Basically, you want to be able to boot enough of a system to
reformat/repartition the hard disk, reinstall Sys 6.0.1, and restore the games,
data bases, etc. you have saved to diskette.



Rubywand