MSBACKUP--Notes

Must start MSBACKUP from a hard disk

MSBACKUP program files must be located on your hard disk. You cannot start
MSBACKUP from a floppy disk.

Backup catalogs

As part of the backup process, MSBACKUP creates a backup catalog that
contains information about the files you backed up. When you need to restore
one or more files, you can load the backup catalog and easily select files
from a backup set. The backup catalog includes information about the:

*  Backed-up disk's directory structure.

*  Names, sizes, and attributes of the directories and files that were
   selected.

*  Total number of files.

*  Total size of the backup.

*  Name of the setup file that was used.

*  Date the backup was made.

MSBACKUP gives each catalog file a unique name that helps you identify a
backup set. Each character in the catalog name contains information about a
particular backup set. For example, consider a typical catalog name such as
CD20823A.FUL. Reading left to right, the character(s) in the filename mean
the following:

Character(s)  Meaning


C             The first drive backed up in this set.

D             The last drive backed up in this set. (If only one drive was
              backed up, this letter will be the same as the first drive
              that was backed up.)

2             The last digit of the year, as determined by the system date.
              In the example, the year is 1992.

08            The month the backup set was created.

23            The day of the month the backup set was created.

A             The position in the sequence of this backup. If more than one
              backup of the same drive(s) is performed on the same day and
              the Keep Old Backup Catalogs option is set to On, MSBACKUP
              assigns a letter from A to Z to indicate the order in which
              the backups were performed (A is the first backup you created
              that day, B is the second, C the third, and so on). If the
              Keep Old Backup Catalogs option is set to Off, this alternates
              between A and B.

FUL           The backup type--FUL indicates a full backup, INC indicates an
              incremental backup, and DIF indicates a differential backup.

You can easily locate the catalog for a backup set by using the information
contained in the catalog filenames, even if you have many catalog files in
your directory.

Each time you perform a full backup using a specific setup file, MSBACKUP
creates a master catalog. The master catalog keeps track of all the backup
catalogs made during the backup cycle. When the next full backup is
performed and a new backup cycle begins, a new master catalog is created.

The master catalog is used if you need to restore a complete backup cycle.
When you load the master catalog, the catalogs of all the backups that were
created during the backup cycle are automatically merged. Then the latest
version of each backed-up file can be automatically restored (or you can
choose to restore an earlier version).

You can choose whether you want to keep all of the old catalogs or only the
current catalogs on your hard disk. The catalogs will remain part of your
backup sets.

When you back up files, MSBACKUP places one copy of the backup catalog on
your hard disk, and a second copy on the disk or network drive that contains
your backup set.

Restoring backups created by MS-DOS 6 or 6.2 Backup programs

MS-DOS 6.22 Backup uses a different backup compression format from MS-DOS 6
and 62. Backup. The MS-DOS 6.22 Backup programs use the DriveSpace
compression format; earlier versions of Backup used the DoubleSpace
compression format instead.

Because of this, MS-DOS 6.22 Backup for Windows cannot restore compressed
backups created by MS-DOS 6 or 6.2 Backup.

MS-DOS 6.22 Backup for MS-DOS can restore earlier compressed backups only if
one of the following conditions is true:

*  DoubleSpace is installed (DBLSPACE.BIN is loaded in memory).

*  The files DBLSPACE.BIN and DRVSPACE.MR1 are available. (For more
   information on DRVSPACE.MR1, see DBLSPACE--Notes.)

Both the Windows and MS-DOS versions of MS-DOS 6.22 Backup can successfully
restore MS-DOS 6, 6.2 and 6.21 backups made without backup data compression.
If you unchecked the Compress Backup Data box in the Backup Options dialog
before you backed up, you should have no problems restoring your data using
the MS-DOS 6.22 Backup programs.

If you try to restore an older compressed backup and Microsoft Backup
displays an error message, you need to use the MS-DOS 6 or 6.2 versions of
Backup instead. If you do not currently have one of these versions of Backup
on your computer, you will need to retrieve the older version of Backup from
your MS-DOS 6x distribution disks. For more information, see Section 5.5.

Restoring backups made by using the BACKUP.EXE program

Neither MSBACKUP.EXE nor MWBACKUP.EXE can restore backups made by using the
BACKUP.EXE program that came with MS-DOS version 5 and earlier. For
information about restoring such backups, see the <RESTORE> command.

Exchanging backups with MS-DOS 6, 6.2, or 6.21 systems

If you plan to use either MSBACKUP.EXE or MWBACKUP.EXE to exchange backup
files with other MS-DOS 6.x systems, you should disable backup compression
before backing up. In the Backup dialog, select the Options button, clear
the Compress Backup Data check box, and select OK.

Insufficient memory

If you receive a message stating that you have insufficient memory, do the
following:

1  Make sure you have at lease 512K of memory on your computer.

2  Quit MSBACKUP, remove all memory-resident programs from memory, and try
   using MSBACKUP again.

3  Choose the Options button on the Backup screen to display the Disk Backup
   Options dialog box. Turn off the Compress Backup Data option and then
   choose OK.

The MSDOSDATA environment variable

Backup for MS-DOS uses the MSDOSDATA environment variable to determine the
location of configuration information, backup sets, and catalogs. Backup for
MS-DOS first searches for the MSDOSDATA environment variable. If this
environment variable is not defined, the program searches the directory from
which you started the program. If the program does not find the file, the
program creates it using default values and places it in the directory.

The MSDOSDATA environment variable is useful if you share the Backup for
MS-DOS program files with others, but use your own configuration. For
example, suppose the program files are located on drive P, a
read-and-execute-only network server, and you want to use your own
configuration, backup sets, and catalogs. To specify that Backup for MS-DOS
use the configuration information, backup sets, and catalogs located in the
BACKUP directory on your drive C, add the following line to your
AUTOEXEC.BAT file:

        set msdosdata=c:\backup

To start Backup for MS-DOS, type the following at the command line:

        p:\msbackup

Changes you make to the configuration of Backup for MS-DOS are saved in the
BACKUP directory on drive C.