(Excerpts from a message dated 09-07-99, Kenneth Abrams to Murray
Lesser)

HiKen--

 ML>     Not true.  I use OS/2's BACKUP and RESTORE utilities for backup to
 ML> Zip diskettes.  I can restore part or all of the backed-up partition
 ML> to any partition by properly specifying the RESTORE command.  The only
 ML> restriction is that the restored files(s) must be placed in a
 ML> directory having the same name as the original directory.

KA>And heaven help you if you forget what that original directory name
  >was, because those utilities certainly aren't. The one and only
  >time I've ever used them, was to place some game archives larger
  >than a single floppy on disks. A year or two later, I was going to
  >restore them on a friends machine (took along OS/2 boot floppies as
  >well) that I was working on, except I couldn't get them to restore.
  >After I got back home, I tried again. Several times. Until I finally
  >got lucky. I immediately relegated them to the same place I put
  >DOS's pair, in the "never use" category.

    I think you are confusing "backup" with "archive."  In my lexicon, a
"backup" is a copy of my current system (or part of it) for use in case
of system failure.  An "archive" is a record of some past system content
that I wished to save for possible later use.  I would never consider
using a backup utility to produce an archive record, and I wonder what
ever gave you the idea to try, especially since BACKUP does not compress
records.  The only virtue of BACKUP/RESTORE is that they will read all
the files to be backed up (including hidden/system files) and when
restored, all the original attributes (except the archive bit) will be
restored.  Unlike my backup files, my "archive" records (some of which
date from 1983) are kept either in "clear text" or (at most) as ZIP or
ARC files with a copy of the corresponding UNZIP (or UNARC) file on the
same diskette.  It doesn't matter what directory they came from.

    Since the backups are records of current contents of my hard drive,
there is no problem in knowing which directory the original was stored
on, since it still exists.  The "oldest" backup ZIP diskette I have was
written about three months ago: it was made the last time I wrote to the
partition that contains my compilers (I added a fixpak to the PL/I
compiler).  Thus, my backup diskettes represent current hard-drive
partitions, more-or-less as they currently exist.  They are replaced by
a new backup of the same partition whenever it seems to be a good idea
to do so.  (Copies of data files are updated as a portion of every
session in which those files are modified.  I suppose they can be
considered to be a form of backup in which I use XCOPY, rather than
BACKUP, to a diskette used only for that set of files,)

    Regards,

        --Murray

___
 * MR/2 2.25 #120 * Stay alive!  Learn something new every day.

--- Maximus/2 2.02