



                                   What Tape Back-up?
                                   __________________





                                   What Tape Back-up?

                             A Tape Back-up Tracking System

                        Copyright (c) 1991, 1992, Angel Babudro
                                  All rights reserved.





          I.    DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    1

          II.   COPYRIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    1

          III.  LICENSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    1

          IV.   TECHNICAL SUPPORT (HOW TO REACH ME) . . . . . . . . . . .    1

          V.    GENERAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    2

          VI.   FILE LIST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    3

          VII.  WHY USE WTB?  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    3

          VIII. What Tape Back-up? COMMAND LINE OPTIONS . . . . . . . . .    3
                A. Specifying the Number of Tape Sets . . . . . . . . . .    4
                B. Specifying a Range of Hard Disk Drives . . . . . . . .    4
                   1. With disk statistics (/D) . . . . . . . . . . . . .    4
                   2. Without disk statistics (/N)  . . . . . . . . . . .    4
                C. Using Other Tape Software (/T) . . . . . . . . . . . .    4
                D. Backing-up Modified Files Only (/M)  . . . . . . . . .    5
                E. Appending to the End of a Tape (/A)  . . . . . . . . .    5
                F. Command-line Examples  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    5

          IX.   USING What Tape Back-up?  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    6
                A. Go . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    6
                B. Cancel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    6
                C. Verify . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    6
                D. Set-up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    6
                E. Selecting Tape Sets  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    7

          X.    REGISTERING What Tape Back-up?  . . . . . . . . . . . . .    7







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                                   What Tape Back-up?
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          I.    DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY

                By  using this  software and  documentation ("WTB")  you  must
          accept this disclaimer of warranty:

                WTB is provided "as is" without any warranties or  conditions,
          expressed  or  implied,   including,  but  not  limited  to,   those
          concerning  merchantability and  fitness for  a particular  purpose.
          By  using  WTB,  you  are  expressly  releasing  the  author,  Angel
          Babudro, from any liability resulting from  the use of this software
          and documentation.   You must assume the  entire risk of  using WML.
          Please test and supervise WML thoroughly before relying on it.


          II.   COPYRIGHT

                WTB is  owned and  copyright (c)  1989-1992 by  Angel Babudro,
          all rights reserved.   You may only use and/or distribute WTB  under
          the License terms below.


          III.  LICENSE

                1.   WTB  is  being distributed  as  Freeware.   There  is  no
          registration fee  and you  are licensed to  use it for  an unlimited
          time.

                2. You may keep as  many backup copies of WTB as you wish  and
          you may  run WTB simultaneously  on as many  computers as you  like.
          You  are granted the right to share WTB with  others, as long as you
          distribute the original  files exactly  as you  received them,  with
          all associated files included.

                3. Under  no circumstances may you  charge any  fee or receive
          any  other form  of  consideration  for distributing  the WTB  files
          without express  written consent  from the  copyright holder,  Angel
          Babudro, other  than to  charge a  fee of  not more  than US$6  (six
          dollars) for the media and/or service of distribution.


          IV.   TECHNICAL SUPPORT (HOW TO REACH ME)

                Gripes,  moans,  wails,  throes,  and  throngs  are   promptly
          rejected, but all other types of  communications & modest crowds are
          graciously accepted (and thank goodness for that!).

                I  can be  reached  via  mail or  BBS.   The  BBSs below  have
          current versions of all of my software and I will get messages  left
          there for me.  Unless you are in  dire straits, please write  rather
          than telephone with questions about WTB - my  business is selling my

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                                   What Tape Back-up?
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          time so  it's hard on  my future to  give it away  for free; if  you
          must phone  then  please  be  kind &  send  a  little green  my  way
          (perhaps by registering one of my  other software packages, such  as
          What Mailing List?).  Thank you for your understanding.
          __________________

                  Mail   Angel   Babudro,    "Organic   Computer    Wizardry",
                         28 Mulberry Street, Clinton, NY USA 13323-1506
                         (315) 853-6942 Monday-Friday 9am-5pm Eastern Time

                   BBS   Angelo Babudro
            West Coast   Researcher's BBS, So Cal (805) 949-8151  USR HST DS
            East Coast   Nite-Air BBS, Central NY (315) 339-8831 USR HST 14.4


          V.   GENERAL

               What  Tape Back-up?  (WTB)  helps  you manage  sets of  back-up
          tapes for  multiple hard disk  partitions.  It  might be helpful  to
          use WTB with a single partition (C:), but  it's when you've got more
          of those  suckers out  there that  it really  shines.  I've  got six
          partitions, C: through H:,  and I used to hate backing them up  one-
          by-one or  trying to  develop a  batch file  that was  sophisticated
          enough  to  handle  every  twist  I  dreamed  up  (like  my rotating
          verification idea).  So I wrote WTB.

               WTB is provided with  the commands for CMS Jumbo 2.5, CMS Jumbo
          2.54, and  Mountain 5.x software.   If you have  other tape software
          you can configure WTB  to work with it  quite easily using  an ASCII
          text editor  or just about  any word processor  that can edit  ASCII
          text.

               To use WTB you will need:

               * PC with MS/PC-DOS 3.3 or higher
               * About 256k of  free memory (the more the better,  since most
                 tape  software  will  use  it  as  a  buffer  to  speed   up
                 operations).
               * Monochrome or colour monitor
               * A tape drive
               * CMS Jumbo 2.5x  or Mountain 5.x tape software or  some other
                 tape software which can be controlled via batch

               WTB  stores  your  configuration  within  the  executable  file
          WTB.EXE.   In order  to do  this, WTB.EXE  must remain  in its  full
          size,  unmodified by  such things  as  LZEXE  (which is  otherwise a
          wonderful product) or PKLite (a similar product).





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                                   What Tape Back-up?
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          VI.  FILE LIST

               The following  files comprise the  complete What Tape  Back-up?
          package:

               * WTB.EXE -- the executable (programme) file
               * WTB.WP -- WordPerfect document file
               * WTB.TXT -- ASCII document file
               * WTB.CMD - tape software command file
               * FKEY.LST -- a support file
               * ORDER.FRM -- order form for all of my products
               * FILE_ID.DIZ  & DESC.SDI  -- Description  files for  BBSs.  You
                 can delete these from your  hard disk, but  please distribute
                 them with any copies of WTB you share


          VII. WHY USE WTB?

               I wrote What  Tape Back-up? as  a way  to manage  and track  my
                       ___________________
          sets  of  back-up tapes.   Although  most  tape software  (including
          Mountain and CMS)  have an  automatic scheduling feature, this  does
          not help  in tracking which  tape was last  used, the  dates of each
          back-up, and  whether or not the  tapes were  verified for accuracy.
          Besides this, I believe that making it simple helps to get it  done.
          I'd've sooner  cared to  stub my  toe than  remember manual  back-up
          procedures for 200Mb of grey matter in electronic form...

               What Tape Back-up? makes  things simple.  Set  it up once,  put
               __________________
          it in your computer's  menu, and run once a day or whenever you feel
          you need a back-up tape.


          VIII.     What Tape Back-up? COMMAND LINE OPTIONS

               To use  WTB with  default values just  type, "wtb"  at the  DOS
          prompt.   In a  few seconds  three windows  will appear:   One  with
          statistics about  your disk drives (the  Disk Window), another  with
          statistics about  your back-up  tape set  (the Tape  Window), and  a
          third with information on how the  current back-up will be performed
          (the Back-up Window).

                    Note:   I refer  to "sets"  of tapes  because many people,
               like  myself, use more than  one tape per  back-up.  I strongly
               recommend  using at least  three sets  of back-up  tapes.  This
               way if  the worst  possible case  happens --  your system  goes
               down will making a  back-up -- you will have other tape  copies
               from which to retrieve your data.

               WTB has the following command-line syntax:


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                                   What Tape Back-up?
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                      WTB [#oftapes] [/Dxy] [/Nxy] [/T] [/A] [/M]

                    Note:   DOS command-line options  are NOT case  sensitive.
               You can use upper- or lower-case letters as you wish.

               A. Specifying the Number of Tape Sets

               If you use  more than one set of tapes to back-up (use at least
          three sets  of tapes!)  use the  command "WTB  x" where  "x" is  the
          number of  tapes you use.   For example,  "WTB 4"  would manage four
          sets of tapes.

               B. Specifying a Range of Hard Disk Drives

                    1. With disk statistics (/D)

                    You may only want to back-up a certain  range of hard disk
               drives rather than all  of your drives.  Say, for example,  you
               have hard disk drives  C: through J: and  a CD-ROM as  drive H:
               You will  only want  to back-up  C: through  J: since H:  is in
               little danger  of being  lost.    To do  this, use  the  "/Dxy"
               option  where "x"  and "y"  are the  first  and last  drives to
               back-up to  tape.  For example,  "/Dcj" will  back-up drives C:
               through J:

                    2. Without disk statistics (/N)

                    You may wish to bypass the  Disk Window, especially if you
               have a large system  (such as a network) with a large number of
               logical drive letters or ridiculously large amounts of  storage
               (if so, I'm  jealous!).  To turn  the drive statistics off, use
               the /N option followed by the  first and last (contiguous) disk
               drive letters you  wish to back-up.   For example, if  you have
               drives C: through J: on your system and  you want to bypass the
               Disk Window, use, "WTB /Ncj".

               C. Using Other Tape Software (/T)

                    You may  wish to bypass the  tape back-up  function of WTB
               and use it only  to display disk statistics and prompt for  the
               tape to use.  If you already have a batch file that works  well
               you might choose this route.

                    Use "WTB /T" and WTB will end  after the tape selection is
               made, passing  the Tape Set Number  to DOS  via the ERRORLEVEL.
               This way you can have a batch file  which calls WTB then checks
               the errorlevel  to see which tape  set to use (if errorlevel ==
               2, that means to use set 2, etc.).



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               D. Backing-up Modified Files Only (/M)

                    The default  back-up mode for WTB is a full back-up of all
               drives.   Periodically you may wish  to only  back-up the files
               which have changed since your last  full back-up since this  is
               normally much  faster than doing  a full back-up.   To  do this
               use the /M  command.  For example,  "WTB /dcj /m" will  back-up
               only  the files that have changed on drives C: through J: since
               the last time a full back-up was made.

               E. Appending to the End of a Tape (/A)

                    Normally WTB will over-write the  data on the tape(s) with
               the new back-up information since locating  the end of tape  is
               such a  time-consuming process.  If  you don't  have many tapes
               or your tape drive  is faster than mine  at finding the  end of
               top, you can append  the new information  to the end of a  tape
               use the  "/A" option.   For example, "WTB  /M /A" will  back-up
               modified  files only and put  the information at the end of the
               tape.

               F. Command-line Examples

                    To illustrate use of the options,  let's say you have disk
               drives C:  through R:, you don't  want the  system to calculate
               statistics on all 16  drives, you use  5 sets of back-up  tapes
               (one for each  day of the  week), and  you use something  other
               than CMS or Mountain software.  In your batch file do this:

                    WTB 5 /ncr /t
                    if errorlevel 99 goto end
                    if errorlevel 5 goto TapeSet5
                    if errorlevel 4 goto TapeSet4
                    ...etc...

                    Note:   An errorlevel of  99 indicates that  "Cancel"
               was selected  from  the WTB  menu  or  that a  tape  error
               occurred.

                    Or, let's say you have drives C: through R: but only  want
               to back-up  C: through F:, you  want hard  disk statistics, you
               use  5  sets  of  tapes,  and you  have  CMS  or Mountain  tape
               software.  Just use:

                    WTB 5 /dcf

               and WTB will perform the complete back-up for you.




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                                   What Tape Back-up?
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          IX.  USING What Tape Back-up?

               Once you enter  the command  "WTB" along with any  command-line
          options,  several  windows  will  open  showing  you  the  operating
          environment  and a  menu of options at  the top of the  screen.  You
          can press the highlighted  (first) letter for each  option or use  a
          mouse to select the options.

               A. Go

                    This option begins the back-up as specified.

               B. Cancel

                    This cancels the back-up and returns you to DOS.

               C. Verify

                    This  toggles the verify flag  on and off.  When verify is
               "on"  the  tape(s)  will  be  verified  after  the  back-up  is
               complete.  When "off" only a back-up will be done.

                    Because  verifying a  tape  doubles the  back-up  time,  I
               found it more convenient (and virtually  as safe) to verify  my
               tapes on  a rotating basis.  If you use four  tapes (like I am)
               and you verify tape  #1, then tape #4 will next be scheduled to
               be verified, then tape  #3, then #2, then #1, then back to  #4.
               This way all tapes  are verified on a  regular basis.   I found
               that  by saving  time this  way  I was  less tempted  to  avoid
               verifying at all (or even, heaven forbid, backing-up at all!).

               D. Set-up

                    The set-up  screen defines how WTB  will operate.   To set
               an  item, move the  cursor (using  the keyboard  arrow keys) to
               the item you want to change then press F3.

                    When you press F3 on the  Tape Software field you  will be
               presented with  a  menu of  choices.    These choices  are  the
               software packages  which are in the  WTB.CMD file.   WTB.CMD is
               an  ASCII file  which you can  look at and  edit yourself using
               any ASCII  text  editor.   I  have put  commands  in there  for
               Mountain 5.x  and Jumbo  2.5  &  2.54 software  - if  you  have
               someting  else, just look  inside the  file for instructions on
               how to add your tape's commands.

                    The second field is  the type of tape you use.  WTB really
               doesn't need to know this except  for predicting how many tapes
               you  will  need  for  the  back-up.    This  prediction  is not
               accurate  if you  use  compression  (such  as  with  the  Jumbo

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                                   What Tape Back-up?
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               software) which can double amount of information crunched  onto
               a tape.   In  any case,  just press  F3 to get  a list  of tape
               types and select the type you will be using.

                    The next  item is  the number  of  tape sets  you will  be
               using.    You  use  a  tape  drive  in  case  of  some  far-off
               unforeseen  disaster  that  may  never  happen,  and  the  most
               expensive  piece was the tape  drive.  Splurge and get at least
               three  sets  of  tapes  -  you might  be  really  glad you  did
               someday.   I have seven  sets and I  actually have  gone back a
               couple of back-ups to retrieve a  file that somehow got  erased
               from my hard  disk.  You may be  just as grateful for  multiple
               tape sets someday!

                    Finally  is the field  for the  back-up method.   WTB does
               not yet use this  field.  I have  not had the  encouragement to
               develop this  feature to completion  (exactly zero people  have
               contacted me with  comments about WTB;  maybe I'm  just writing
               to myself?...)  Anyhow,  the idea of this  field is to  let you
               decide HOW you  want to rotate your  tapes: in a linear fashion
               (#1,  #2, #3,  etc.  then back  to #1,  #2,  etc.) or  using  a
               Father/Son/Grandfather scheme which uses ten tapes to give  you
               a  three-month back-up  history (four  daily tapes  for  Monday
               through Thursday, four Friday tapes, and two month-end tapes).

               E. Selecting Tape Sets

                    In  the Tape Window you will see an  arrow pointing to the
               tape set  to be  used (this  is, of  course, a  recommendation,
               since you are  the one who must put  the proper tape(s) in  the
               drive!).   WTB recommends the tape  set following  the last set
               used  (which is normally the  oldest set).   In other words, it
               rotates the back-up tapes.

                    If you  want to use  a different tape  set, use the  arrow
               keys to move the pointer between the available tape sets.


          X.   REGISTERING What Tape Back-up?

               I  am not  asking for  any money for  the registration  of WTB.
          This is my way  of giving back  to all the authors who  have donated
          their  labour  to  the  public  domain.   Letters  of  appreciation,
          suggestions, or criticism are always welcome.   If you would like to
          support  me look at ORDER.FRM  for other software from  which I _am_
          hoping to derive some financial reward  (use "type order.frm >  prn"
          to print it).




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