Re: How to set up a boot CD with RSJ ?

On Sat, 1 Dec 2007 01:25:57 UTC, Peter Brown
<losepeteSPAM-ME-NOT@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi Lars

Lars Erdmann wrote:
Hi,

I blew my OS/2 partition (see my note in comp.os.os2.bugs). Getting smarter
with the errors I have made I now plan to backup my OS/2 partition on a
hopefully regular basis.
Can someone give me a hint of how I can create a boot CD that has a CD
burning program (RSJ or other) so that I can backup my OS/2 partition ?


Create a Bootable CD http://www.xs4all.nl/~hrbaan/bootAble/index.html

Highly recommended, but get the WarpIn installer version, so you also
get my CONFIG MAKER, to guide you through building a config file. I
also suggest using a CD-RW, until you get it set up the way that you
want it. It will take a number of tries, to get it right. (simply
because there are so many options).

Add whatever burning software you need - you may have to work out the
"how to add the required software" bit though :-)

That could be a problem, since you really do need to keep the bootAble
CD in the drive, while it is running. You would need a second drive to
do the backup burning. BootAble does have a feature to make a small
maintenance partition, if you can free up about 300 meg of disk space
for it. With a little work, you may also be able to make a maintenance
partition on something like a USB drive.

If you succeed you may want to submit the configuration file for the
software used for inclusion with future releases of Bootable.

Use the existing config files, as a guide to how to make new config
files. DO NOT change the bootAble.cfg file, unless you really know
what you are doing. User config files always replace whatever is in
bootAble.cfg.

....snip...
2] Bootable already has a configuration file for BackAgain/2000 and
includes UDF file system support so if you have a dvd burner and some
dvd RW discs you could use BA to backup to UDF formatted dvd RW.

I guess you could use CDRW but dvds store more and, not sure if this is
just my systems, UDF seems to work better/quicker/more reliably with dvd
RW/RAM.

Just an observation about using UDF. It seems that writing a single
(or only a couple of) file, once a week, or so, is not a problem. You
WILL, however, have a major problem if you copy a few thousand files
to a UDF disk. RW media (both CD, and DVD), has a limited life
expectancy (for example, 1000 writes). If you copy 1000 files to a UDF
drive, it will write the directory area, 1000 times (it may actually
not be quite that bad, but...). Try to write one more file, and the
disk is beyond it's life expectancy, and can fail (again, it is not
really that bad, but that gives you an ide of how UDF can end up
losing your valuable data). I gave up on using UDF for backups (and,
almost everything else) because the media just won't stand up to
continued usage.

Have Fun :-)

Pete

Or are there better alternatives (partition imaging program ?) What do I
have to look out for if I use a partition imaging program ? I have heard
that there are issues with LVM volumes (non compatibility volumes), drive
letters etc.

No issues, at all, as long as you use the proper program. That program
is DFSEE:

http://www.dfsee.com/dfsee/

It knows all about JFS, and LVM volumes, and it is far more useful
than just making images of partitions, or whole disks. The major
drawback with making partition image backups, is that you cannot
recover a single file, or directory. It is all, or nothing. DFSEE also
comes in a form that can be booted from CD, or even floppy diskette
(it is actually FREEDOS, but DFSEE can still handle eCS system data
properly).

Personally, what I do (actually "did", I recently solved the whole
problem, in a better way - more later), is use backAgain/2000 to make
backup files on my hard disk, then I burn them to DVD (AudioCDCreator,
or RSJ, can do that, but I also wrote my own front end to CDRECORD,
and DVDDAO, to do the writing - sorry, not ready for distribution,
yet). Since I have lots of hard disk space, I also leave the backups
on the hard disk, for any day to day requirements (dyslexic fingers do
cause problems every once in a while). BackAgain/2000 works just fine
for backing up a running system, as long as you don't have anything
else running, but it also works from a maintenance partition, or from
a botAble CD, or DVD. Unfortunately, it is no longer available, and it
does have some severe limitations, in todays world of super large
files, and disks (input, and output, files must be less than 2 GiB, or
you will have trouble).

My better way? I just got a Maxtor 200 GiB USB disk (good sale). I,
probably, should have got a NAS (Network Attached Storage) disk, which
is essentially the same thing, except it attaches to the network,
rather than to USB, but that is harder to find, and probably costs
more. A network attachment is a LOT faster than USB 2.0. Now, it
doesn't matter how many times I write to any one area of the disk,
because it is a real hard disk, which is designed to handle that. I am
still using BackAgain/2000 to create some backup files, but I am also
using DSync 1.6z (basically a smart XCOPY, which could also be used),
to copy files that I want backed up, to the Maxtor drive. I went
looking for the DSync program, today, and either the site is down, or
it has folded up, and gone away. There is a description, and two (not
responding) links, at:

http://www.os2world.com/content/view/14452/2/

The Maxtor disk came formatted NTFS, but a quick format to JFS fixed
that problem.

I haven't finalized the way that I will use that disk, yet, but it has
so much room, that I am sure that I can do pretty much what I want
with it. The "problem" is, that USB 2.0 is pretty slow, and, while USB
1.1 works, it would be almost hopeless to try to use it with massive
amounts of data. My Maxtor USB drive, is 200 GiB, but there are newer
models, that are much larger, if you need the space, and the price is
not too bad, if you watch the sales (which are pretty common, at this
time of year). There are also other brands of drives, that probably
will work just as well. I also haven't tried to make the drive
bootable, but that will happen, one of these days.

Thanks for any help,
Lars

Hope this helps...
--
From the eComStation 2.0 RC2 of Doug Bissett
dougb007 at telus dot net
(Please make the obvious changes, to e-mail me)

.

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