^C^1FASTBACK Version 5.03

^CPublished by:  Fifth Generation Systems
^CBaton Rouge, Louisiana

^CReviewed by:  Joel Ellis Rea

   Scenario:  Friday evening.  Database.  You have spent a good, hard week
entering an enormous mailing list for that mass mailing to go out Monday.  You
only have 12 more names to enter, and are writing the last few changes out to
your hard disk, when suddenly a minor earthquake hits (a common occurrence in
California).  Things slide around a little, but no other damage occurs.  Or so
you think.  But it later becomes apparent that the read/write heads of your hard
disk were among the things that were sliding about.  While WRITING, no less.
Oops, kiss THAT file goodbye, and maybe other files as well.

   Perhaps an earthquake while writing seems a little farfetched.  How about
instead just being one of the unlucky ones who trusted IBM with that now infam-
ous 20-Megabyte IBM PC-AT hard drive?  Or maybe you forgot to "park" the hard
disk heads one day and the building janitor was a little rough with your com-
puter desk while vacuuming?  I think you get the picture.  While most hard disks
are rather durable, they do have the problem of being fixed in place, rather
than like removable and interchangeable floppy disks.

   The only safe and sane way to prepare for the worst with your hard disk data
is to perform regular and reliable backups, and keep the backups in a safe
place.  Every MS-DOS computer comes with two programs called "BACKUP" and "RE-
STORE," which let the user make backup copies of their hard disk contents to
floppy disks, and, should the dread event occur, restore the files.

   The problem is that the MS-DOS BACKUP and RESTORE commands are slow and clum-
sy.  So much so that many hard disk users would rather spend hundred$ of buck$
to get hardware backup devices such as tape cartridge drives.  While these are
far better than any floppy-based backup system, they are quite expensive, both
in the initial purchase and in obtaining media for the backups down the road.

   With FASTBACK, Fifth Generation Systems has provided a software solution to
the backup problem.  FASTBACK consists of three programs, "FINSTALL", "FASTBACK"
and "FRESTORE".  FINSTALL installs all three to your hard disk.  FASTBACK
replaces BACKUP, and FRESTORE replaces RESTORE.

   FINSTALL copies the three programs from the distribution floppy to the hard
disk, then it determines your hardware configuration.  It can support 180K,
360K, 720K and 1.2M floppy drives. Finally, it performs a thorough diagnostic of
your vital Direct Memory Access (DMA) controller chip which handles data
transfers to and from memory.  It does this because FASTBACK and FRESTORE
require a fully functioning DMA chip, and many DMA chips have a flaw that is not
detected by other diagnostic programs.  This test alone may be worth the price
of FASTBACK, since a flawed DMA chip may cause serious problems -- problems
which might otherwise have been blamed on static electricity, power surges, RF
interference, etc.  If this test fails, FASTBACK and FRESTORE must operate in a
slower mode.

   FASTBACK asks five questions.  Pressing [RETURN] for each question backs up
every file on the hard disk, from all subdirectories, whether or not they have
been changed since the last backup.  This is called a "master" backup.  You can
specify which drive and subdirectory to back up, whether to backup subdirecto-
ries of that subdirectory, and specify a wild-card file name for the backup. You
can also tell FASTBACK to ignore files which haven't changed since the last
backup.  This is useful for "incremental" (partial) backups.  Unlike MS-DOS
BACKUP, you cannot ask that only files modified after a specific date be backed
up.

   Once this is done, FASTBACK asks for backup disks to be inserted.  While
waiting for disks to be inserted, FASTBACK is busy reading the selected files
from the hard disk until it fills all unused system RAM.  As soon as a good
backup disk (formatted or not) is inserted and the drive door closed, FASTBACK
starts writing the files to the floppy.  It formats as it writes unless the disk
has previously been formatted by FASTBACK.  FASTBACK uses its own format, which
can pack up to 500K of data onto a standard 360K disk.  Other drives experience
similar storage increases.  FASTBACK claims backup speeds of up to 10 Megabytes
in eight minutes on a standard PC, but this assumes the floppies have previously
been formatted by FASTBACK.  Using 360K disks, FASTBACK writes one track every
second if the floppy was not previously formatted, and two tracks per second if
the floppy was previously formatted.  A 40-track 360K floppy can therefore be
completely filled in 20 seconds.  Since it can hold up to 500K, it is easy to
see just how quickly a hard disk can be backed up.

   Most of the delays are caused by the time taken for the operator to switch
disks.  This delay can be completely eliminated in systems which have two floppy
drives.  In that case, FASTBACK automatically starts using the other floppy
drive when the floppy in the current drive is full.  You can then place a new
floppy in the idle drive while FASTBACK is filling the floppy in the other
drive.

   FRESTORE is the program used to restore or verify backups.  It is much more
friendly than FASTBACK.  FRESTORE lets you scroll through a listing of files
backed up, individually or by subdirectory, and select files to verify or
restore.  You can also search for files by name.  FRESTORE prompts you for the
number of the particular floppy which contains the backup of the particular
file, so that (unlike MS-DOS RESTORE) you do not need to go through the whole
backup stack to get one file back.

   FRESTORE also performs another helpful function which can be a real life-
saver.  If minor damage has occurred to a backup track after the backup was
written, FRESTORE can very likely reconstruct the missing data.  To test this, I
backed up a subdirectory to a floppy, then put a staple in the floppy.  I then
removed the staple, and verified the backup against the original.  It took a
while to reconstruct the data, but it all verified correctly.  To say the least,
I was astounded.  Fifth Generation Systems claims you can even use a hole
puncher or a .45 Magnum on your disk, and FRESTORE can still recover it.  I
didn't try that myself, but the staple experiment convinced me that FASTBACK
does enough to allow considerably more peace-of-mind than MS-DOS's BACKUP/
RESTORE system or any other floppy-based backup program I have yet seen.

   As a whole, the FASTBACK system is well thought out and works as advertised.
Plusses:  User friendliness (especially in FRESTORE), flexibility in FRESTORE,
thorough DMA controller chip diagnostics, Error Checking and Correcting (ECC)
data protection, and the fact that the latest version is not copy-protected.
Minuses:  lack of backup by date capability in FASTBACK, less flexibility in
FASTBACK (cannot pick files and/or subdirectories from a list to back up, for
instance) and the fact that it will not operate correctly in the 8MHz (Turbo)
modes of many PC and XT compatibles.  While it can be adjusted for a PC-AT or
compatible, I don't know if it can run on an 80386-based machine.  Try it before
you buy.

   Is FASTBACK worth the suggested list price of $175?  To quote Stan Laurel,
"it certainly is."
