Readme for Dreckbak ver3.a Hard Disk Backup Utility (Donation-Ware, Not Freeware)
by Murray Weismer



REQUIREMENTS
No special hardware required. All you need is an OS/2 system and some
hard disk space on any device that has a drive letter!
There's no longer an excuse to have NO BACKUP.
Rexx is required if you use the optional installer.

OVERVIEW

Thank you for evaluating this simple backup solution. In my experience, many
computer users do not have a workable backup strategy, and in too many
cases, none at all. The enclosed program will help solve this problem with 
minimal expense and hassle. While neither elegant or sexy, it does the job.
It will back up in ZIP format to either a Hard Drive, or removable media, such
as an ORB or SyJet drive. It can also create the backups on the Hard disk
and copy it to another drive. (Removable media?)  I use this to back up my 3 
critical partitions daily and have been able to successfully restore my boot 
drive PAINLESSLY using the zip files created by this utility. You can also EASILY 
access any file in the archive using any program, or file manager, that can handle a zip file. 
(Yes Mr. OldDos, you can use the unzip command line) Quick and easy restores 
of specific files and directories are a snap.

LEGAL STUFF

This software is guaranteed to do nothing but take up disk space. Your system
may blow up, your drives may fry, your mate might run off with the
cable guy. (Sorry Jim) You might hit the lottery. None of it is not my fault!! You, the
user, assume all risk and responsibility for any damage or data loss to your
system. I will not be liable for anything as the result of your use of these 
files.
CHECK YOUR EDITING


I have no reason to expect that this utility will cause any damage of any kind,
but beware---- especially if you have no backup strategy!!

INSTALLATION
1) Copy the contents of this package to any temporary directory
2) Run INSTALL.CMD. It will create all of the program objects, including the main utilities,
	all of the DOCS, Editing objects, and the support site URL.
3) Install SCHEDB2.ZIP or a CRON program for scheduled, automatic backups
4) Open the DreckBak folder that was created on your desktop, and also open the DreckBak EDIT ME Folder
5) Double click on "Edit DreckBak.
6) Edit the "SET STATEMENTS" at the top of DreckBak.cmd to reflect your system setup.
	The settings there only affect DreckBak. 
	SET TEMP=f:\temp   (choose a directory on a drive with the most space)
           SET PATH=d:\ztb;d:\dreckbak; (you only need the path to DreckBak and ZIP)
           SET DPATH=d:\dreckbak (set to DreckBak) {no need to edit if you used the defaults in the install}
           SET BACKDIR=J:\FRESHBAK (Directory to keep you backup zips) {no need to edit as above}
           SET LOGDIR=D:\LOGS (Directory to store LOG files) {No need to edit as above}
           SET HOMEDIR=D:\DRECKBAK (Directory that DreckBak resides in) {No need to edit as above}
           SET BACKDRV=J: (Drive Letter only of BACKDIR above) {No need to edit as above}
           SET BACKDIR0=FRESHBAK (Directory name ONLY of BACKDIR above) {No need to edit.......}
           SET COPYDRV=K: (Drive letter to copy backups to - this is an optional feature, and not required)
           SET COPYDIR=FRESHBAK (Directory to copy backups to - optional feature)
           SET ZIPDIR=D:\ZTB (Location of ZIP.exe and UNZIP.exe) {No need to edit....etc}
7) After you are sure that all of the edits are correct, REM out the fifth 
            line of the file. This line was included to prevent you from running the
            program unedited.


8) Open the Properties (settings) notebook for the DRECKBAK program object.
	On the first page, on the Parameters line, enter the DRIVE LETTERS ONLY that you wish to back up.
	IE: F E C
	This will back up drives F, E, and C, in that order. You may enter up to 9 drives. Try to backup from largest
	to smallest.	
           If using the included SCHEDB2.ZIP, set the backup times and dates on the Schedule Page of the Properties Notebook.
9) Double Click the "Edit FreshBak" object and edit as described above.
10) If needed, edit "Edit test.lst" It is pre-configured to exclude unneeded files and directories for most systems. It is
	not necessary to remove any entries here. Invalid entries are ignored. You may add any files or directories
	that you wish to exclude from your backup.

I keep all of the package on my Maintenance Partition (Drive D), and have program objects both there, and on my main 
desktop (Drive E) as well. Be sure that ZIP.EXE and UNZIP.EXE are present on your system as well. The default location 
is d:\ZTB. You can choose any drives or directories to use, but you MUST edit the CMD files as described above
to reflect your choices. If you are going to use a CRON program to automate the backups, or if you use the 
included WPS extension, EBSCHED,  you can set the DreckBak object to start minimized. For best results, critical 
backups should be done from the maintenance partition to avoid any problems with opened files.
(I have successfully restored using an archive created from my main boot partition, but the GURU's say this is a 
No-No, so be advised.)
This utility will not abort the backup in this case, but will report that files could not be opened, post a warning 
in the warn log, and make some mild noises. 
I have the program objects on both the main boot partition, and the Maint partition pointing to the same files.


Be sure to also create these objects while booted to your maintenance partition by running INSTALL.CMD from
the DreckBak Directory. Just hit enter when it asks for the DreckBak directory.


Install SCHEDB2 for automation. Be sure to set the last page in the settings 
notebook for DrekBak.cmd for the schedule. I have been unable to contact
the author of SCHEDB2 in over a year, so I do not know the current status
of this software. It does work very well for me but there is a small bug.
Trying to change a schedule will hang the computer. REMOVE the schedule
item and ADD the revision. Everything else works fine.

USAGE

DreckBak.CMD is the file that executes the backup. For automated use,
use a cron program, the included SCHEDB2, or other scheduler. You should set 
up this utility to back up all of your partitions that change. I run a backup 
6 nights a week. Whenever I make a Major change to the system, ie: FixPak, etc,
I make a full backup using FRESHBAK.CMD, of my Boot Partition, and call
it something like "E_FullFP10.ZIP. I do this BEFORE making the change,
and again, afterwards, when I am satisfied that the the change should stay.
I back up both my DOS  and OS2 boot partitions, as well as my data partition,
daily. DreckBak will give me 2 days worth of backups, for extra safety. ( this 
can be increased if you have the disk space)

Before getting started using DreckBak for regular backups, create a backup
of each partition on your system. Use the FreshBak object to do this.
If you have enough removable media, or hard disk space, be sure to back up 
all partitions that you wish to be able to easily recreate.

Now you are ready to use DreckBak to make regular, frequent, scheduled backups.

Remember, the safest backup is one that is not located with your computer, so use
removable media if possible, and rotate them. Consider that if you are backing up 
to your hard drive, you will not be protected against any problems that may affect 
your drive. A second physical drive is better than a partition on a drive that you are 
backing up. Although most Hard Disk problems can be corrected with FDISK, if your 
machine cannot read your drive, it cannot read your backup, either. Even if you do 
not have removable media, backing up to your hard drive is FAR better than no
backup at all.


DreckBak.CMD calls FILZ.CMD which manages existing backup zips and feeds a 
command line and parameters to ZIP.EXE, produced by Info-Zip. You must first edit 
DreckBak.cmd as described above. 

DreckBak.CMD assumes that FILZ.CMD, test.lst, BEEP.EXE and LOGIT.EXE are 
all in the DRECKBAK directory on drive D: This is not required. You may edit the 
files to reflect the locations you wish to use.. (Drive D is my maintenance partition)
The file, test.lst may be edited to point to every directory that you
DO NOT want backed up. Prime examples would be TMP, TEMP,and CACHE Some other
good ones may be x:\TCPIP\TMP and x:\NETSCAPE\PROGRAM\USER\USERNAME\CACHE.
It's a good idea to include items on all of your drives, not just the ones that you will
back up using DreckBak. FRESHBAK.CMD will use this file when creating a backup
of any drive. There is no need to delete invalid directories in this file. They will be
ignored. Most of the commonly excluded directories are already in the file, assuming
your boot drive is either C, D, or E.


The default destination directory for the zips to be stored in is j:\freshbak. 
Be sure that there is sufficient space for your backups. This program will 
keep 2 sets. If you do not have enough space, you will get an error posted 
to the log file and hear a series of beeps.
Either create this directory (done by the install program) or edit DreckBak.CMD 
to reflect the correct directory for your system. If using removable media, be sure
the directory exists on all media that you will use, or edit the CMD file to just use
the root directory. 

The directory I use to store the log files is d:\logs. Either create this 
directory (also done by the install) or edit for your system. The logs for each backed 
up partition are overwritten on each run. The BACKUP.LOG and INTEGRITY.LOG are 
appended.

DreckBak is set to backup drives F, E, and C and to verify the integrity of
the backup . You can either add more drives by entering them on the parameters
line in the DreckBak Properties notebook. 

Unless you have Mucho Hard disk space, I advise you to set this up to 
backup the largest drives first and smallest last. Zip will create temporary files
during the backup on your destination drive. There must be enough room to hold this file.


RESTORING a Backup

To restore a backup, other than your active boot partition,
click on the restore object and enter the drive:\path\zipname.zip of the 
backed up. file At the next prompt, type in the drive and dir to restore into. 

Example: "j:\freshbak\H_Ebak.zip" "e:\"
This will restore the file H_Ebak.zip to the root directory of drive E.

To restore your boot drive, you must be either booted to a Maintenance partition
or to Floppy disks. If you do not have WPS support, just call at the OS/2 prompt, 
"drive:\path\UNZIP.EXE SourceDrive:\Filename.zip -d TargetDrive:\ "
You will need to have unzip available on the floppy, or the path set to point to zip
on your hard drive.

Many files on the boot drive are READ ONLY. They will not be 
restored unless you change the attributes. For a clean, quick restore, format 
the drive first. (Type HELP FORMAT for more info) (format c: /FS:HPFS)


Also be aware that empty directories will not be restored. You can
use the included "dummy.dat" zero byte file in your empty directories as a placeholder
to be sure that restores will recreate these directories.


** Notes** 
The following line will be logged in the warn log at the creation of
each archive . It is not an error. You will not see this if you you use the 
FRESHBAK.CMD object to update an existing ZIP.

"zip warning: j:/freshbak/H_Fbak.zip not found or empty"

You will need to have unzip available on the floppy.
Also be aware that empty directories will not be restored. You can
create dummy files in your empty directories to be sure that restores 
will recreate these directories.

SUGGESTION

 FRESHBAK.CMD 
This object will allow the creation, or the freshening, of a zip file. 
You may specify any drive, directory or filename for the zip, as well
as the source, and logfile location. This can be used to back up an 
entire drive or just a portion of the drive tree. (ie: x:\Desktop - Will back up the
Desktop directory, as well as all subdirectories).
It will also freshen (add new or changed files to) existing zip files. This is usefull 
when you have a drive that has files that change or are added. Freshbak will update 
the existing backup file with the new or changed files. It will not remove any files, 
so files no longer on the drive will still be in the backup.

I use this approach on the partition that holds downloadable files for the users
of my BBS. Files are added to this drive frequently, but almost never are there
deletions.

TO-DO

Rewrite install program to automatically edit the CMD files.
Re-Write the program using REXX

Any suggestions are QUITE WELCOME!!!!


CREDITS

I have included Logit.exe and its docs by Julian Buss. It is FREEWARE.
Beep.exe is also a freeware utility  contained in the FM2UTILS.zip by 
M. Kimes. Info-Zip programs (Zip and Unzip) are available on most 
major OS2 sites. All other files in this archive written by Murray Weismer. 
Many thanks go out to a "buddy" that I found in one of the OS/2 newsgroups
whose input has been indispensible in improving this program.

SUPPORT

If you have any comments, suggestions, improvements, bug reports, or problems, 
please contact me at... 

Murray@weismer.virtualave.net or log on to
RPS.BBS at 215-624-8960

The latest version of this program, along with some screen shots
may be found at http://weismer.virtualave.net/DreckBak.html
Easy access by clicking the URL object in the DreckBak folder.

This is DONATIONWARE, not FREEWARE!
If you find this utility useful, please send donations (you decide what it's worth) to:

Murray Weismer
c/o RPS, Inc.
8014 Frankford Ave
Philadelphia PA 19136

SUPPORT OS/2 - JOIN YOUR LOCAL USER GROUP
Member "Philadelphia Area Computer Society (PACS) OS/2-JAVA Special Interest Group (SIG)
         http://www.phillyos2.org for info.
DreckBak is available at NO CHARGE to all verified members of the above users group.
IT PAYS TO BELONG - In more ways than one!!!!

ENJOY!