Readme file for disk2disk V1.3
------------------------------

VERSIONS

Date        Ver    Notes
----------  -----  -----------------------------------------------------
23/07/2001   1.3   Version 1.3 released (see whatsnew.txt for details)
29/10/2000   1.2   Version 1.2 released
05/09/2000   1.1   Version 1.1 released
23/07/2000   1.0   First non-beta release of the software.


COPYRIGHT/DISTRIBUTION

disk2disk is freely provided for evaluation purposes subject to a
maximum of 30 days use, after which registration must take place
if you continue to use it.  disk2disk is copyright (C)1999-2001,
Duncan Amplification.  Please refer to license.txt for full details.

CONTACT

Email postmaster@disk2disk.com for queries about the product or
problems with installing the product.

**********************************************************************
PLEASE NOTE THIS IS NOT A TECH SUPPORT CONTACT.  FOR TECHNICAL
SUPPORT AFTER INSTALLING THE PRODUCT, PLEASE FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS
IN THE HELP FILE.
**********************************************************************

All trademarks acknowledged.


PROBLEMS / FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (last updated 28/02/2002)
------------------------------------------------------------------------

INDEX

1.   INSTALLATION
1.1  Minimum requirements
1.2  Upgrading from previous versions
1.3  Windows NT/2000
1.4  Program limitations

2.   SYSTEM LOCKUPS & ERRORS
2.1  Video drivers
2.2  Adaptec/Roxio DirectCD packet drivers
2.3  Error 6 or Error 21: Handle is invalid
2.4  InCD errors

3.   PERFORMANCE ISSUES
3.1  Virus scanners
3.2  Slow disk->disk speed
3.3  Slow to start up

4.   GENERAL QUESTIONS
4.1  Won't detect CD
4.2  Full system recovery
4.3  Windows NT/2000 ACL's
4.4  Restoring short filenames
4.5  Archive flags not being cleared
4.6  Backing up open files
4.7  Differential/Incremental backups overwrite the previous one
4.8  What is a full/differential/incremental backup
4.9  How are encrypted backups created?
4.10 I have lost my backup password - now what?



1. INSTALLATION
------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.1 MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

The minimum requirements for disk2disk V1.0 are:

  * A hard disk with at least 5MB free space
  * Graphics adaptor 640x480 in 256 colours or better
  * Windows 95 OSR2 or later, 98, Millennium Edition, 2000, or NT 4.0
  * The minimum recommended amount of RAM and other system resources for
    your operating system as recommended in the operating system
    documentation.

Optional requirements are:

  * A removable media drive (floppy disk, Zip drive etc.)
  * A CD writer with packet drivers.  Note that disk2disk is not
    compatible with Prassi abCD.


1.2 UPGRADING FROM PREVIOUS VERSIONS

The easiest way to upgrade from a previous version is simply
to install over the old version.

Not that if the scheduler is running during the installation
process, you will be invited to restart Windows.


1.3 WINDOWS NT/2000

On Windows NT and Windows 2000, it is possible that you will need
machine administrator privileges before installing the software.

If you are experiencing problems installing disk2disk under NT or
2000, please consult your system administrator to arrange for the
installation of the software, or for the correct permissions to
be set up.


1.4 PROGRAM LIMITATIONS

Currently, the limitations imposed by disk2disk (and in some cases the
operating systems are):

  Maximum file size which can be backed up:      4GB FAT32
                                                 1953GB NTFS
  Maximum length of filename (incl path):        1024 characters
  Maximum size of a backup volume:               2000MB
  Maximum number of volumes in backup set:       1000



2. SYSTEM LOCKUPS & ERRORS
------------------------------------------------------------------------

2.1 VIDEO DRIVERS

Some problems exist with S3 video cards relating to on-card bitmap
buffering.  If you are suffering from random lockups on these cards,
try reducing the amount of graphics acceleration.  This is a general
problem with these cards, rather than a problem with disk2disk.

Symptoms are the disk2disk splash screen appearing, then the machine
hangs.


2.2 ADAPTEC/ROXIO DIRECT CD PACKET DRIVERS

Faults have been reported using older versions of the Adaptec DirectCD
packet drivers.  Symptoms are normally triggered when a CDR or CDRW
becomes full, and range from the disk being locked in the burner to
complete system hangups.

If you are using DirectCD, please ensure you have the latest DirectCD
drivers - these are available from http://www.roxio.com  Note that
you may have to pay for upgrades depending on the version of your
current driver.

DirectCD drivers below version 3.0 are not supported by disk2disk.
If in doubt, please refer to the help file for assistance on how to
identify which version of the drivers you have.


2.3 ERROR 6 OR 21: HANDLE IS INVALID

This error occurs when disk2disk cannot write to the backup media.
The most common cause of this is trying to write to CDR or CDRW
without formatting the disk first using your packet software.

If this error occurs on a network, then you don't have sufficient
privileges to create files on the network folder, for example a
shared network folder which is read only.


2.4 INCD ERRORS

Build 2.26 is known to cause problems with disk2disk.  Typically, the
disk appears to be full up when it is only half full.



3. PERFORMANCE PROBLEMS
------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.1 VIRUS SCANNERS

If you have a virus scanner installed, and it is set to scan all files,
this will reduce the performance.  On CDRW/Packet drives, it may even
cause a cyclic stop/start which results in unusable backup times.

The solution is to set the scanner to scan only program files.


3.2 SLOW DISK->DISK SPEED

With compression switched off, many current machines will back up from
hard disk to hard disk at 400MB/min or more.  Some older, or unoptimised
machines can get as little as 50MB/min.

Diskspeed32 is a great utility which can pinpoint bottlenecks with your
hard disks, from http://www.iop.kiev.ua/~vgrin/DiskSpeed32/

Don't forget, the speed of the peripherals are normally the bottleneck
for uncompressed backups.  For compressed backups, processor power is
more of an issue.


3.3 SLOW TO START UP

If disk2disk takes a long time to start up, it could be due to a
number of factors.  Having lots of physical and mapped network drives
will increase the time taken for the software to load.  Also, having
the performance increased from "Desktop machine" to "Network Server"
may dramatically increase the amount of time to load disk2disk under
certain circumstances.



4. GENERAL QUESTIONS
------------------------------------------------------------------------

4.1 WON'T DETECT CD

If disk2disk won't recognise the CD writer when backing up, check that
the disk is formatted with the appropriate packet drivers.  This would
typically be CeQuadrat PacketCD or the Roxio DirectCD drivers.  Check
with your drive documentation for more details on how to format packet
CD's.


4.2 FULL SYSTEM RECOVERY

In order to recover a full system backup, disk2disk requires the same
operating system to be installed, and the disk2disk software to be
installed.  disk2disk does not create rescue disks, nor is it capable
of restoring to partitions which do not contain an operating system
or the disk2disk software.

For this reason, please keep copies of the operating system CD and
ensure that your downloaded copy of disk2disk is copied to a floppy
disk so that you can reinstall without having to go back to the
internet.


4.3 WINDOWS NT/2000 ACL'S

disk2disk does not save the state of Windows 2000 or Windows NT ACL's
(Access Control Lists).  Upon restore, the security rights granted to
the files will be the defaults as defined for the directory into which
they are being restored.


4.4 RESTORING SHORT FILENAMES

disk2disk does not currently support saving of short filenames.  Upon
restore, the system will allocate a suitable short filename which
may or may not be the same as the short filename that was backed up
in the first place.  In some instances, this can cause problems if
reference was made to the short filename, i.e. "BIGFIL~1.EXE" instead
of "BigFileName.exe".


4.5 ARCHIVE FLAGS NOT BEING CLEARED

It has become apparent that the Windows 2000 indexing service is
setting the archive flag on certain files, notably image files such as
.jpg files.  This can cause problems on full or incremental backups
as the archive flag is cleared, then set back on by the indexing
service resulting in files being repeatedly backed up.  At this time
the only known cure is to turn the indexing service off.


4.6 BACKING UP OPEN FILES

From version 1.2, open files can be backed up.  disk2disk backs up
open files on the first pass, then detects if the file has been changed
while being backed up.  If this has happened, then the file backed up
is clearly corrupt.  At the end of the backup phase a second attempt
is made to backup the file.  If the second attempt is succesful, this
is registered in the log file.

Note that disk2disk cannot backup open files that have been locked by
the system to prevent read access.  Examples include MS Outlook .pst
files which are currently in use and MS Exchange files.


4.7 DIFFERENTIAL/INCREMENTAL BACKUPS OVERWRITE THE PREVIOUS ONE

It is possible to create a profile for a differential backup for
example, mybackup.d2d  This will create the backup set mybackup.001
When this profile is next run, it will overwrite the previous instance
of mybackup.001 and lose it for good.

In the backup screen (destination tab), make sure that "Add date to
filename" is checked.  This will generate a new filename with the
date in, so that backups from different days cannot overwrite each
other.

Another way round this is to use the scheduler to invoke your regular
differential or incremental backup, and go to Properties -->
Advanced properties, then set Prepend Date.  This will create unique
filenames such as 20001221D_mybackup.001 which will prevent each
backup overwriting the preceding one.


4.8 WHAT IS A FULL/DIFFERENTIAL/INCREMENTAL BACKUP

To understand this, some explanation is required of the "archive
flag".  This is an indicator against each file which tells the system
that the file has been altered, and needs to be backed up.

Changing a file (i.e. a word document) will set the archive flag so
that the system knows that a backup is required.  The same thing
happens if you create a new file.

Disk2disk has four types of backup called Full, Copy, Incremental and
Differential.  Each of these responds to the state of the archive
flag in different ways.

Full         All of the files select are backed up, irrespective of
             the state of the archive flag.  That means that you will
             back up the files you have changed _and_ the ones that
             you haven't changed.  When the backup is complete,
             disk2disk will clear all the archive flags as a way of
             saying "I've done the backup now".

Copy         This is exactly like the full backup, except that
             disk2disk leaves the archive flags alone.  You might
             want to use this if you need to take a snapshot of your
             files without affecting any differential or incremental
             backups.

Incremental  Only selected files which have changed will be backed up.
             Disk2disk then clears the archive flags.  If you do a
             full backup on Monday night, then incremental for the
             other nights of the week, the Incremental backup on
             Tuesday will only back up the files changed on Tuesday.
             Wednesdays backup will only back up the files changed on
             Wednesday, etc.

Differential Like incremental, it only backs up files which have
             have changed, although it leaves the archive files alone.
             If you do a full backup on Monday night, then
             differential for the other nights of the week, the
             differential backup on Tuesday will back up only the files
             changed on Tuesday.  Wednesdays backup will back up the
             files changed on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Thursdays backup
             will back up the files changed on Tuesday, Wednesday and
             Thursday.

If the differential sounds like wasteful of backup space, then that
would be a fair assumption when compared with the incremental backup.
However, if you have to restore from a Full+Incremental backup scheme,
you may end up restoring files from a Monday disk, Tuesday, Wednesday,
etc.  With the Full+Differential scheme you will never have to restore
from more than two sets of media - the last full backup and the very
latest differential backup.


4.9 HOW ARE ENCRYPTED BACKUPS CREATED?

Encrypted backups are made using an implementation of the DES 56bit
cipher algorithm.  This still allows for a very quick backup with a
high degree of security.

A password is required every time the backup is made, this password
is not stored anywhere on the machine.  The password will also be
requested when you try to restore the files from the backup.  Please
use this facility sensibly, as losing the password will create serious
problems - see the following section...


4.10 I HAVE LOST MY BACKUP PASSWORD - NOW WHAT?

You have a problem - we have no way of helping you get your backup
restored.  There are no magic words, master passwords or anything else
that will get the stuff back, only the original password that you
created the backup with.

Please don't mail asking for assistance, there is genuinely nothing
we can do to help.


--END--
