[Coco] Backup of HDB-DOS drives

[Steve Ostrom]

I'd like to backup HDB-DOS drives from one device to another. I have SCSI 
drives. Perhaps I could use BACKUP in a loop but don't know if it's possible 
for HDB-DOS to address two different devices.

I'm thinking of using NITROS9 with a device descriptor set up for source and 
destination HDB-DOS, open each as a raw device, and copying 256 * 35 * 18 
bytes. Do we have a program like Linux's 'dd' ?


Jim, maybe I'm confused about your goal, but Cloud-9 has a BASIC backup 
command on their HDB-DOS disk to do this. It does take quite awhile, maybe 
3-4 hours for 256 drives if I recall correctly. It backs up from SCSI 0 to 
SCSI 1, for example. I wrote an assembly version that does the same thing, 
and is quite a bit faster (like the difference between snails and turtles!). 
With my assembly version, you have no real choices, but can only backup all 
256 drives from one SCSI drive to the other. Maybe you can get this BASIC 
backup program from Mark or Boisy. If it works for you, and you want a full 
backup, I can send you my faster assembly version.

-Steve-

Perhaps the BASIC program is DSK2DSK.BAS ? It's listed in the docs on their 
website, but it isn't on the disk I bought (v 1.1B it think). The Nitros9 
'backup' command will copy a .DSK file to a device, but not the other way 
around. I would be most thankful for a copy of your assembly program. I'm 
sure it's much faster than whatever C program I'd put together.

Thanks,
jim


Jim, Boisy's SCSI to SCSI backup does a sector by sector backup in BASIC. 
Basically you set the parameters to SCSI 0, Drive 0, Track 0, sector 1, 
Load that sector into memory, set the parameters to SCSI 1, save.  Increase 
sector number and repeat.  Keep looping until you have copied the entire 
SCSI drive.  My assembly program does almost the exact same thing except 
that it doesn't need line interpreation for each loop.  Boisy's program is 
much more flexible in that it allows different sized backups.  Mine is set 
for 256 drives only.  Both backup programs should handle OS9 or BASIC 
programs just fine.

That said, my Coco set up is at our family cabin (Minnesota - 0 deg F !!). 
I plan a trip there within the next week or so, and I'll try to bring a copy 
home for you.  Please send me your address and I'll mail you a copy on 5 
1/4" diskette.  I may need to bring the Coco setup home in order to make the 
copy because of the cold.

Boisy, are you still distributing your BASIC SCSI-to-SCSI backup program?

-- Steve --