ADSM-L

Re: adsm 16 vs 32 bit

1997-11-13 08:16:41
Subject: Re: adsm 16 vs 32 bit
From: Keith Medcalf <kmedcalf AT DESSUS DOT COM>
Date: Thu, 13 Nov 1997 08:16:41 -0500
In <346AF96B.EE43A117 AT kent DOT edu>, on 11/13/97 at 07:58 AM,
   William Ball <wball AT KENT DOT EDU> said:

>2) Was there a downward compatibility problem between the 32 bit ADSM
>software and the 16 bit.

>My question was trying to address the 2nd issue while I was working
>yet again on the 1st.

>What I found out is that the FAT must be the same FAT that ADSM
>thinks he took the backup from. The restore process has a field that
>ADSM apparently stores on the backup, telling it what kind of FAT was
>there originally and if they don't match, your data either doesn't
>come back, or the machine becomes unbootable if it does come back.

This does not make sense.  The filesystem on which the file was stored
is (and should be) absolutely and totally irrelevant to the ability to
restore a backup.  There is no logical reason why a backup file from
any given filesystem (take your pick) cannot be restored onto any
other filesystem (take your pick); except that IBM has arbitrarily
decided to impose limitations in software that do not exist in
reality.

It sounds to me like your problem is that you are using an OEM version
of Windows 95 that is using a proprietary filesystem that can only be
accessed by a running Windows 95 system.

Obviously then, you must install that version of Windows 95 with its
proprietary filesystem on the machine before restoring your backup.

>Now my question becomes how do I build a 32 bit FAT on the PC and
>have ADSM restore the datasets?

 1. Install Win95 with FAT-32 from CD or whatever.
 2. Run the ADSM 32-bit client.
 3. Restore a FAT-32 version of Win95 backup to the machine.
 4. Press the reset button.

It is extremely unlikely that any DOS based software will be able to
deal with the Proprietary Microsoft Non-Standard FAT-32 format.

>I have to assume there is some
>performance advantage to not having to actually write a new FAT
>(assuming that's why ADSM keeps track of the type of FAT in the
>database) but at some point I can picture a LOT of people being
>burned by installing windows 95 from scratch (FAT32) and expecting
>their ADSM backups to be good when ADSM thinks it should be a 16 bit
>FAT.

The type of filesystem is irrelevant.  They are simply FILES stored in
a backup.  You would have precisely the same problem if you were
backing up to tape directly on the client, and it has to do with using
proprietary microsoft garbage and expecting it to be functional with
non-microsoft software.

>When I spend over 2 hours restoring files from ADSM only to find
>out I have to start from scratch again, I tend to not be a happy
>camper and neither does the cleint. In this particular case I
>restored the PC "5" (over 3 days) times, not being sure I had run
>into a hardware problem or if something else was wrong.

>If there is no way to upgrade the PC, I certainly think an
>enhancement request is in order so ADSM doesn't play stupid and try
>to do a restore it knows is no goo

The restore was perfect.  The problem is located between the keyboard
and the chair.

>Daniel Thompson wrote:

>> William,
>>
>>   As far as I know there is not limitation on restoring data with the
>> 32-bit client that
>>   was backed up with the 16-bit ADSM client.
>>
>> Your description of the problems with the windows 95 box doesn't give quite
>> enough information as to the root cause of the failure.  You mention that
>> the client FAT HAD to be 16 bit.  This does not have anything to do with
>> the ADSM client.  Win95 originally only used FAT16 logical drives but the
>> current OEM version allows FAT32 as well.  If the drive was FAT32 before
>> the failure, I would make certain that the drive is formatted FAT32 before
>> the restore attempt.  Essentially, make certain that whatever it was
>> partitioned as before the failure is what you partition it as before the
>> recovery attempt.  However, I HAVE NOT heard of any problems with Win95 and
>> restoring/backing up between the 2 formats.  If anyone else has
>> successfully done this or knows of any concerns between FAT16 and FAT32,
>> please share this info.
>>
>> I hope this helps.
>>
>> Good luck,
>>  Dan T.
>> -



>    Bill Ball
>   Email: WBALL AT KENT DOT EDU

>     ()_()   ()*()
>      (_)     (_)

>Have a Disney day.


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