A Safer Backup under Windows 95
By John Fagerberg
Copyright 1995

This approach was developed by me with the help of Microsoft and Colorado Tech.
support during the development of Windows 95. I needed it because I was using a
Colorado T1000 tape (not supported by MS Backup), I needed an emergency way to
restore my system (not involving the install windows 95, just to do a restore),
and because there were many bugs in the MS Backup software at the time (I can't
comment now, because this is the only approach I use.)

After I shared this approach, I got a lot of good feedback, so I decided to
write it up in detail. One user needed to replace her C-drive. This technique
allowed her to do so in a couple hours (including backup/restore time).

The general approach is to exit to DOS from Windows 95, backup your Long File
Names, backup the disk to tape, and restore your long file names. For
Stacker 4.1 users, there is an easier technique shown after the main approach.

I hope that you find this information helpful. If you do, don't be afraid to
let me know.


  Table of Contents

I.   DISCLAIMER
II.  PREREQUISITES
III. DETAILED PROCEDURE (Current as of Build 490 & 950 of Windows 95)
IV.  FOR STACKER 4.1 USERS
V.   EMERGENCY RESTORES OF AN ENTIRE DISK VOLUME (Read this now, not when you
                                                  have need for one)
VI.  PARTIAL RESTORES (Important)
VII. SOMEONE WANT TO WRITE A UTILITY?


I. DISCLAIMER: This technique has been used successfully by a bunch of people,
                however, I will take no responsibility for problems that arrive
                from using it. I highly recommend that you run scandisk on all
                your drives before starting. And test it on your system.


II. PREREQUISITES

You will first need to copy the LFNBK files from Admin\Apptools\Lfnbk on your
Windows 95 CD. I would recommend placing them in C:\Windows\Command. Copy both
LFNBK.EXE and LFNBK.TXT (then read the txt file in case something changes
between the time I write this and your using it).

You will also need the DOS backup software that came with your tape drive. It
should be installed on a hard disk.


III. DETAILED PROCEDURE (Current as of Build 490 & 950 of Windows 95)

NOTE: Before you start, if you have MS System Agent running; turn it off by
going into System Agent's Advanced settings and click on "Stop using System
Agent." This Program can run multiple program with what effect, we won't know.
Since you will eliminating Long File Names, let's not find out.

SPECIAL NOTE FOR COMPRESSED DRIVE USERS: Be sure and backup the files on your
uncompressed "C" drive (excluding the compressed volume). The uncompressed
drive is the real "C" drive that has been renamed to another drive letter
after booting. If you have to rebuild your "C" drive, you may have to reformat
the drive, then recompress it, restore these files, and then restore the rest
of the volume.

1) The first thing you have to do is turn off LFN Tunneling. This is
   accomplished by Right-clicking "My Computer" (or whatever you've renamed it
   to). Select properties, then the Performance Tab, press the File System
   button. Now, check the box next to "Disable long name preservation for old
   programs." Close everything you opened here. The system will then ask to be
   rebooted. Do it.

2) When windows 95 comes back up, open a DOS window. You will use LFNBK to back
   up the LFNs on all the drives that you are going to backup.

   For each drive type LFNBK /B x: (where x: is the drive letter)

NOTE: When you do this to your C-drive, your desktop icons will change to short
      names & may move. Just ignore this.

3) Now that you've backed up all the LFNs, you can exit Windows 95 to DOS and
   run the DOS backup software that come with your tape drive. Press the Start
   button and select Shut Down/Restart the computer in MS-DOS Mode.

4) Run full backups for all the drives that you prepared in step 2. 
   NOTE: Make sure that you backup program backs up Hidden and System files.
   You wouldn't want to find out when you need to restore. There may be a
   setting in the backup program's options for this, if so, turn it on.

5) When the backups are done, reboot your computer. Don't panic when your
   desktop and start button groups appear differently (this stuff was stored
   under long file names).

6) Open a DOS window and restore the LFNs by typing:

   LFNBK /R x: (as in step 2)

7) Now repeat the steps in step 1 (above) only un-check "Disable long name...."
   When you close the windows, you will end up rebooting again.

8) Lastly, if the icons on your desktop are not as you like them, re-arrange
   them & your done.


IV. FOR STACKER 4.1 USERS

The SAVELFN utility that comes with Stacker 4.1 makes this whole procedure much
simpler. I have suggested to Stac that they release this as a cheapie utility.

1) Exit to DOS from Windows 95

2) Back up the LFNs on all the drives that you are going to backup.

   For each drive type SAVELFN /B x: (where x: is the drive letter)

3) Run full backups for all the drives that you prepared in step 2.

4) Restore the LFNs by running

   SAVELFN /R x: (x: as in step 2)

5) Reboot system.

I've even taken this one step farther and created batch file for steps 2, 3, & 4
(I wasn't brave enough to combine them.) This way, I just type three commands
to do the whole thing (and have a movie rented for the time between).


V. EMERGENCY RESTORES OF AN ENTIRE DISK VOLUME (Read this now, not when you
                                                have need for one)

If you place your DOS tape utilities on a bootable floppy, you will be able to
restore your system without having to install Windows 95 to do it. Please note
however that you may want to restore all volumes so that everything agrees
(hint: do frequent backups).

SPECIAL NOTE: If you have to format you "C" drive from floppy disk, the /S
option on format will NOT setup your MSDOS.SYS file correctly. Therefore,
When you restore make sure that the option on your tape restore program is
set to overwrite duplicate/existing files. This will ensure that the file
gets restored from tape. In fact, don't bother to use the /S option on the
format. Your going to restore these files too.

NOTE: If you are using disk compression and you have to format the drive,
compress the empty volume before proceeding. ALSO, see the special notes
above the backup procedure about restoring the files on the uncompressed
volume.

Because you backed up the LFN backup files along with the data on each volume,
you can restore them after restoring the volume.

1) Restore your disk volumes from tape.

2) Follow the procedure described above starting after the tape backup:

     Without Stacker 4.1:

        a) start Windows 95
        b) Run LFNBK /R x: (Where x: is the volume restored)
        c) Turn on LFN Tunneling
        d) After reboot, re-arrange desktop icons if necessary

     With Stacker 4.1:

        a) Still in DOS (from restore), run SAVELFN /R x: (Where x: is the
           volume restored)
        b) Restart Windows 95


VI. PARTIAL RESTORES (Important)

Because LFNs have been backed up at the time you make the tape backup, files
that use LFNs cannot be restored with the LFN. If you can find the file with
the short name, you can restore it (preferably in another directory), then
rename it to the actual LFN.

Also, if a file resides in a directory that is a long name, it will be
shortened on the backup tape. You will have to find it using the short named
directory.

VII. SOMEONE WANT TO WRITE A UTILITY?

If you'll notice, the reason for running LFNBK /B or SAVELFN /B was to get
a backup of the LFNs. The backup program will ignore them, so we really
didn't need to remove them. After the backup, we have to restore the LFNs
because these programs removed them.

What we really need is a utility that will create a backup (on disk) of the
LFNs without removing them. This utility would also be able to restore the
LFNs after we have restored a tape backup to disk. Ideally, this utility
would allow you to selectively restore LFNs to a particular file, directory,
or a directory and its sub-directories (OOPS, those are folders now aren't
they! :))

Good luck. I hope this makes your archivals a little easier.


John Fagerberg
Internet - fagerbej@herndon.bytex.network.com
CompuServe - 76276,2042
AOL - GfxJohn
