Backups, Multiple Monitors, and Serial Ports
What do backups, multiple monitors, and serial ports have in common--besides
Windows NT, that is? Not much except that my column this month covers this
smorgasbord.
You're Making Backups, Right?
Last month I said that Microsoft had every right to be proud of RAS, the
Remote Access Service in Windows NT. The backup software Microsoft included with
NT isn't too shabby either. It's not as full-featured as a third-party package,
such as Arcada's Backup Exec, Octopus Technologies' Octopus, or Palindrome's
Network Archivist, but it's a good starter program.
There's a story that goes with that opinion--isn't there always? Backup,
like everything else in NT, is pretty fussy about the hardware you use. Is it on
the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL)? If not, someone had better have written a
driver for it.
I should have heeded my own advice. For the system I was building, I thought
I'd use a Travan technology tape drive, after getting assurances from the
distributor that it worked fine under Windows NT. Once I purchased the drive,
however, I called a tape manufacturer who said that Travan software would
support NT soon. Until then, the drive was for use with DOS and Windows 3.x
only. Now they tell me!
Although we've seen an explosion of disk backup formats in the last year,
Travan tape drives are certainly the ones to watch. They read and write the old
DC2000, quarter-inch cartridge (QIC) tapes, such as those the Colorado Memory
Jumbo drives use. But they also use the new Travan TR-1, TR-2, and TR-3 media.
The TR-3 tapes will hold 1.6GB uncompressed, perfect for the ever-larger hard
drives that people are buying. The Travan drives also have a street price under
$300. Being able to read the older DC2000 backup tapes is a big plus, too.
But I had to deliver reliable backup supported by NT now. I chose
the Exabyte 250i SCSI internal QIC drive. It's an older technology than the
Travan tapes, but it holds about 1GB per tape, uncompressed.
What drive should you choose? If you want the best combination of speed and
compatibility, an 8 millimeter (mm) tape drive is still king, and Exabyte is
still the leader. The 4mm Digital Audio Tape (DAT) drive is only slightly behind
it; Hewlett-Packard (HP) makes very good 4mm drives. Digital Linear Tape (DLT)
holds 10GB or 20GB--and soon 40GB--but it's quite expensive and less common. All
these drives are faster than QIC drives and don't require preformatted tapes. If
you need to send a tape full of computer graphics files to someone, 8mm is the
standard. Whatever you decide, though, make sure it's compatible with NT before
you buy it.
Oh, and that rule I mentioned in my first column still applies: When in
doubt, use SCSI. Floppy-based and IDE-based backup drives abound for DOS,
Windows 3.1, and even Windows 95, but few of these drives work under NT yet.
I installed the Exabyte 250i tape drive, hooked it to the SCSI chain, and
turned on the computer. (Well, OK, it required fiddling, but I'm using
journalistic license to pretend I never waste time.) The SCSI controller
saw the new drive, and NT booted up. I started the Backup program--it's in the
Administrative Tools Program Manager group. Backup reminded me that I needed to
install my tape hardware and told me where to do it: Windows NT Setup under Tape
Drive Setup.
That impressed me--a little. Last month I complained about software being
guru-friendly, not having enough reminders for the rest of us, but that alert
box saved me hours of tearing my hair and reading the manual. I went into NT
Setup, chose the Exabyte 250, and rebooted the computer. Then I opened Backup
again.
A second pleasant surprise: NT will back up any drive it's mapped to. From
Windows NT Server, I backed up two complete Windows 95 drives and a Windows NT
Workstation over the network as easily as if I were sitting at those machines.
One exception, however, was that Backup couldn't capture the NT
Workstation's always-open system files. It waited 30 seconds for each one and
then skipped over them. This was a bit curious, because Backup had no problems
with the system files on the server. Otherwise, I had no complaints. Backup
worked fine.
On another NT system, I tried out the Exabyte EXB-8700 external SCSI 8mm
tape drive. If you need 8mm compatibility and speed in a portable drive, I can
recommend this one, but watch out for the slightly flimsy loading door.
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