Checking the disk (the CHKDSK command) To check out a disk, hard or floppy, by using CHKDSK, type in CHKDSK, at the DOS prompt, press Enter, and prepare to be overwhelmed: C> CHKDSK After pressing Enter you'll see something like this: Volume DOS HAPPY created Volume Serial Number is 16CE - 9687 42366976 bytes total disk space 73728 bytes in 2 hidden files 110592 bytes in 52 directories 25837568 bytes in 879 user files 16345088 bytes available on disk 2048 bytes in each allocation unit 20687 total allocation units on disk 7981 available allocation units on disk 655360 total bytes memory 637984 bytes free There are four chunks of information here. The first is trivia about your disk. The second, with five items, is more important. The first value tells you the size of your disk. It says there are 42,366,976 bytes of total disk space. That means the drive holds about 40MB of stuff. The last value tells you how much space you have left. That's 16,345,088 bytes available on disk, which means that drive has about 16MB of unused storage. The third section is really useless, "Allocation Unit" The final section tells you how much memory you have and how much is available for use by programs. CHKDSK works on only one drive at a time. To use CHKDSK on another drive, first log to that drive and then run CHKDSK.
Backing Up Backing up is making a safety copy of your data, typically the data on your hard drive. You make a copy of all the files on your hard drive on a large stack of floppy disks by using one of the most lonely commands in DOS: the BACKUP command (or MSBackup if you're using DOS 6). Backing up the hard drive using DOS BACKUP (before DOS 6) If you don't have a convenient third-party backup program or haven't yet upgraded to DOS 6, you can still use DOS's BACKUP command to back up your hard disk. Why not just use COPY? Well, you could if you only need to back up a few files that change regularly, and none of the files is bigger than a floppy disk. Backup programs can do what COPY can't. They can break up a file and put half on each of two separate disks. Backing up the whole hard drive To back up your entire hard drive using DOS BACKUP, the first thing you'll need is a stack of formatted disks. You should label each disk and sequentially number them, 1 through however many are in your stack. (I have no idea how many disks you'll need. Typically, a 40MB hard drive requires about 401.2MB disks; you can do the math for different-sized hard drives and larger or smaller disks.) The third-party backup programs usually give you an estimate, but not DOS. Given that you have a stack of formatted and numbered disks nearby, type the following command: C> BACKUP C:\*.* A: /S That's the BACKUP command, as space, and then C:\*.*, which means all files in the root directory of drive C. That's followed by a space, A: for drive A, another space, and then a slash-S. In the preceding example, you're backing up drive C. If you're backing up another hard drive, substitute its letter for C:. If your backup is to another floppy drive, put B: in the same spot A: is in. Press Enter and follow the directions on your screen. If you're using DOS 3.3 or earlier and you don't have a stack of backup disks, use this version of the BACKUP command instead: C> BACKUP C:\*.* A: /S /F The extra slash-F tells BACKUP to format any blank disks you may insert into the drive.
Backing up a single file The BACKUP command can back up a whole hard drive, a subdirectory, or just a single file. Why would any sane person want to do this instead of just using the COPY command? Because BACKUP is the only method you have of copying a very large file to a floppy disk (or to more than one floppy disk, as is usually the case). Here is the format: C> BACKUP C:\WORK\LARGE.FAT A: Here you see the BACKUP command, a space, and then the full pathname of the large file that you want to back up. That's followed by a space and then the letter of the floppy drive you're backing up to, plus a colon. Press Enter and follow the instructions on the screen.
Backing up today's work You can back up the stuff you've worked on today, usually in one single subdirectory, using the following BACKUP command: C> BACKUP C:\WORK\STUFF\*.* A: Here you type the BACKUP command, a space, and then the name of the subdirectory (work area) that contains your files - plus a backslash and the star-dot-star wildcard. That's followed by a space and then the drive letter of the floppy drive to which you're backing up, plus the required colon.
Backing up modified files A special type of command can be used to back up those files that have been changed or modified since the last real hard disk backup. This is what's known as an incremental backup. The following is the BACKUP command to perform an incremental backup of drive C. C> BACKUP C:\*.* A: /S /M The BACKUP command is followed by C\*.* for all files on drive C. That's followed by a space and A:, meaning that you're backing up to drive A. Then comes a space, slash-S, another space, and finally a slash-M.
Running MSBACKUP MSBackup is a full-screened, pull-down menu, pop-up, graphical house of backup fun. If you were familiar with the old BACKUP command, stand back! Backups are faster, take fewer disks, and you don't even need to press "any key" after inserting the next backup disk with MSBackup. Start the MSBackup program by typing the following command: C> MSBACKUP If the MSBackup program hasn't been configured, it will do so when you first run it. Follow the instructions on your screen (just press Enter during the appropriate lulls and you'll be okay). You'll need two or more disks to assist with configuring: Stick them in the drive when the program tells you to - this will happen twice. Better still, let someone else do this because the configuration process is about as much fun as chewing on aluminum foil. After MSBackup has been configured, you'll start it. To back up files, click on the Backup button with the mouse or press Alt-B on your keyboard. After you've configured MSBackup, you can reuse the one or two sample disks. The content of these disks is unimportant; reformat them with the FORMAT command if you like. To quit the MSBackup program, select Exit from the File menu: Press Alt-F and the the X Key. Or if you're at the main screen press Q to quit. If you use Windows, back up using the DOS-based version of MSBackup over the Windows version. That way, if you ever need to restore your entire hard drive, the steps involved will be less than if you had to restore the hard drive and restore windows.
Backing up the whole hard drive, in DOS Start out by procuring a stack of formatted disks. Label these disks 1 through however many you have. On the first one, write Full Backup and maybe the date. How many disks do you need? Typically, a 40MB hard drive requires abut 40 1.4MB disks; you can do the math for different sized hard drives and larger or smaller disks. But don't worry about that; MSBackup tells you approximately how many disks it takes once it gets under way. Start MSBackup by typing MSBACKUP at the DOS prompt C> MSBACKUP
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