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Central Point CPBackup

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First post, by Alkarion

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Has anyone made it work under Dosbox? I have some old disks I want to restore but somehow CPBackup doesn't seem to work with the Dosbox floppy emulation. But since I tried the same software under Win 98 dos mode and it didn't work either I'm not sure if it's a Dosbox problem.

Perhaps there is someone who used CPBackup who can tell me how it works and if it perhaps requires setting up an old DOS version like MS-DOS 6.22 and not Win '98 DOS because of some special way it talks to the floppy.

Reply 1 of 17, by mirekluza

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Once more (if only people learned to do do it ... but I guess it is hopeless 🙁 ): details needed!
What did you do/what were the errors you encountered?

Mirek

Reply 2 of 17, by Xian97

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As mirekluza said, there isn't enough details to say what the problem is, but I remember some issues with CP Backup years ago. From what I remember when I got my first Pentium class PC and tried to restore some files created with CP Backup on tape, it had a divide by zero error. I never did find a way around it. I restored the files with a 486 and copied them from it.

Reply 3 of 17, by DosFreak

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Wow, Haven't used this since 1994!

Was playing around in it and it looks like you can specify directories other than the floppy to Restore from. You might be able to copy the contents of the floppies to a dir. Then point the prog to that directory.

Haven't tried it yet since I don't have a backup file to use.

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Reply 5 of 17, by Alkarion

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First of all apologies for not being very precise. This mainly stems from the fact that it's really more a CPBackup question than a Dosbox question and I just wanted to know if someone has already successfully used it.

For those who are interested, I will describe the problem in more detail. I found some old disks with CPBackup files named CPBACKUP.001, CPBACKUP.002 and so on. I don't know the version of CPBackup with which I created these files but since they are from around 1993 I guessed that they were created with CPBackup from PC Tools 8.0.

I first tried to read the files mounting a directory as floppy type under Dosbox (gulikoza's CVS from 01/29) with CPBackup V6 (not PC Tools 8 ). After reading the first floppy disk CPBackup asks for the last disk so I replaced the file in the mounted directory with the file from the last disk and swapped the image with Ctrl-F4. But CPBackup doesn't acknowledge the last disk and simply continues to show the dialogue prompting for the last disk.

Interestingly, the exact same problem occurs when using CPBackup under real DOS (Win '98 ). Though unlikely I speculated that CPBackup requires a lower DOS version because of some obscure way it talks to the floppy.

Since floppy didn't work I also tried to restore from a fixed disk. I tried copying all the files into the respective directory as well as copying and reading the files with CPBackup one by one. But CPBackup didn't recognize the files as backups and stated it couldn't find the backup directory.

I also used different versions of CPBackup (from PC Tools 8 and an earlier version) but they showed the same problems. The last thing I tried was placing the files in directories as DosFreak proposed. But that didn't work either.

DosFreak, it would be nice if you could tell me exactly which version of CPBackup you used since using directories of the form DISK1, DISK2 and so on didn't work with my versions.

Reply 6 of 17, by HunterZ

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Are you sure you have the last disk in the set? You can usually tell by the last file being smaller than the rest.

Reply 7 of 17, by Alkarion

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I guess the files were somehow filled up until they reached the maximum size. All files have exactly the same size and I'm very sure I have the last disk(s) since I have three sets of backups neatly labeled with the contents of the backup and its size in disks on the respective first disk of the backup.

Besides, CPBackup gives you the option to rebuild the backup directory disk by disk in case some disks of the backup are lost (a good feature - in principle). But that doesn't work either because CPBackup can't be convinced to start this process and instead waits for the first disk to be put into the drive indefinitely.

Reply 8 of 17, by DosFreak

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I was using CPBackup from V7 of PCTools.

To specify directories where the .001, .002, etc files are located I chose RESTORE from the main menu.

Then ALT+C for the Configure menu
Then F8 for Define Equipment
Then Fixed Drive and Path. The Fixed Drive and Path will be where you specify to Restore FROM. It'll probably be best to stick all .001,.002 files in one directory and then point to this directory.

Then Alt+A, for Restore TO
Pick the Drive letter to restore to or type in the path at the bottom.

Then Start the restore.

It's possible I guess that when you backup to floppy it may require you to restore from floppy? Sounds kind of iffy but I guess it could happen. I'll try to get the floppy portion to work over here but I doubt I'll get it to work.

I was able to backup from one drive letter (without floppy emulation) to another drive letter and then was able to restore from one drive letter to another drive letter.

Perhaps CPBackup was not recogn9zing the disks because it may use the label of the floppy to differentiate between floppies? and mabye DosBox doesn't support label on floppies correctly? I'll test this too.

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Reply 9 of 17, by Alkarion

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Thank you very much for your detailed response but I think I have already followed exactly the same procedure in one of my countless tries. I fear it may be a program version issue since I have access to V6 and V8 and maybe the archive is only readable with V7.

At least V6 seems to be ruled out since I made some experiments and found out that it uses other labels for its backup files. When you backuped to a fixed disk, did the program create other files besides the 00x-files like an .inf file and a .dir file?

I agree on your guess that floppy backups perhaps may only be restored as floppy backups. You could also be right about the disk labels.

I'm still puzzled why it didn't work under real dos but I'll try it again once I have access to an old 486.

Reply 10 of 17, by Alkarion

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I finally was successful and found out some strange things about CPBackup. It indeed labels the disks as CPBACKUP001 and so on. But labeling the floppy drives under dosbox accordingly didn't do the trick. Somehow CPBackup doesn't work with the Dosbox floppy emulation.

But I was finally able to extract the backups on my old 486 under MS-DOS 6.22. It is thus confirmed that CPBackup either doesn't work on Pentiums or requires an older Dos version than the Win '98 version.

The strange thing now is that CPBackup always writes files with the full disk capacity, filling up the last disk completely. But it only seems to write the size into the file table of the disk so you get read errors if you try to copy the file.
I assume that upon getting to the end of the backup information, CPBackup leaves the rest of the disk as it is.

Reply 11 of 17, by tatis

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Hi, I have been trying to restore a backup for I don't know how long, also in floppy disks!! I didn't even have the software and had to dowload it from Internet and have been having the same problems you had. I can access a 486 PC but it has Win98. I definitly have to hav DOS installed? There is no other way? 😒 ?

Reply 12 of 17, by Alkarion

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Is the backup software you are talking about also CPBackup? Then Dosbox won't work with it (at least for floppy backups), I'm sorry. If you have another backup program then I can't say anything about it.

Reply 13 of 17, by tatis

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Yes, it is CPBACKUP

Reply 14 of 17, by Alkarion

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Since Win98 is built on a genuine DOS you should be able to run CPBackup under Win98 or some MS-DOS mode.

Reply 15 of 17, by Tatiana

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Alkarion wrote on 2005-02-21, 16:55:
I finally was successful and found out some strange things about CPBackup. It indeed labels the disks as CPBACKUP001 and so on. […]
Show full quote

I finally was successful and found out some strange things about CPBackup. It indeed labels the disks as CPBACKUP001 and so on. But labeling the floppy drives under dosbox accordingly didn't do the trick. Somehow CPBackup doesn't work with the Dosbox floppy emulation.

But I was finally able to extract the backups on my old 486 under MS-DOS 6.22. It is thus confirmed that CPBackup either doesn't work on Pentiums or requires an older Dos version than the Win '98 version.

The strange thing now is that CPBackup always writes files with the full disk capacity, filling up the last disk completely. But it only seems to write the size into the file table of the disk so you get read errors if you try to copy the file.
I assume that upon getting to the end of the backup information, CPBackup leaves the rest of the disk as it is.

Alkarion wrote on 2005-02-21, 16:55:
I finally was successful and found out some strange things about CPBackup. It indeed labels the disks as CPBACKUP001 and so on. […]
Show full quote

I finally was successful and found out some strange things about CPBackup. It indeed labels the disks as CPBACKUP001 and so on. But labeling the floppy drives under dosbox accordingly didn't do the trick. Somehow CPBackup doesn't work with the Dosbox floppy emulation.

But I was finally able to extract the backups on my old 486 under MS-DOS 6.22. It is thus confirmed that CPBackup either doesn't work on Pentiums or requires an older Dos version than the Win '98 version.

The strange thing now is that CPBackup always writes files with the full disk capacity, filling up the last disk completely. But it only seems to write the size into the file table of the disk so you get read errors if you try to copy the file.
I assume that upon getting to the end of the backup information, CPBackup leaves the rest of the disk as it is.

I have 16 CPBACKUP.0XX (CPBACKUP.001 .... CPBACKP.016) files 1 CPBACKUP.DIR file and 1 CPBACKUP.xxx file and need to restore them but do no have the software or the DOS system to do it. Those files have photographs from a trip to Canda in 1998 and have not been able to see them 🙁 . Can anyone help me? I can upload them in OneDrive or send them by mail.

Reply 16 of 17, by vetz

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Hey Tatiana, welcome to the forum

We generally don't like when you resurrect 15 year old posts when there is nothing new to add to the previous discussion. The best would have been to create a new thread for your issue and link to this one in your case.

Since it's your first post and it's for restoring old photos, I'll make an exception and let this thread stay open for now, will split later.

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Reply 17 of 17, by Tatiana

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vetz wrote on 2020-11-20, 03:40:

Hey Tatiana, welcome to the forum

We generally don't like when you resurrect 15 year old posts when there is nothing new to add to the previous discussion. The best would have been to create a new thread for your issue and link to this one in your case.

Since it's your first post and it's for restoring old photos, I'll make an exception and let this thread stay open for now, will split later.

Hi, I am so sorry, it won't happen again. I was cleaning my hard drive and stumbled with these old files and wondered if maybe someone had had the same problem and was able to solve it. I had posted the same a few years back with no luck. So I searched and found a couple of sites with discussion threads including VOGONS where someone had succeeded, so I posted my request in some of them. Luckily for me someone replied and problem solved. I now have 111 22 year old photographs!!! . So if necessary you can close the thread.

Thank you!