When you back up your hard disk using BACKUP, the first thing to do is to format enough blank disks to hold the backed up files. Once you start the BACKUP routine, you won’t want to stop the program to format more diskettes. BACKUP takes time, even on a high speed computer. Stopping the BACKUP command before completion usually means that you would have to start the process over again. Therefore, make sure you have enough formatted diskettes before you start.

How Many Diskettes?

The number of diskettes you will need depends on two things. First, how much of the hard disk will you be backing up? Second, what is the capacity of the diskettes you will be using? The following table shows the approximate number of diskettes needed to backup an entire hard disk.

HARD DISK

NUMBER OF DISKETTES:

 

CAPACITY:

180K

360K

1.2M

 

 

 

 

10M-byte

63

32

10

20M-byte

125

63

20

30M-byte

185

95

30

40M-byte

250

125

40

 

 

 

 

A few extra diskettes have been included in these numbers to make sure there are enough. If your hard disk is not loaded to capacity, or if you are only backing up part of your hard disk, fewer diskettes will be needed.

As you format these disks, prepare labels for them that identifies these diskettes as a hard disk backup archive. Also put the date on each label and number each diskette. This is very important, since the RESTORE command requires that you use the diskettes in the same order that was used during the BACKUP procedure.

Using Your Hard Disk 6-17