Re: Correction to ZIP: Mass Removal of Archive Bit on All Directories

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from Patricia M Godfrey  on Mon, 1 Mar
2004 18:16:28 -0500


> Robert Holmgren wrote: ≪ maybe an archive bit on the directory meant
> "back everything up, regardless of file bits on/off≫

> I don't think so. I still use xcopy with the /m switch

I don't see, in your description of your XCOPY backup procedure(s), any
argument for or against my conjecture. So why the "I don't think so"?

And what does XCOPY have to do with real backup? Everyone knows that XCOPY is
inadequate to the task of backing up _everything_. XCOPY skips many in-use
system (e.g. registry) files, no matter how you set up the switches (I can't
say this with confidence regarding 9x, but it is incontestably true for NT).
If your system vaporized, and you tried to reconstitute it on the basis of
XCOPY backups, you'd be a dead duck. Total reconstruction is the only
legitimate litmus of backup. XCOPY isn't much more than a feel-good safety net
for accidentally-deleted user files.

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Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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