HP Disaster Recovery: !@$%*&!!!
H.W. Stockman
actually work.
Reason I need the advice: I was sucked into trying the HP Disaster Recovery
that came with the 9210i.
First impression: HP DR is very poorly documented and poorly written
software.
There is no way to back up only one of your hard disks -- e.g., I have a
second (non-boot) drive I pulled from an old machine, for easy access to my
historical files, and it gets sucked into the backup set.
The HP DR starts off with a request that you enter any new required driver
lines for the config.sys. Presumably, these are 16-bit drivers for my SCSI
card (Iomega Jaz Jet Ultra SCSI). The method of entry is very cumbersome --
a primitive line editor. You can't just paste a block from an existing
config.sys -- you have to paste each line in one at a time, and "add" each.
Later, HP DR just pastes the whole block into the config.sys created by the
Win98 startup disk routine.
The first time you pop in a CD to start the backup set, DirectCD pops up,
simultaneously with HP DR, asking how you want to format the CD. I took
this as a goof, closed DirectCD, and let HP DR continue -- it merrily wrote
through 7 CDs, never reporting an error. However, when the individual CDs
are put in any other CD drive, they show up as containing no files -- I sure
hope there is something there visible to some program.
When I test the recovery set, I never get past the two win98 startup disk
floppies -- I get a note that my ASPI software was not properly loaded. I'm
at a loss here -- the instructions are non-existent. My Jaz Jet literature
has nothing, so I copied the aspi drivers from the iomega backup directory.
Any hints here would be appreciated. The HP instruction manual basically
says "follow the instructions in the HP DR program." Wow! Thanks, HP!
I thnk this software should be renamed: "HP Recovery Disaster."
Dan G.
drive). It never asked for any 'drivers', so I wonder if there lies your
problem?
H.W. Stockman wrote in message ...
H.W. Stockman
"Dan G." <nob...@noapam.com> wrote in message
news:88rhhu$2kr$1...@nntp9.atl.mindspring.net...
> I ran this same program with none of the problems you described, (HP 9110
> drive). It never asked for any 'drivers', so I wonder if there lies your
> problem?
Yes -- you have an EIDE drive, and I have a SCSI drive. Your drivers are
there almost by default. My SCSI card needs to have a driver for 16-bit
DOS, when the emergency disk boots.
I presume you have tested your DR set? When you examine the CDs in a drive
under "normal" conditions, do you see any files listed?
I would be happy to do my recovery from the EIDE CD-ROM still on the system,
but the documentation is so sparse, it isn't clear at all how that would be
accomplished.
Dan G.
====================
Disaster Recovery CD
====================
This is a disaster recovery CD.
Except for this file the contents of this disc must be
accessed using your disaster recovery software
It's a text file that opens to the above.
The test process went fine, and was pretty much like what the book states,
though not exactly..As I recall, I ran the test from my DVD drive, not the
9110.
H.W. Stockman wrote in message ...
>
H.W. Stockman
The solution:
(1) go to www.advansys.com and root around until you find the file
dosfiles.exe (the Jaz jet Ultra PCI is really an AdvanSys card). Download
it to obtain the DOS AdvanSys ASPI drivers. The critical advancd.sys is not
in the distribution provided by Iomega.
(2) When running the HP Disaster Recovery program, and you are prompted for
the additional lines in config.sys, add:
device=advaspi.sys
device=advancd.sys /D:mscd001
(I found this instruction buried at the AdvanSys site -- Iomega had nothing
obvious. I actually found the proper web page through an AltaVista
search -- I never would have found it in the AdvanSys site on my own.)
That did it. I just remade the two floppies, then cancelled the HP DR
program when the floppies were complete. The recovery test then passed, and
the DR software on the boot disk found all the files on those mysterious,
seemingly blank CDs.
...another example of when it can be a pain in the a*s to choose SCSI
instead of EIDE, or to choose a drive without an included SCSI card...
Lesson: if you have a 3rd-party SCSI card, go to the web site for the REAL
manufacturer of the card, and look for win98 boot disk instructions. And if
you don't find 'em, look harder.
==================================
"H.W. Stockman" <hws...@wizard.com> wrote in message
news:sT3s4.57203$ox5.15...@tw11.nn.bcandid.com...
> Maybe someone can help me setup a useful Win98 startup disc that will
> actually work.
>
> Reason I need the advice: I was sucked into trying the HP Disaster
Recovery
> that came with the 9210i.
>
> First impression: HP DR is very poorly documented and poorly written
> software.
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