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Backing Up and Restoring Disk Information
Why Use Backup and Restore?
Every organization has critical files, sets of files, or entire disks. Your system manager
is usually responsible for ensuring that backups are performed on a regular basis; for
example, daily, weekly, or monthly, depending on the importance of the files and the
frequency with which files change.
Backup lets you copy disk files to magnetic tape, and contains many options that let you
customize your backups to the needs of your site.
At many sites, a system operator backs up the disks on a regular basis. However, you
might also want to use Backup and Restore to:
Protect information stored on disk
Back up your disk files to tape. If the original files are damaged or destroyed, you
can restore them from the tape copies. Even if your system operator performs this
function, you still might want to back up your important files.
Save disk space
Back up seldom-used disk files to tape. After the files are stored on the tape, you can
delete them from disk. If the files are needed, you can restore them from the tape.
Move files from one system to another system
For systems that are not connected on a network, you can back up files on one
system and then restore them on another system.
Prevent accidental overwriting
Labeled tapes can provide protection from accidental overwriting of information.
Convert files from DP1 format to DP2 format, or vice versa
Backup and Restore have options to perform disk-process file conversion. You can
back up files in one format and then restore them in another format.
Supported Modes of Operation
Backup and Restore support the following modes of operation:
File mode. Backup and Restore copy individual files one at a time. A backup tape
consists of a sequence of individual files. You can back up any file for which you
have read access.
Volume mode. Backup and Restore copy an entire disk volume. Only a super ID
(255,255) can use this mode. Backcopy cannot duplicate backup tapes created in
volume mode.
This guide discusses file mode operations. For information about volume mode
operations, see the Guardian Disk and Tape Utilities Reference Manual.
Guardian User's Guide —425266-001
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Why Use Backup and Restore?
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