Mac OS 9 Lives
Mac OS 9 Discussion => Software => Topic started by: Greystash on June 29, 2019, 03:01:08 AM
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Does anyone know if there's a good file syncing/backup utility for Mac OS 9? I have ~120GB of Mac OS 7-9 software, ISO's etc. that I want to keep in sync between my G4 and NAS drive (over ethernet) - E.g. if I add files to the directory on my G4, then run the sync utility again it notices that there has been only one file change and copies the now file to the NAS drive and vice versa.
I previously accomplished this with ChronoSync 3 on OSX, but OSX messes up my OS9 partitions every time it touches them. I've just gone full OS9 and removed OSX. ChronoSync did this perfectly and the only comparable Mac OS 9 application I've found is PowerMerge LE, but this often runs into errors (permissions?), and suffers memory crashes. Every other app I've used only offers one-way backups, which isn't what I want.
Is there anything similar out there?
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I asked about backup software here recently and was recommended Personal Backup (http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/personal-backup).
I use it for backup and not synchronization, but I think it does file sync operations as well. It is really simple and painless to set up. :)
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Thanks RogerWilco that works great! Had a few issues with folder/file permissions which must have been left over from OSX, but solved this by creating a new folders and moving the items into them.
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Awesome! I'm glad to hear that it worked out! It is probably the most painless too I've found or have been recommended and for good reason. I can just have it sit in my menu bar and every week, when I do backups, I can tell it to backup for me. :D
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I make my complete backups in 3 steps:
- reduce the number of files by saving every program as a compressed ShrinkWrap image,
- reduce the number of files by converting every HTML page to a PDF,
- save every volume as a Toast image on an external disk.
I make my incremental backups with my own program. Then I convert them to StuffIt X.
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I make my complete backups in 3 steps:
- reduce the number of files by saving every program as a compressed ShrinkWrap image,
- reduce the number of files by converting every HTML page to a PDF,
- save every volume as a Toast image on an external disk.
I make my incremental backups with my own program. Then I convert them to StuffIt X.
Nice! I might have to try that sometime. :D
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It definitely is the most painless option I've come across! Thanks for the tips OS923, I've compressed everything (file/folder) as a .sit archive and really should make another backup with toast images. HTML to PDF is a great suggestion which I haven't yet done.
Thanks!
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i´ve never used anything else than toast images, because my main backup is on CD, later DVD (now bluray) anyway.
the only lilttle extra work is that you need to index them when you want to be able to search for a file.
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Backup programs that I tested and that I found OK:
Personal backup 2.0.1
Retrospect 5.1.177
SmartSaver 3.4
Synchronization programs that I tested and that I found OK:
File Synchronization 1.2
This is a control panel application from Apple.
It was included, I think, in OS 9.1, but later removed.
It lets you make "pairs" that it remembers when you restart the program.
(There's something wrong with the about box.)
Would this be the last version?
The main problem with synchronization programs is that you need to be absolutely sure that your date and time are correct at all times, otherwise you risk that new files are overwritten with old versions. When my G4 starts up it shows in large characters the date and time and then I verify it with my radio control clock.
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File Synchronization was great! That's what I used until recently but often ran into memory issues when dealing with big directories. Thanks for the tip about date/time, I hadn't thought about that..
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I used File Synchronization until it started locking up for no apparent reason. :P
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I propose a programming contest:
- the shortest backup program in C++,
- the shortest backup program in REALbasic,
- the shortest synchronization program in C++,
- the shortest synchronization program in REALbasic.
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I've got a few books on CodeWarrior C++ and have begun learning for OS9, so maybe one day in the near future I could give it a go
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See in the attachment the solution in REALbasic. If you agree with this solution, then I'll write the C++ version.
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If File Synchronization crashes, then give it more memory. This increases the heap.
If it's a PPC program, then you can also increase the stack. Open 'cfrg' resource 0 and change App Stack to a larger value.
I synchronized a directory with 20 levels deep without problem.
Before you synchronize, you should look for potential problems, like locked icon files and locked invisible files, which make some programs crash.
Some file copy problems are caused by invisible files and folders, for example made by file sharing, OSX or Windows.
Icon files can cause trouble because they may not be added to the total file size and then it's miscalculated and may cause overflow in the progress.
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When people scan a directory, they usually create a parameter block as a local variable on the stack in a recursive function.
This is the better way.
Suppose that you're scanning A:B:C: and you find D.
You don't need the parameter blocks for A, B, C and D at the same time.
You need only the parameter block of the last thing that you looked at: D.
Then you can make the parameter block static or declare it outside of the recursive function.
Same story if you make a spec in this function.
Then you save 384+70=454 bytes for every level in the recursion.
I've programmed it without recursion too.
I placed the dirID on a stack.
That's the fastest solution.
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I synchronized with Synchronize! 3.9.5 (3 MB/s).
I synchronized with Tri-BACKUP 3 (10 MB/s).
I found this on a MacWelt DVD.
There seems to have been a Tri-BACKUP 4 for OS 9.
I found Synchronize Pro 4.3.1.
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Sorry for the slow reply... I've been so busy with work I haven't booted my Quicksilver in months. I still need to transfer over 600gb of music to the Quicksilver so will do some testing with your REALbasic app. Would you mind sharing the Tri-BACKUP and Synchronize Pro apps? I'm interested in trying these out too. Also, what tool do you use to measure transfer speeds?
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Synchronize! 3.9.5
http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/macwelt-dvd-4
Tri-BACKUP 3
https://www.tri-edre.com/pub/files/TriBACKUP_3US.sit
Tri-BACKUP 4
https://www.tri-edre.com/pub/files/TriBACKUP_4USOS9.sit
I measure the speed usually with the menu bar clock and Calculator. My REALbasic program uses CopyFileTo, which copies around 20 MB/s. That's faster than all the other programs that I tried.
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I seem to remember that some of these programs show the transfer speed.
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I converted all my sitx backups to ShrinkWrap images. I indexed them with CatFinder. Searching a filename in my backups is now 120 times faster compared to ArchiveSearch.
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Synchronize! Pro 4.3.1 -> 1009-6779-0168-7099-SP
Tri-BACKUP 3.2.2 -> L50 102 131 448
Tri-BACKUP 4.0.4 -> BU4-F12 208 599 770
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I converted all my sitx backups to ShrinkWrap images. I indexed them with CatFinder. Searching a filename in my backups is now 120 times faster compared to ArchiveSearch.
Thank you for all your efforts! Always interesting reading about your new discoverings!!
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Thank you very much!! Will give them a go
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I found a memory leak in Synchronization. Now all memory leaks are gone.
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I've finally had a chance to do some testing and here's what I've found syncing a HD with 120GB of archived software:
File Synchronization - Apple control panel modified to use a bigger stack and more memory
- Works flawlessly
- Good UI
- The 'Scanning Files' step is considerably slower than all other applications tested
Synchronize! Pro
- Second slowest application, also seemed to struggle scanning for changed files.
- Often encountered issues syncing Desktop DB, DF etc. files
Personal Backup
- Works very well
- Good UI
- I'm assuming it uses a temp folder for transfers because it's the only application that leaves the current files in place until a file has been fully 'synced'. This means that if you cancel a sync the original files are still in place.
- Appears to be equal to Tri-backup in terms of speed.
- Tries to sync Desktop folders which sometimes need to be excluded due to errors
Tri-Backup
- Good UI
- Same speed as Personal Backup
- Excellent at running as a background task and doesn't seem to slow my G4 down
- I haven't come across any sync errors while using it!
My ranking:
1. Tri-Backup
2. Personal Backup
3. File Synchronization
4. Synchronize! Pro
OS923 I wasn't able to test your RealBasic App. Whenever I try to build the application I get errors. Are you able to send through a compiled version?
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My 2 programs have some external items in common. When you open the project REALbasic 5.5.5 needs to locate those items and then it should be OK.
But I'll do like you asked and link them.
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Thanks a lot Greystash for letting us know!
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OS923 I wasn't able to test your RealBasic App. Whenever I try to build the application I get errors. Are you able to send through a compiled version?
See attachments.
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Thanks for uploading those OS923. I've tried them out and both are at least 10 seconds faster than any of the other tools listed above.
I found several issues but these are obviously present because it's a first iteration.
- You can't cancel a sync/backup. The system is unresponsive until the task is complete, then a dialog shows saying that the task has been cancelled.
- There is no progress indicator so you can't tell whether the task is running or if the or the system has crashed
Thank you for your efforts, it's great to have more options!
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Hmmm. I'll look into it.
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I improved it with a progress bar. It uses a buffer of 64 MB, which it reads in blocks of 1 MB, then writes in blocks of 1 MB. I used this method in "Save a volume as a file" and I will use this too in the new Finder. Because reading is faster than writing, the speed will be initially higher, but then it becomes 'slower'. It copies large files at 17.1 MB/s. It copies small files at 4.6 MB/s.
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17mb/s? why that?
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Does Tri-Backup or Personal Backup carry program authorisations over OK or is it better to use the Apple Software Restore method for that?