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Crash Recovery   Fastback Plus for OS/2 1.02       RECOVERY.TXT   6/2/95
========================================================================

     Recovering from disaster can be a very tedious task for OS/2 users.
Simply "booting from a disk and restoring" as was the standard for DOS
users is not all that is required to recover from a crash in OS/2.
To facilitate total recovery from a crash, Fastback Plus for OS/2 includes
an option in the Fastback Plus user interface--Recovery Sets.

     IMPORTANT NOTES!:
     -Creating recovery diskettes is a prevention tool-  it must
be done _before_ your system crashes.
     -It is also very important that a new set of crash recovery diskettes be
made every time there is a hardware change in backup devices.  This procedure
will assure that you will always have the latest information for system
configuration on the crash recovery diskettes in case of an emergency.
     -You will not be able to restore data from a system device pointing
to a networked drive; Fastback Plus for OS/2 does not save network driver
information onto the crash recovery diskettes.
                     
     This function can be found in the Utilities menu in the Fastback Plus for
OS/2 menu interface, which is run by double-clicking on the "Fastback Plus"
object.  This option can be found in the "Full" menus only, so if you are an
"Express" menu user, you will have to select "Full Menus" from the "Options"
menu in order to select this.

     You will need two of your OS/2 installation diskettes:  Disk 0, labelled
"Installation Diskette" (or "Disk 1", if you're running the CSD), and Disk 1,
labelled "Diskette 1" (or "Disk 2" in the CSD), and three blank, FORMATTED
diskettes (Fastback Plus for OS/2 will call these the "Target" diskettes) for
this operation.  Fastback Plus will use them to create the three disk
"Recovery Set", the third disk will contain the FB/2 command-line recovery
program, FBCR.EXE, all associated backup devices, and the utilities required
to re-partition and re-format your Fixed Disk partitions.  The first two are
required to boot your system to OS/2.

NOTE:  It is strongly recommended that you FIRST perform a full backup and
THEN create the recovery set IMMEDIATELY after installing Fastback Plus for
OS/2.

     Recovery set creation steps:

     1. Prepare 3 FORMATTED diskettes, labeled Install (0), Disk 1, and
              Crash Recovery.  Locate your OS/2 installation set and put aside
              the first two diskettes (Be sure that you use the "Installation"
              and "Disk 1", from the exact level of OS/2 you are using.  In
              other words, if you have installed the CSD, you will need the
              "Disk 1" and "Disk 2" disks from the CSD to create this set,
              which are equivalent to the  "Installation" and "Disk 1"
              disks from your original install.  If you are running
              Warp, you do NOT use the FixPack diskettes.)

     2. Start the Fastback Plus user interface by double-clicking on
              the Fastback Plus icon.

     3. Follow the directions on the screen.  Fastback Plus will create
              two boot diskettes using files from the installation diskettes,
              and then create the recovery disk.

     4. Put the diskettes in a safe place, where you can be sure to locate
              them when and if they are needed.

     IMPORTANT:Should you install a service pack or upgrade to OS/2, be sure
              to create a NEW recovery set with the disks from the CSD, as
              described above!  Otherwise, your file system may be
              inaccessible.  If you add any new backup devices, you
              should also make a new set of crash recovery diskettes so
              that the crash recovery operation will be able to access
              these devices in the event of an emergency.

     You may test to see if your Crash Recovery Diskettes were made as
     planned by booting from them.

     Using the recovery set:

     1. Insert the crash recovery diskette labeled INSTALL and reboot your
               system. The bootstrap procedure will be identical with the
               initial phase of the OS/2 installation process, as the system
               will boot and ask for Disk 1.  After OS/2 is booted via
               the crash recovery disks, however, the system will drop
               you to an OS/2 command prompt.

     2. Insert the third diskette.  The third diskette will contain
               CHKDSK.EXE, FDISK.EXE, and FORMAT.EXE.  Contact your local
               IBM support representative should you require assistance
               repartitioning and reformatting your Fixed Disk, or refer
               to your OS/2 documentation.  You must make sure to
               make the partitions large enough to hold the information
               for each respective drive of the backup you are
               restoring.

     3. Run the Crash Recovery Restore program by typing FBCR and pressing
               <ENTER> at the command prompt.  Follow the instructions on
               screen to restore your Full Backup.  Note that the files
               listed after the device is accessed will show some files
               listed with extensions that are alphabetical characters.
               DO NOT select these for restore, as they are history
               files.  You must select the first data segment (has an
               extension of .001) of the backup you wish to restore.
               If you select the wrong set to restore, you may abort by
               pressing CTRL+BREAK or CTRL+C.  If your SCSI drive shows a
               list with only one file and an option to Rebuild the Catalog,
               you may choose that option to get a list of more sets to
               restore from.  When complete, simply reboot your machine.


===========================================================================
*************** A Note to Advanced Users of OS/2 *********************MFRF*
===========================================================================

     The installation of OS/2 can be most time consuming, and a quick and
easy method of restoring your OS/2 system without the necessity of
reconfiguring all of your applications.  Installing OS/2, create a partition
large enough to contain your OS/2 plus a reasonable swap area depending on
your needs and available RAM, and keep your Applications on another partition.
Should reinstall become necessary, you can easily re-partition and re-format
that partition, and then restore OS/2 using FBCR (Fastback Plus Crash
Recovery) to restore the OS/2 System.

     The essential purpose of FBCR is to do a dumb restore of a backup to
original locations with "overwrite always" set.



