Chapter 4 - Browsing the Disk Volumes
This chapter describes features common to EBR browse windows. The features described in this chapter work the same way in all the browse windows and operations, and are used for the following tasks:
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Viewing your disk volumes, directories, and files ![]()
Searching for files by using patterns and wildcards ![]()
Changing the current selection to a specific directory or file ![]()
Marking and unmarking directories or files for backup, recover, or archive ![]()
Exiting from browse windows and from EBR ![]()
Checking the status of a scheduled backup
A browse window graphically shows files organized under directories. A browse window is similar in appearance to the Windows File Manager.
Inside the main window, there are five EBR windows where you can browse the disks:
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Local Directives window - Use this window to view disk volumes, directories, or files, and unmark ones you do not want backed up during scheduled backup. You may also designate files or directories as password-protected or compressed. ![]()
Backup window - Use this window to view your disk volumes, directories, or files, and mark ones you would like to have immediately backed up. You may also use this window to password-protect or compress items during backup. ![]()
Recover window - Use this window to browse the on-line index entries for your backed-up disk volumes, directories, or files, and mark ones you wish to recover. ![]()
Archive window - Use this window to view your disk volumes, directories, or files, and mark ones that you would like to have safely stored on separate archive media and then optionally have removed.
This frees up disk space, and you can still recover a deleted file in the future if you want to.![]()
Verify Files window - Use this window to view the on-line index entries for your backed-up disk volumes, directories, or files, and mark ones you wish to verify by comparing them against their counterparts currently on hard disk.
The name of each browse window appears in its title bar. You can find all the commands described in this chapter in the File, Tree, or View pull-down menus of the Main window.
The Backup, Archive, and Local Directives browse windows display the disk volumes, directories, and files actually on your system. By contrast, the Recover and Verify Files windows display backup index entries for everything EBR has backed up, organized like the directories on your system. This means that when you are doing a Recover, you see only the files you have previously backed up.
The View menu for the Backup and Local Directives browse windows is identical, containing three choices: Split, Name Only, Name and Details. These commands were described in Chapter 3.
The Archive window adds another choice to the View menu:
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Change Archive Time allows you to alter the date and time before which unmodified files become eligible for archiving. The archive time appears on the right side of the status line. By default, the archive time is 90 days ago; so files are candidates for archiving after not changing for about three months. They are marked with an asterisk on the far right of the browse window, to indicate what you may want to archive.
Note: To see the asterisk, you must select Name and Details in the View menu.
The Recover and Verify windows add three choices to the View menu:
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Required Volumes shows a list of the backup volumes (tapes that must be mounted by the EBR service) you need to recover or verify files you have marked. ![]()
Change Browse Time allows you to look at the on-line index for any time in the past, in case you want to see how your files and directories looked at an earlier time. ![]()
Versions shows the sizes, modification times, and backup times for versions of files previously backed up by EBR.
In all browse windows, there are two columns in the rightmost panel for size and modification time. The size column displays the size of each file in bytes; size is blank for directories. The modification time for a directory is its creation date. For a file, the modification time is the time the file was last changed. The Recover and Verify windows also display a column for backup time, which informs you when the volume, directory, or file was last backed up.
The right-hand column (after mod time) shows h for hidden files, r for read-only files, s for system files, and a for files that have their DOS archive bit set.
Use the Expand One Level command when you want to view the directories and files on a volume, or the subdirectories and files in a directory, to a depth of one level.
1. Highlight the volume or directory you wish to expand.
2. Choose Expand One Level from the Tree menu, or double-click the primary mouse button (usually on the left).
Tip: Or press [+], the speed key for Expand One Level.
You can also use the [Enter] key to toggle between expanding and collapsing a disk volume or directory to one level.
Use the Expand Branch command when you want to view all of the directories and files on a disk volume, or all of the subdirectories and files in a directory.
1. Highlight the volume or directory you wish to expand.
2. Choose Expand Branch from the Tree menu.
Tip: Or press [*], the speed key for Expand Branch.
Expand operations show items on the status line as they are expanded. To cancel an expansion in progress, press the [Esc] key. If you cancel an expansion, the browse window will show the expanded directories only as far as the expansion progressed.
The example that follows illustrates the difference between expanding a level and expanding the C: branch. Notice that expanding a branch displays all sub-levels of the current directory, no matter how deep the levels are.
Use the Expand All command when you want to view all of the directories and files on your disk volumes.
1. Highlight any of the volumes in the directory.
2. If you have multiple volumes, the location of the highlight does not matter - all volumes will be expanded.
3. Choose Expand All from the Tree menu.
Tip: Or press [Ctrl][*], the speed key for Expand All. You must use the [*] on the numeric keypad, not the one above [8].
Expand operations show the items as they are expanded on the status line. To cancel an expansion in progress, press the [Esc] key. If you cancel an expansion, the browse window shows the expanded directory structure only as far as the expansion progressed.
Note: Expand All has the same effect as highlighting "/" (root) at the top and choosing Expand Branch. The difference is that you do not need to highlight "/" for Expand All.
Use the Collapse Branch command to collapse an expanded view and display nothing in the left hand directory pane for the current disk volume or directory. To collapse a directory, follow these steps:
1. Highlight the volume or directory you wish to collapse.
2. Choose Collapse Branch from the Tree menu, or double-click the primary mouse button (usually on the left).
Tip: Or press [-] (the minus sign), the speed key for Collapse Branch.
EBR provides a search utility in the File pull-down menu for every type of operation and browse window. Use the Find command to search your disk volumes, directories, or files for a pattern. Follow these steps:
1. Choose Find from the File pull-down menu.
Tip: Or click the Find button on the speedbar.
EBR displays the Find dialog box, where you can enter the pattern or file name for which to search:
2. Type a pattern or name into the Find What field.
3. Press the [Enter] key, or click on Find Next.
EBR scans your disk volumes or your file indexes from the currently selected entry to the bottom. When a match is found, EBR expands the directory where the file is located, and highlights that file in the browse window. To cancel a search in progress, click Cancel or press the [Esc] key.
To find the next occurrence of the pattern or file name, bring up the Find dialog box again, then press [Enter] to Find Next. Notice that the Find What field contains the last pattern you entered.
EBR offers wildcards to help you search for specific files or groups of files.The asterisk (*) stands for any number of characters, while the question mark (?) stands for any single character.
Sample search patterns are shown in the Table 4-1:
Pattern | Description |
MEMO.12 | Find files with the name "MEMO.12" |
*.TMP | Find files with the suffix "TMP" |
A*.* | Find files starting with the letter "A" |
AO??? | Find the file that begins with the letters "AO" and has five or fewer characters |
Note that the Find command is not case-sensitive. Also note that the question mark does not conform to DOS conventions, where AO??? finds files with exactly five characters.
Every EBR browse window graphically displays the path of the currently highlighted disk volume, directory, or file. This is the current selection. If you know the pathname of a directory or file, you can locate it using Change Selection, which appears in the File menu whenever there is a browse window. Change Selection also allows you to select items on a network drive to back up or recover if your EBR service is configured to permit this operation. In addition, Change Selection can be useful to help you locate and recover files or directories that were deleted long ago.
To find a file, follow these steps:
1. Choose Change Selection from the File menu. The Change Selection dialog box appears:
2. Enter the path of the file you are selecting into the Selection field and press the [Enter] key or click OK.
Tip: If the system administrator has enabled network drive backup, you may change to a network drive by typing its letter in the Selection box. For example, type "H:" to switch to the H network drive.
Do not enter the leading / (slash) in the path, even though it appears at the top of the directory tree - it is a special symbol. Enter only disk volume names followed by colon (:), directory names, or a filename (for example, C:\EXCEL\BUDGET.XLS). You may also enter a relative path, for example, \WORD\FILE3. Path names are not case- sensitive.
You can scroll the contents of the New Selection field if it is too long for the display by using the [_] and [_] keys. The contents of the Selection field automatically scrolls if you type a long path.
The newly selected file name is highlighted in the browse window. Now you can mark it or unmark it for a backup, archive, verify, or recover operation.
Use the Mark command to select a disk volume, directory, or file for a manual backup, recover, or archive. Use the Unmark command if you do not want a volume, directory, or file backed up, recovered, or archived. When you mark a volume, directory, or file, a check mark (_) appears to the left of its name. See the sample screen in the section "Unmarking a File" later in this chapter.
Tip: If you highlight one or more files at once by holding down the mouse button and dragging the mouse, you can Mark all files inside the selection. Check marks appear on each line. Any time you mark a volume or directory, all its nested subdirectories and files are also marked.
Mark and Unmark are found on the speedbar, and in the File menu whenever the Backup, Recover, Archive, Verify, and Local Directives browse windows are active.
To mark a disk volume, directory, or file, follow these steps:
1. Highlight the item(s) you want in the browse window.
2. Choose [Mark] from the File menu.
Tip: Or click the Mark button on the speedbar.
To unmark a disk volume, directory, or file, follow these steps:
1. Highlight the item(s) you do not want in the browse window.
2. Choose [Unmark] from the File menu.
Tip: Or click the Unmark button on the speedbar.
The most common use for the Unmark command is to mark an entire directory for a backup (or a recover, or an archive), and then unmark certain files within that directory because you do not want to back them up. For example:
Tip: If you have a two-button mouse, you may click the secondary button (usually on the right) to alternately mark and unmark a volume, file, or directory.
If you try to start an operation without marking at least one file, EBR asks you to mark something before it can activate the operation.
Select Close from the File menu to close the current browse window without backing up, archiving, or recovering any files, and return to the Main window.
Tip: Or double-click on the browse window' s control menu box.
If scheduled backups are in use at your site, from time to time you should check the Scheduled Backup Status window to see if your system is getting backed up regularly.
When scheduled backups are in use, your system will be contacted by the EBR service according to a schedule established by your administrator, and a scheduled save of your workstation's hard disk(s) will start and complete within a few hours. This cycle repeats until you close the Scheduled Backup program, or until an error occurs.
To check Scheduled Backup Status, follow these steps:
1. Inside the EBR program group, double-click on the Scheduled Backup icon:
2. Look at the messages inside the Scheduled Backup Status window.
If the messages "Scheduled probe started" and "Scheduled save started" appear in the status window, the backup is proceeding as specified.
If the status window contains "save: failed" messages, as in the following sample, you must restart the scheduled backup.
3. To resume waiting for scheduled backup, choose Restart Backup from the File menu.
The Scheduled Backup Status window clears, and the following message appears:
Waiting to be contacted for backup...
4. Make Scheduled Backup an icon again by clicking the minimize button.
Note: Scheduled Backup does not back up network drives even if you have marked them for backup. If workstation backup of network drives is supported by your EBR service, you must use EBR to initiate backups of data on network drives.