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Q61849: Viewing Contents of BACKUP Disks from MS-DOS 3.3, 4.x, and 5.0

Article: Q61849
Product(s): Microsoft Disk Operating System
Version(s): MS-DOS:3.3,3.3a,4.x,5.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): msdos
Last Modified: 17-DEC-2000

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft MS-DOS operating system versions 3.3, 3.3a, 4.0, 4.01, 5.0 
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SUMMARY
=======

Information regarding which files are stored on a BACKUP disk created by MS-DOS
version 3.3, 4.x, or 5.0 is contained in the file CONTROL.<xxx> (where
<xxx> is the number of the BACKUP disk).

MORE INFORMATION
================

The BACKUP command included with MS-DOS versions earlier than 3.3 saves each
file as a separate file on the BACKUP disk. You can use the DIR command to see
which file is on which BACKUP disk.

A DIR of a backup disk created with the MS-DOS version 3.3x, 4.x, or 5.0 BACKUP
command only lists two files: BACKUP.xxx and CONTROL.xxx (where xxx is the
number of the disk in the BACKUP sequence). The BACKUP file contains the files
that have been backed up; each file's name, size, place in the directory
structure, and so in is stored in a file called CONTROL.xxx.

The backup disks created with the Microsoft MS-DOS 5 Upgrade utility HDBKUP.EXE
are the same format as those created by the MS-DOS versions 3.3 and later BACKUP
command, and can be viewed with BACKINFO.EXE.

MS-DOS 5.0 includes the RESTORE option "/D" (without the quotation marks), which
displays similar information as BACKINFO. However, if there is more than one
disk in the backup sequence, RESTORE will end with an error when a second disk
is inserted. This problem can be avoided by using BACKINFO, or by issuing a
separate RESTORE command for each disk in the backup sequence.

Additional query words: appnote 3.30 3.30a 4.00 5.00

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Keywords          : msdos 
Technology        : kbMSDOSSearch kbMSDOS400 kbMSDOS330a kbMSDOS500 kbMSDOS330 kbMSDOS401
Version           : MS-DOS:3.3,3.3a,4.x,5.0

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