Re: "Librarians horror"... Tips to help

[William Russell Smith <rssmith@TENET.EDU>]

> Horrors!  CMOS died in our lower school computer.  It wouldn't even allow
> me to reboot.  A handy tech brought it to his shop and fixed it quickly
> but I have this horrible nightmare: what do you do, after you have
> automated and you no longer print pockets and cards and your computer
> goes belly up??? What do you do when all the students are milling about
> trying to check out their books and not be late for classes....
>
> What are your contingency plans.  Has this ever <shudder> happened?


Roselle:

     A few comments first about your main request (What to do when
computerized operations fail).

     1. As a general rule you should always have a paper and pencil backup
system available in case of computer failure. Whatever you used before the
computer operations should be retained in at least a skeletal but still usable
form. Computers can save you many hours of work, but their sudden loss can
cause you much grief.

     2. Although not as cheap as solution number 1 the obvious answer to
continuous service is a backup machine loaded with identical software.
Most big companies keep a spare PC in the closet or in a lightly used station
and can cannibalize or press it into service. Of course I know all about
the economics of schools, so don't immediately dismiss me a nut for this
idea. It can work if you share resources with other teachers in case of
disaster (i.e. quickly installing your library software on a borrowed
teacher's computer to get you by until your machine is fixed. These are
hard decisions that need to be arranged ahead of time... computer coordinators
earn their money here (in the few districts that actually are smart
enough to hire one).

     3. Current backups are a must in this age of bloated programs and
important new software programs for libraries. Your CMOS failure was a
breeze to fix for a smart technician... but how would YOU handle total loss
of data if your hard drive cratered? My suggestion is for tape backup
systems for critical data (and whose data isn't critical to the person using
and depending on it?). Barring that some form of floppy drive backup
would be good. However, I know most hard drives are too big now for floppy
backups. But you can do an alternate type. Try just backing up data files
from a program. Here's a tip on how to do a simple type of backup for a word
processor program:

     Make a text file called backup5.bat. Using Edit or another text editor
type:cd c:\word5          (first line)
     copy *.doc a:\ /v    (second line)

     Save it as backup5.bat and put it in the root directory of C drive. Now
insert a high density floppy periodically in drive A and type the word backup5.
The batch file will copy the doc files to the floppy and you'll have current
backups. Now this assumes you have less than 1.44 megs of .doc files
in the Word5 directory to backup (otherwise your floppy will fill up and
not get all the doc files). So to use this method you need to save doc
files on labelled diskettes and prune your word processor program on a regular
basis to stay under the limit (how to check?... type:dir *.doc <enter>
inside the Word5 directory). You can use this batch file for other
programs... just decide what files you want to save, give it the right path
in your batch file, use the wild card *.extension, and name it something
easy to remember.

     Now that wouldn't work for me too good because I just looked and I had
6.7 megs of doc files in Microsoft Word 5 (my quick and dirty word
processor)...and I shudder to think what I have in WinWord 6.0a.

     So I rely on a Colorado Trakker, but you can do another floppy
backup using MS-DOS version 6.xx that can easily handle the bigger
backups and span multiple floppy disks.

     I won't go into all the details here, but msbackup is the command
and it will backup the files you tell it to (from a menu system). So you
can tell it to back up all the doc files in Word5 and it will analyze
your request, display the exact number of files you are backing up and
tell you the total in bytes and also how many floppies you will need
(pretty smart!). I just tried it on my Word5 docs and it told me I had 282
doc files and it would take 5 floppies to hold them (and it gave a backup
time of about 3 minutes).

     Another tip about msbackup: It is also the restore command for files
you backup... the restore box is inside msbackup when you invoke it. If
you have older versions of DOS backups the older restore utility command
is still in DOS 6.xx and you invoke it... but not for backups made using
msbackup.


     Well, enough of this computer backup stuff... Here's what I really
wanted to help you on... how to save and restore the CMOS values in your
computer. Read on for an explanation of that. (Note: This is for
IBM-compatibles only)

     An older posting of mine of TENET (Texas Education Network):

     A few more comments about increasing your cursor speed by inserting this
command into your autoexec.bat: mode con:rate=32 delay=1

     This command works well on most AT's, but some 386 and 486 machines have
the typematic rate restricted in the CMOS values. You can increase your
cursor speed in most cases by changing those values.

     Many CMOS screens are accessible by hitting the Delete key while booting
up. Then you pick the Advanced CMOS Setup menu item and enter to that screen.
Usually you will see the Typematic Rate Programming and Typematic Rate
(Chars/Sec) as the first two items (there may or may not be a third one for
Delay).

     Set the Typematic Rate Programming to Enabled by highlighting it
and hitting PageDown; highlight and change the Typematic Rate to the highest
rate allowable (usually it is set for 15 and you can go to 30) by the PageDown
key again. If you have the Delay line set it to the smallest time in
milliseconds (it's probably on 500, set it to 200 or 250).

     Then hit escape, hit F10, type y for yes, and hit enter to save your
changes and leave. If you have never been in your CMOS screen before you
might take a peek in the Standard CMOS screen. Write down your values for
the fixed disks (c drive) and keep it in a safe place. CMOS values can
easily get whacked by many things that go bump in the night on PC's and
you might really need to restore those values manually. Read on for an
easier way to restore your values and get some peace of mind.

     Saving CMOS values is as smart as having a rescue disk for your computer.
The thing to do is save your CMOS values onto that rescue diskette and
then you have more protection. Here's how to do it:

     First make your rescue diskette: Put a floppy in the drive and type
this at the C:sys a: <enter>   (or sys b: <enter>)

     This will transfer the important hidden system files io.sys, msdos.sys,
and command.com to the floppy. Then you should copy config.sys, autoexec.bat,
and two windows files (win.ini, and system.ini.). Many experts add other
files to this rescue diskette (like fdisk, format.com, etc..), but these listed
above should be sufficient for most emergencies.

     If your machine ever crashes and will not restart, you should try
your rescue diskette (6.0 and 6.2 users can press F5 to bypass autoexec.bat
and config.sys if that is the startup problem). If your machine will not
access the floppy you probably need to go into the Advanced CMOS Screen and
make sure the floppy drive letter is set ahead of the fixed drive letter for
the Seek on Bootup line (It should read A;C instead of C;A).

     If your system files were destroyed somehow on the hard drive you
can restore them from the rescue diskette by this command:sys a: c: <enter>

     If your CMOS values for the hard drive were destroyed you are in a
pickle unless you recorded them previously or maybe your machine has a menu
item in the CMOS main menu called Auto Hard Drive Detect. Older 386 machines
may well not have that feature so it is good procedure at the very minimum
to at least write down the hard drive values and keep it in a safe place
(in the back of your deck manual or on the rescue diskette label).

     Unfortunately, sometimes *ALL* the CMOS values will fly away to never
never land and you will need to restore the entire lineup of CMOS values. Most
of us don't have those figures written down, but there is a better solution.
Make a copy of your CMOS values by a utility program (It will probably be
in the next DOS version).

     Norton Utilities and PC Tools can make a copy for you and there is
also an excellent shareware program available for Internet users that can do
the same thing.

     A Canadian program is available from the Oakland repository. Follow this
path to get it: From the Unix prompt type this:ftp oak.oakland.edu

     When it asks for password type:anonymous <enter> or ftp <enter>
When it asks for user name type:yourInternetaddress <enter>
(you can stop typing after the @ sign: example:rssmith@ <enter>


     Then type:cd /SimTel/msdos/at <enter>   (note: in Unix always use
capital letters like S and T in SimTel)

     Next type:binary <enter>
     Then type:get cmos14.zip <enter>

     After the file makes it to your storage area on your network type:quit

     Then download it to your PC.

    Now you should have it in your download directory and you're nearly
in business. Make a directory called CMOS and move the zip file to it and
decompress it. Also make a CMOS directory on your rescue diskette and copy
and decompress the cmos zip file into it. Read the text file if you want
to learn all about CMOS and why it is a such a tricky character.

     CMOS is merely battery powered RAM that holds very important
configuration files while the power is off. Unfortunately, CMOS is affected
at times by power failures, software conflicts, and people meddling with it.

      You use the cmos14 program by being in the CMOS directory and typing
this to save CMOS values to a floppy (your rescue diskette would be
good):cmossave a:cmos.sav <enter>

       Also you can save it to the hard drive so you can have it saved in
two places. Type this:cmossave c:cmos.sav

     If you ever need to restore it you use either the hard drive directory
CMOS or the floppy drive directory CMOS. Type this from that directory:cmosrest
a:cmos.sav <enter>  or cmosrest c:cmos.sav <enter>

     Considering the consequences of having your PC knocked out of action by
crashed CMOS values, using a CMOS save program makes very good sense.

     Write to me if you need help on using cmos14.zip or getting it by ftp
(file transfer protocol). I will send it to you as a mail attachment if you
haven't mastered ftp yet.

Cheers,

Russell Smith
rssmith@tenet.edu
Educational Technologist