USB JumpDrive works great as backup media

[BillG49]

I did it again!

After filling up the 64MB drive with pictures, leaving about 150kb free, I backed up using the PC utility. Once again, it did not warn me or tell me the drive was full, but formatted and renamed it PKBACK# 001, then dropped the zip file onto it.

Next, I filled up the drive again, leaving 4MB free, and backed up again. It added the backup file, leaving 2.7MB free. Then I backed up again, and it erased the disk and put the new backup on the drive by itself.

However, I wasn't quite accurate when I said it didn't warn me - I just didn't recognize it as such. A window popped up with a heading of "DynaZIP ZIP Request", like this:



I'll try to remember if I see that again to click on Cancel if I don't want to erase my drive.

[Zaphod]

That's some good detective work, Bill! I'll let development know about this. Maybe there's something they can do to double check the media.

Keats - Also good detective work. That's not even something I would have thought about.

You guys are all right.

[tborgal]

I had a similar thing happen to me - lost files that is - when doing a back-up to a CD a couple of weeks ago. The CD had two previous back-ups on it so it was no where near full. Also the CD was not re-writeable. Don't know if the problem was related to my system or PC+ software, but everything seems to be working OK now. I had used the back-ups to update offsight system so I know they were there and funtional.

[jeffkoke]

Jeff & Zaphod,

My USB drive is a 64MB Iomega. I also have a 256MB USB drive that won't work at all, because as you noted, it is recognized as a hard drive.

The 64MB drive may have been nearly full, but it didn't have anything priceless or unique on it. I did rename it again, and have not had any further problems. PC adds backup zip files like it did in v8.5, and doesn't erase files or format the drive.

I think I'll fill it up with pictures, etc. and try backing up again.

Or maybe it was the alignment of the moon and the mouse?

Bill/Zaphod,

Yesterday I tried doing a backup to my "new" 1Gb Crucial Gizmo USB drive. As was reported above, PC+ did not recongize my USB drive. I had choices of A: and all of the network drives.

What I choose to do was back up to my H: drive and then manually copy the zip file to the USB drive.

Windows explorer displayed the drive, but PC+ just ignored it.

Here's the reference for the drive: http://www.crucial.com/store/partspecs. ... es+storage

What's really interesting is the my old 256Mb USB drive (also a Crucial product) is recognized as an available device for backup! It is a USB v1.x where the new drive is USB v2.0. Could this be a clue?

Ideas?

Jeff

[RedBaron2]

Yesterday I tried doing a backup to my "new" 1Gb Crucial Gizmo USB drive. As was reported above, PC+ did not recongize my USB drive. I had choices of A: and all of the network drives.
.
.
.

What's really interesting is the my old 256Mb USB drive (also a Crucial product) is recognized as an available device for backup! It is a USB v1.x where the new drive is USB v2.0. Could this be a clue?

Ideas?

Jeff

Hi All,
The reason jeffkoke that your new 1gb usb drive failed to be recognized by the PC+ software as a valid back-up drive is because of no support for Win 98/98SE. PC+ uses the older files/support for simple testing of the device to see if it will work. Also a 1gb usb drive is recognized by most OS systems as hard drive storage media not floppy storage media Bummer I know, but that appears to be the breaks. Nothing to do with the USB 1.x or 2.x issue.

As for the USB Drive or CD being formated/erased except for the latest back-up could be that the "bug" as Zaphod mentioned is looking at the drive as a "B floppy drive". I'm very surprised by the information that PC+ uses Dyna Zip compression. Dyna Zip's compression utility has been known to have bugs when dealing with floppies/CD's for back-up media. This "bug" from them could be contributing to the recent PC+ issues.

--
Red Baron2

[jeffkoke]

The reason jeffkoke that your new 1gb usb drive failed to be recognized by the PC+ software as a valid back-up drive is because of no support for Win 98/98SE. PC+ uses the older files/support for simple testing of the device to see if it will work. Also a 1gb usb drive is recognized by most OS systems as hard drive storage media not floppy storage media Bummer I know, but that appears to be the breaks. Nothing to do with the USB 1.x or 2.x issue. Red Baron2

Unless I'm missing something here, I'll have to respectively disagree with you on this one. I'm running XP Pro client on the church's network and W2k Pro at home. If (and I wouldn't put it as Redmond) XP Pro and W2k Pro are using Win98 drivers, then I'll certainly agree with you.

As for the USB Drive or CD being formated/erased except for the latest back-up could be that the "bug" as Zaphod mentioned is looking at the drive as a "B floppy drive". I'm very surprised by the information that PC+ uses Dyna Zip compression. Dyna Zip's compression utility has been known to have bugs when dealing with floppies/CD's for back-up media. This "bug" from them could be contributing to the recent PC+ issues. Red Baron2

Now, this is an interesting note...of which I was not aware, nor have experienced.

Jeff

[RedBaron2]

The reason jeffkoke that your new 1gb usb drive failed to be recognized by the PC+ software as a valid back-up drive is because of no support for Win 98/98SE. PC+ uses the older files/support for simple testing of the device to see if it will work. Also a 1gb usb drive is recognized by most OS systems as hard drive storage media not floppy storage media Bummer I know, but that appears to be the breaks. Nothing to do with the USB 1.x or 2.x issue. Red Baron2

Unless I'm missing something here, I'll have to respectively disagree with you on this one. I'm running XP Pro client on the church's network and W2k Pro at home. If (and I wouldn't put it as Redmond) XP Pro and W2k Pro are using Win98 drivers, then I'll certainly agree with you.

Jeff

Hi Jeff
I would have wanted to reply to this in a PM to you, but this will work as well. It isn't that Win 2k/XP/2k3 are using the 98 drivers. It is that PC+ is using the Win 98/98SE compatible files/drivers installed from FoxPro. The program PC+ uses the FoxPro DLL files to talk with other API's in the OS. Since Win 98/98SE need drivers for USB devices. PC+ needs the same drivers. This doesn't mean install 98 drivers on your machine to get better support for USB devices in PC+ by no means. Please don't even try this if you have Win ME/2k/XP/2k3 for your Operating System. You will ruin your OS and the only real fix would be a restore point or formating the Hard Drive (Not Fun Options). PC+ was made to be used on even the Win 95 OS that is why the USB Device issue is a latent "bug" that might not be fixed or made to work until PC+ 9.5/10 comes out. Support would have to be introduced via FoxPro drivers. This would also need to have great out cry from users for such a implementation to be developed for PC+. It would also need to have PC+ lowest OS support be Win 98SE at least. Considering most of us users of PC+ are using a Windows 98SE system min. this might not be a bad thing to be asked implemented for a MR or next Full Release.
--
Red Baron2

[Zaphod]

RedBaron2,

The main reason I disabled private messaging here is to "force" folks to keep conversations like this on the board. That's the kind of information that could be useful to someone else, and I'm definitely going to bring this to the attention of our development department.

Thanks, and keep posting!

[Kristi]

Hello Men,
I just returned from the store with a flash drive, it's still in the package. After I bought it I began to wonder if I could use it with my PowerChurch, which is the only reason I bought it.
I went to my PC backup options and they were:
drive A=floppy, E=CD-RW (which quit working for me in Dec. & I gave up and went back to floppies) and P=PowerChurch networked on server.

I didn't know what to do, so I came here. Now, after reading your posts, I am scared to try anything and am ready to take my new gadget back to the store...

Advice please!

Kristi

[NeilZ]

Hello Men,
I just returned from the store with a flash drive, it's still in the package. After I bought it I began to wonder if I could use it with my PowerChurch, which is the only reason I bought it.
I went to my PC backup options and they were:
drive A=floppy, E=CD-RW (which quit working for me in Dec. & I gave up and went back to floppies) and P=PowerChurch networked on server.

I didn't know what to do, so I came here. Now, after reading your posts, I am scared to try anything and am ready to take my new gadget back to the store...

Advice please!

Kristi

Did you plug in the 'thumb' drive yet ... evidently not, since you said it was in the package. The system won't see it until its plugged in.

SO ... get out of PC+, plug in the thumb drive, insure that the system sees it (XP will display a balloon telling you when its ready), then start up PC+ and see if it can be seen.

[Kristi]

Thank you Neil. It was easy and fast! Kristi

[NeilZ]

Thank you Neil. It was easy and fast! Kristi

Sometimes its the obvious things you miss. Glad to be of help.

[lincolnda]

I've been using my RCA Lyra 20GB player as a means of transporting data files for PowerChurch Plus between home and church. So far I have only 3 Gb of 's on it, so have plenty of storage for data transfers. Once the computer finds it when plugged to USB port (RCA Lyra driver needs to be installed for win98SE, but not for XP) it is assigned a drive letter and described as a removable disk in Explorer. If you can see it in Explorer, Powerchurch (at least ver 9 does) adds it to the list of available drives to backup to or restore from. What I have done on the Lyra is make a directory on the root named "PCbackup", then in that directory one called "Home" and one called "Church". On the desktops of both computers I have a batch file that uses the Subst command to assign a virtual drive letter to the Home directory and another drive letter to the Church directory. PowerChurch adds these new drive letters to the list of available drives to backup to or restore from. At Home I only do backups to the drive letter representing the 'Home' directory, and at Church only to the drive representing the 'Church' directory. This helps me keep track of where a certain backup came from.

[Zaphod]

I've been using my RCA Lyra 20GB player as a means of transporting data files for PowerChurch Plus...

That's awesome.

[NeilZ]

I've been using my RCA Lyra 20GB player as a means of transporting data files for PowerChurch Plus...

That's awesome.

I could probably do the same with my Palm, as it allows file transfers to and from its flash card