Commodore 1541-II - Organizing a Diskette Library; Backups

your format command. By leaving off the ID number, the format command will finish in a
few seconds instead of the usual 90 seconds.
ORGANIZING A DISKETTE LIBRARY
Though you may not believe it now, you will eventually have dozens, if not hundreds
of diskettes. You can ease life then by planning now. Assign each diskette a unique ID
number when you format it. There are diskette cataloging programs you can buy, that
store and alphabetize a list of all your file names, but are of limited value unless your
diskette ID numbers are unique.
At least two valid approaches are used in assigning ID numbers. One starts at 00 with
the first diskette, and continues upward with each new diskette, through 99, and then
onward from A A through ZZ. Another organizes diskettes within small categories, and
starts the ID number for each diskette in that category with the same first character, going
from 0 to 9 and A to Z with the second character as before. Thus, all 'Tax" diskettes
could have ID numbers that begin with "T." Either approach works well when followed
diligently.
While on this subject, may we suggest you choose names for diskettes on the same
basis, so they too will be unique, and descriptive of the files on them.
BACKUPS
When to do a Backup
Although the 1541 is far more reliable than a cassette drive under most circum
stances, its diskettes are still relatively fragile, and have a useful life of only a few years in
steady use. Therefore, it is important to make regular backups of important programs and
files. Make a backup whenever you wouldn't want to redo your current work. Just as you
should save your work every half hour or so when writing a new program, so you should
also back up the diskette you're using at least daily while you are changing it frequently.
In a business, you would make an archival backup every time important information was
due to be erased, such as when a new accounting period begins.
How to do a Backup
We have included programs on the Test/Demo diskette that can be used for similar
purposes. These programs are described further in Appendix E.
How to Rotate Backups
Once you begin to accumulate backups, you'll want to recycle older ones. One good
method is to date each backup. Then retain all backups until the current project is finished.
When you are sure the last backup is correct, make another backup of it to file, and move
all older backups to a box of diskettes that may be reused.
One other popular approach, suited to projects that never end, is to rotate backups in
a chain, wherein there are son backups, father backups, and grandfather backups. Then,
when another backup is needed, the grandfather diskette is reused, the father becomes the
grandfather, and the son becomes the father.
Whichever approach is used, it is recommended that the newly-made backup become
the diskette that is immediately used, and the diskette that is known to be good should be
filed away as the backup. That way, if the backup fails, you'll know it immediately, rather
than after all the other backups have failed some dark day.
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