Owner`s manual

Page 5-2 Chapter Five
All Alpha Micro computers come with some type of data backup device. Whether your
backup device is a diskette drive or streaming tape drive, learn to use it! Develop
regular backup procedures and follow them! If disaster strikes, you’ll be glad you had a
little foresight.
You should back up some or all of the data on your computer at regular intervals. How
often you need to back up depends on how often you add or change data. If you add
important data every day, you should back up your computer each night. If the data
changes only once a week, back up once a week, etc.
As mentioned in Chapter 2, you should be especially sure to make at least one copy of
your System Disk onto a medium that will let you boot your computer if, for some
reason, you cannot boot from your hard disk. Keep this "warm boot" media in a safe
place in case you need it.
You can use the WRMGEN program to create a warm boot tape. For more information
on warm boot monitors, see the
System Operator’s Guide .
Because both backup and diagnostic procedures—discussed below—usually must be
done when only one job is accessing the disks, it is wise to run them when other users
are off the computer (for example, at night or on weekends). By using the Task Manager
or the SLEEPR command within a command file, you can run backups and tests in the
middle of the night when they won’t interfere with other users. See the
Task Manager
User’s Manual
for details on how to do this.
DISK ACCOUNTS
Theoretically, you could store your files on the disk without any type of organization. A
list of all the files—the system software, your special application programs, memos,
everything—might be several pages long and would be a nightmare to decipher.
As discussed in Chapter 3, a better technique to organize your files is to create
"accounts" in which to store as many files as you want. An account is just an arbitrary
designation for a group of files. Your system software is already organized into various
accounts, and you can add as many or as few additional ones as you need. The
following paragraphs describe how to add accounts to your computer.
Passwords
You can assign a password to any account, if you wish. The password acts as a mild
security measure to prevent a casual user from accidentally logging into the wrong
account. Passwords do not prevent files from being copied into or out of an account,
and can be easily changed or erased using the SYSACT command described below.
Eagle Series Computer Owner’s Manual, Rev. 03