<para>How to backup to floppy disks.</para>

      </listitem>

      <listitem>

  <sect1 id="backups-floppybackups">

    <title>Backups to Floppies</title>

    <sect2 id="floppies-using">

      <title>Can I Use Floppies for Backing Up My Data?</title>

      <indexterm><primary>backup floppies</primary></indexterm>

      <indexterm><primary>floppy disks</primary></indexterm>

      <para>Floppy disks are not really a suitable media for

        making backups as:</para>

      <itemizedlist>

	<listitem>

	  <para>The media is unreliable, especially over long periods of

	    time.</para>

	</listitem>

	<listitem>

	  <para>Backing up and restoring is very slow.</para>

	</listitem>

	<listitem>

	  <para>They have a very limited capacity (the days of backing up

	    an entire hard disk onto a dozen or so floppies has long since

	    passed).</para>

	</listitem>

      </itemizedlist>

      <para>However, if you have no other method of backing up your data then

	floppy disks are better than no backup at all.</para>

      <para>If you do have to use floppy disks then ensure that you use good

	quality ones. Floppies that have been lying around the office for a

	couple of years are a bad choice. Ideally use new ones from a

	reputable manufacturer.</para>

    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="floppies-creating">

      <title>So How Do I Backup My Data to Floppies?</title>

      <para>The best way to backup to floppy disk is to use

	&man.tar.1; with the <option>-M</option> (multi

	volume) option, which allows backups to span multiple

	floppies.</para>

      <para>To backup all the files in the current directory and sub-directory

	use this (as <username>root</username>):</para>

      <screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>tar Mcvf /dev/fd0 *</userinput></screen>

      <para>When the first floppy is full &man.tar.1; will prompt you to

	insert the next volume (because &man.tar.1; is media independent it

	refers to volumes; in this context it means floppy disk).</para>

      <screen>Prepare volume #2 for /dev/fd0 and hit return:</screen>

      <para>This is repeated (with the volume number incrementing) until all

	the specified files have been archived.</para>

    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="floppies-compress">

      <title>Can I Compress My Backups?</title>

      <indexterm>

        <primary><command>tar</command></primary>

      </indexterm>

      <indexterm>

        <primary><command>gzip</command></primary>

      </indexterm>

      <indexterm><primary>compression</primary></indexterm>

      <para>Unfortunately, &man.tar.1; will not allow the

	<option>-z</option> option to be used for multi-volume archives.

	You could, of course, &man.gzip.1; all the files,

	&man.tar.1; them to the floppies, then

	&man.gunzip.1; the files again!</para>

    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="floppies-restoring">

      <title>How Do I Restore My Backups?</title>

      <para>To restore the entire archive use:</para>

      <screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>tar Mxvf /dev/fd0</userinput></screen>

      <para>There are two ways that you can use to restore only

	specific files.  First, you can start with the first floppy

	and use:</para>

      <screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>tar Mxvf /dev/fd0 <replaceable>filename</replaceable></userinput></screen>

      <para>The utility &man.tar.1; will prompt you to insert subsequent floppies until it

	finds the required file.</para>

      <para>Alternatively, if you know which floppy the file is on then you

	can simply insert that floppy and use the same command as above. Note

	that if the first file on the floppy is a continuation from the

	previous one then &man.tar.1; will warn you that it cannot

	restore it, even if you have not asked it to!</para>

    </sect2>

  </sect1>