Msg: 5940 *Conference*

08-10-95 21:41:13

From: TRACY ALLEN

To : COMET _

Subj: REPLY TO MSG #5919 (UNDELETE -- COLD START RECOVERY)

Dear Comet,
  Many of my cold starts whilst experimenting with m/l leave the entire
contents of memory in some totally useless condition.  Often it is something
very regular, like 01234567890...01234567890... repeated over and over again
from top to bottom in RAM, which of course quickly cold starts the machine with
no possibility of recovery from the contents of RAM alone.  Sometimes its just
random numbers from top to bottom in RAM.  Whatever instant death or whatever
trojan horse an errant m/l program can create.  Soemtimes its just a few bytes
whacked here or there.  But what are you going to do with the files you
recover?  How are you going to be sure that they aren't afflicted, unless you
have a listing or a disk file or something to compare them against?  There is
nothing like external storage!!!  Multiple copies!!!  Back up!!  Back up!!
  
  The extRAM/XR4 give a place to store the entire contents of RAM.  Write a
little m/l, store the entire program along with the complete RAM environment in
the XR4, and write protect it.  Then run the m/l.  Complete and total crash &
burn?  No worries, everything (directory, programs, text, system variables,
everything) recovered with CALL910'!
  
  -- Tracy