[<<]Message[>>] [<<]Author[>>] Subject[>>] Thread[>>]
Number : 10797 Date : 2005-03-17 Author : Kan Yabumoto Subject : XXKILL Size(KB) : 5
Hi, all: We just learned a sad episode from a user who call our product, XXKILL. An interesting name. This is all familiar stories and everyone should learn from mistakes made by others rather than his own. Anyway, our correspondence went as follows... At 2005-03-16 21:17, AB wrote: > Your tool is very dangerous!! > > It tried to /clone (wanted to copy with all attributes etc) > a whole directory to the ROOT!! directory of another drive, > there came a small warning, and ... ALL DATA GONE!!!!! > > /clone looked like the correct option for me, I didn't > study all the implications:... > > I strongly suggest you build in a stronger, interactive > warning for /CLONE: > > "All files/directories in the target folder will be DELETED!!!!!! > - - ARE YOU ABSOLUTLY SURE??" > > INSTEAD of the warning at the beginning that says something > like "verify the target directory, is it correct?". > > what could be called a _very very mild_ warning, that does > say nothing about the consequences!! > > > (it cost me some hours of work, but fortunately i could > recover 2/3rds of my files) > > PS: the bad thing is, I remember having tried your tool > already half a year ago (forgot in the meantime, > why i put it aside), and _now_ I remember something > similar (with less severe consequences) happend then > already!! > > In the current form your tool is good for killing whole disks > in seconds... ======================================================== Dear AB: We deeply regret the loss of valuable files you suffered. We always worry about such an accident experienced by users and we take the issue very seriously. We are fully aware of the danger of the /CLONE command. This is why we strongly suggest the use of /BACKUP which does not delete any file. It is unfortunate that there are many people who post suggestions in various forums (e.g., usenet) to use /CLONE. We always recommend the use of /BACKUP for beginners most of whom do not documentations. In your case, XXCOPY did exactly what you asked it to do. Due to the danger, XXCOPY gives you a warning. If you do not pay attention to the warning, there is little we can do. It duplicates exactly what is on the source directory to the destination. If you misspell the source and/or destination volume, you may lose a lot of files. This is why we recommend the use of the /CLONE command only in batch files where the source and/or destination volume are correctly entered and verified (without the use of is parameterized input like %1, %2 for the source/destination specifiers). Although the /CLONE command is dangerous to those who pay little attention to warnings, it is still a very popular command. We appreciate your suggestion that a more forceful language should be used in the warning. But, your suggested wording does not fit to most circumstances very well --- even in your own case. The /CLONE operation is not a file-removal operation. The primary function is to selectively copy files and remove extra files in the destination. We just cannot characterize it from the worst case scenario. The trouble is it is not very easy for XXCOPY to read the user's mind. If XXCOPY starts mistrusting the true intent of the user, there is no end. We feel that one warning for one aspect of danger is the right number. There are many other commands that could be as dangerous as the /CLONE operation. Again, we just cannot continue adding more warnings that what XXCOPY has. Nowadays, our problem is the frequent questions from users on how to suppress warnings because XXCOPY has so many warnings that even the most experienced users cannot remember all. We even have a context-sensitive help (type "?" on any prompt to learn the correct switch that suppresses the warning). But we all agree that the danger is still there. This is why we suggest to maintain two sets of backup copies to everything. To come to think of it, most major disasters happen when you are in the middle of "backup" operations. Our advice of having two sets of backup is based on the fact (which most people do not recognize) that when you are copying from A to B, while you are performing this operation, B is not a reliable backup. When you make a mistake (especially a serious one), B cannot be regarded as a backup. Therefore, you will have only A as the only source of the data without any backup at the moment. Therefore, you expose to a risk. Another case is very much what you did. If you follow our advice of having two sets of backup, if you make a mistake destroying a backup, you still have another backup to retrieve. Since XXCOPY already have so many warning messages, we do not plan to add any more warning. On the other hand, if we hear many people suggest an improved warning mechanism with /CLONE command, we are willing to listen. We hope everyone take my advice to maintain at least two sets of backup for everything. When the cost of hard disk is so low, there is no excuse not to. Please accept our sympathy to your trouble and we hope you will never ever lose files while you perform backup operations. Kan Yabumoto
This message if part of XXCOPY's message Archive. The archive contains all the messages posted at Yahoo!Groups: XXCOPY.