Microsoft KB Archive/105183

Knowledge Base

Backup Overwrites DoubleSpace-Compressed Floppy Disks

Article ID: 105183

Article Last Modified on 11/21/1999

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APPLIES TO

• Microsoft MS-DOS 6.2 Standard Edition
• Microsoft MS-DOS 6.22 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q105183

SYMPTOMS

This information applies to both Microsoft DoubleSpace and Microsoft DriveSpace. For MS-DOS 6.22, use DRVSPACE in place of DBLSPACE for commands and filenames.

If you try to back up to a DoubleSpace-compressed floppy disk using Microsoft Backup or Microsoft Backup for Windows, you receive the following message:

You have inserted a diskette which contains existing directories and files. Please insert an empty diskette or choose "Overwrite" to use the current diskette.

Partial file list
dblspace.000
readthis.txt

NOTE: If you choose "MS-DOS Drive and Path" instead on drive A or drive B, you receive the message "insufficient disk space in <drive letter>: Backup to DOS path cannot be completed."

CAUSE

Microsoft Backup writes over your DoubleSpace-compressed floppy disk, making it an uncompressed disk.

Since Backup compresses data, there is no benefit to writing compressed data to a compressed disk. Once the data has been compressed once, it cannot be compressed again.

WORKAROUND

You may be able to work around this problem by choosing MS-DOS Path for your destination.

Additional query words: MWBackup 6.20

Keywords: KB105183

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