The file is very big and I don't have enough disk space to
make a duplicate of it. How to resolve this ?

My app must run in all versions of 32 bit windows.
Can you provide a sample of automating windows backup program from VFP so that this works in all those platforms?
Will windows backup pack files?

>One option would be to zip everything in a file using the info-zip dll and then do the spanning yourself from that file to diskettes or whatever media you're using.

How to make a directory enties to this file set so that file names
and directories can be also restored ?
How to ensure that user inserts diskettes in proper order if
she wants to restore ?
How to perform a partial restore, restoring only some files ?
How to add a checksums to ensure that backup files are not
corrupted ?
Must I develop my own archieve program for foxpro ? Is this reasonable ?

>Since your app has access to the files, have it copy the contents of the tables in a temp directory.
>
>Then remains the spanning and zipping... hmmm...
>
>
>Another option you might want to explore that compresses files and is free would be windows' very own backup program in order to do the spanning and zipping for you.
>
>Alex
>
>
>>>>This info-zip code will not create a zip file structure.
>>>>There was a Milan Kosina sample in May 1998 FPA about using this in VFP.
>>>
>>>What does it do? Now *I* am confused. According to the docs it creates zip files. I've used infozip in the past and the zips are fine.
>>
>>This article show how to compress a single file using info-zip dll
>>The compressed file is saved in the memo field.
>>The only way to produce a zip file structure is to use
>>RUN ZIP.EXE ... command
>>However, this will not allow to make backup of open files and use disk
>>spanning.
>>
>>Do you have an info-zip dll which creates a stanard .zip file ?
>>
>>>>There are a lot of free dlls and ocxes which use this code,
>>>>for example www.foxbrasil.com.br/downloadut.html contains some list of them for foxpro.
>>>>
>>>>However, no one of them will produce a zip file structure.
>>>
>>>What exactly do you need?
>>
>>I have a VFP application which runs 7 days per week and 24 hours
>>per day. Some dbf files are always open (in shared mode).
>>
>>I need an utility which:
>>
>>1. Allows to make backup of open dbf files contained in subdirectories.
>>2. Produces standard multi-disk zip file structure.
>>3. Is free.
>>
>>
>>>>Also I need a multi-disk zip structure.
>>>
>>>You could actually create the zip locally and then create a simple vfp function that will break it in chunks and save to floppy. I've done it in Clipper. It's really simple.
>>
>>1. This requires that resulting backup file must fit into hard
>>disk drive before copying to floppy disks. However, I don't have
>>so much hard disk space. How can I use this method?
>>
>>2. I need to send multi volume backup copies in floppy disks to users who have only winzip
>>installed. Is it possible to extract a file from your resulting
>>backup set using winzip ?