DFS and how not to write a user manual

[sonsenfrancais]

For two years I have struggled unsuccessfully with DFS - Distributed File System - on the Terastation. Now that I've acquired a second one, it's time to crack this problem

Let me say why the two manuals I am looking at - one for TS-XEL4BA, one for TS5400D - don't help.

One is presented with field names 'DFS root folder name', 'Link Name' and 'Destination Folder' and the manuals say helpfully

'Enter the DFS root folder name'
'Enter the Link Name'
'Enter the Destination Folder'

Click Save. DFS has been configured

 

In other words, one is given information that is already perfectly obvious, but not what the purpose and syntax of the DFS root folder and the Link Name .. and, most importantly, no example to indicate the syntax.

 

This is infuriating, because the principal of DFS is easy to understand, and there are only four fields and the choice of single or multiple links to be made. So can I ask some kind expert to help me with the following, and perhaps it will serve as a template for others who want to do the same thing

 

So .. two Terastations, TS-XEL4BA and TS5400D562

 

TS-XEL4BA, Disk1 has a top level folder Buffalo_1
TS5400D562, Disk1 has a top level folder Buffalo_1a

 

Below each top level folder is a sub_folder called French, with data distributed in folders below. So

 

\\TS-XEL4BA\Buffalo_1\French
\\TS5400D562\Buffalo_1a\French

 

The objective is to use DFS to make these two data stores appear as one shared folder, called DFS_French

Evidently I enable DFS and choose multiple links (the TS5400D calls this 'Disable Set DFS Link to DFS Root' which I take to be the same idea but more confusing)

 

Now if some kind person could - on the basis of the info given above - tell me what to enter in the 4 following fields, I will be eternally grateful

1. DFS Root folder name.
2. Link Name
3. Destination Hostname
4. Destination Folder

And to finish, a little quiz. Here is a man who writes manuals for a living

 

"While at work I was thinking about this same lack of care in the digital computer manuals I was editing. Writing and editing technical manuals is what I do for a living the other eleven months of the year and I knew they were full of errors, ambiguities, omissions and information so completely screwed up you had to read them six times to make any sense out of them."

 

He is a character in a very great novel of the 1970s What is the title of the book, and who is the author ?

 

And what is good, Phædrus,
And what is not good...
Need we ask anyone to tell us these things?