I got a PII laptop, with Win98se, 6.4 GB, 2.4 Gb in 16,482 files and 2,571 sub-directories.
I wanted to use freeware to back it up to CD’s so it could be restored.
This is as far as I got. It kinda works but I need help .
Computer is booted from floppy Dos, so none of the system files on the C:\ drive are active.
Dos has limitations
Doesn’t handle longfile names
Maximum file size
2 GB
Max number of files
16,000 files.
Maximum directory path length 80 characters
Here is what what I used.
Freeware
Doslfn
http://www.geocities.com/jadoxa/doslfn/index.html cwsdpmi
http://clio.rice.edu/cwsdpmi/ info-zip
http://www.info-zip.org/pub/infozip/Zip.html info-unzip
http://www.info-zip.org/pub/infozip/UnZip.html split60i
http://drn.digitalriver.com/product.php%5Bid%5D45575%5Bcid%5D111%5BSiteID%5Dregn...Create a Dos floppy system diskette from Windows. Load up the Dos freeware.
A separate partition that has free space, at least 2/3 the size of all the files to be backed up
I made a partition with Partition Magic 3. (not freeware but freeware alternatives are easy to find.)
doslfnbk c:\ /f d:\lfn
to condense the filenames to 8.3 format, creates a dictionary
file lfn.lfn.
cwsdpmi (something that makes info-zip happy).
zip –r –S D:\backup C:\*.*
to create a zip file on D: of all files on the C: drive.
(options are case sensitive, make sure to use upper case S)
split d:\backup.zip d:\backup f 3
to split the zip back-up file to 3 fragments
I used a Win program, Nero Express, to write the file fragments to CD’s and lfn.lfn
Mission accomplished, the system and files on the C: drive are now backup’ed on 3 CD’s.
To test the restore I used a completely different computer.
It had a system formated hardrive with 2 partitions and CD reader.
I used a Dos floppy diskette with a generic CD rom driver.
split /u D:/backup.zip C:\
to merge each CD containing a fragment of the zip file, to
reconstruct the backup zip file on the D: drive.
copy E:\lfn.lfn D:\ to copy the lfn dictionary on CD down to
the D: drive
unzip –dC:\ d:\backup to expand the zip files back to their
original form
Use the reply All to the override, so the IO.sys and MSDos.sys
files get replaced by the Win98 versions
doslfnbk C:\ /r /f d:\lfn to expand the 8.3 file names back to long
file names
Reboot the restored computer and Windows starts.
Because it is on a completely different computer, Win will install new motherboard and other hardware drivers, so make sure the C:\windows\options\cabs subdirectory has all the files from the Win98 install CD.
After a few install re-boots you are home.
The laptop hard drive was very slow, so it took 3.5 hours to zip, 2.5 hours to split.
If I had it to do over again I would use a second computer with Win98 installed. This would mean removing the the hard drive out of the laptop and attaching it as a secondary drive to the system using a conversion harness which handles 2.5 in drives.
Then use Dos from within Windows of the second computer to run the Info-zip/unzip for Win32.
Dos within Windows, handles longfile names and directory pathnames longer than 80 charcters.
This would eliminate the doslnbk steps.
Restoring the hard drive would be also be based on a second computer.
This theory sounds easy but making it work may have surprises, every step in the Dos method above had unexpected difficulties.
Issues
Differences between Fat16 and Fat32 are a big deal.
I first read this.
http://helpingtulsa.org/howto/makedriveimage.htmThis method works for Fat16 but Lharc, pkzip 2.04 and many other archivers could not handle 16,482 files. They build a table in memory (ram) of all files to be compressed and simply
run out of memory (memory limit exceeded). I tried several zip programs and stopped with Info-Zip and Info-Unzip because they were the first to work. Other unzip programs would abort because of the Macromedia directory paths exceeding 80 characters, info-unzip displayed an error message and continued on. Macromedia must have a bunch of junior programmers
working for them because they have created subdirectory trees with paths well over 80 characters. So some elements of Flash player cannot be restored
Longfile names are a problem.
I used doslfnbk because it worked, it could handle 16,482 files. I tried a tsr program called doslfn but was not sure it worked, I just couldn’t understand the translated instructions.
http://www.geocities.com/jadoxa/doslfn/index.htmlSystem files must be included and attributes must be restored. Info-zip/unzip handled this well.
The system you are trying to backup must not be active, because it does not allow active files to be copied. That is why I used Dos.
I had to use a different partition because I was unable to write the back-up file into the same partition I was trying to back-up
I think Xxcopy should work.
http://www.xxcopy.com/xxcopy10.htmYou need at least the same amount of disk space as used by files on your computer. They provided some background to the problems of backup. I agree with their philosophy not to copy the MBR (Master Boot Record).
I spent 2 days trying to get Nero disk image (6.0) to work. I think it is a very poor product. It created a file in my administrator profile subdirectory for every file on the computer, that means 16,482 extra files! When I tried to restore, it had problems with one file and stopped the whole process. The help file is in a separate Acrobat file which must be downloaded then navigated with Acrobat reader and then I never found what I was looking for.
I liked the functions offered in MOB, my own backup.
http://vipmeister.com/dl/myownbackup/myownbackup.htmlI had two problems, the compression coding was not optiomized so it runs s l o w and it complained about critical empty directory folders which I didn’t know how to handle.
More suggestions and any comments are welcome.