need some dos help PLEASE!

[zskillz]

I want to install win2k from the hard drive.... I think that that means that I have to copy the whole CD to the hard drive first... I don't know how to do this while preserving directory structure. I would REALLY REALLY REALLY appreciate any help with this, because today has sucked and I just want to know how to do it...
thanks in advance
-Z

[Rookie]

Hi Zskills, I too am awaiting with bated breath the answer to the correct way to copy manually under dos.
I tried it myself with mixed results:

here's what doesnt work:
(anyone who knows please feel free to correct what is wrong with this)
As I understand it

copy
is an internal dos command- that internal means something...I think it means its understood by command.com and you don't have to type a path..the path stuff means you can use it "globally" but i dont understand all I know about that global/path stuff.

xcopy
does stuff that copy cannot...wish I knew

xcopy32
now that will copy everything...that may be what is meant by the term "sector by sector", again I'm not sure

I do know (and here's where I messed up) that xcopy32 will not copy the longfile name over....so what I got when I had to manually back up a drive that a boot sector virus had hosed...was the original data....
but I had to go back and manualy rename each file.
was better than losing everything..but a real pain to say the least.

now there is buried somewhere deep within the bowels of the win95 cd a program called lfnbk
it alledgedly would have saved me alot of grief- wish I knew how to use that one as well.

[This message has been edited by Rookie (edited 05-19-2000).]

[Mntsnow]

Well here ya go:
Start with a Win98 boot disk Then
Copy XCOPY.EXE, (located in C:\windows\command) and SMARTDRV.EXE (located in the C:\windows) from a working Win98 Operating System to the Win98 boot disk diskette.

Then boot the computer with the disk you just made and when you finally get to the A:\ Prompt type: "SMARTDRV" (without quotations) and then press "enter".

Then at the A:\ Prompt again type, "XCOPY D:\I386 C:\I386" (without quotations and note that "D" is your CD ROM drive letter (if your is different change it)and also that there is a space between the two statements) and then press the "enter".

After you hit enter it will then ask you a question "Does I386 specify a file name or directory name on the target (F = file, D = Directory)? Press the "D" key so you copy the whole directory.

There you go http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

Mntsnow

[Rookie]

Wow, thanks Mtsnow, so the smartdrv is what I left out?

and what you posted about 1386 was specificaly for zskills win2k issue, correct?

So if I wanted to copy a win98 partition what would i use in place of 1386?

lemme see...c:\ *.*
?

would this effectivly do what drive copy or ghost does?
this is zskills post...shoulda started my own
now that I think about it, sorry

[Mntsnow]

I'm sorry I really tailored the first reply for doing the Win2K project. for Z.


Rookie, Are you trying to a "ghost" a partition including the drive paramators? (I'm confused because you mentioned "sector by sector") or just a basic copy of the data?

If you are trying to do what Ghost or Drive copy does in a "freebie application" I would suggest visiting http://www.maxtor.com/maxblast/ as it's built-in utility called "EZ-copy" is avaliable for free to anyone with a Maxtor harddrive (Works with ANY BRAND of harddrive http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif )and I know Westerndigital has basically the same thing avaliable to owners of a WD drive


Mntsnow

[This message has been edited by Mntsnow (edited 05-19-2000).]

[medo]

Hello

Only problem with xcopy(32) is - you will have to use switches /s /e , otherwise it will copy like normal "copy" (without copying subdirectories).
Example - d:\xcopy . c:/s/e - xcopy everything (including subdirectories) from where I am (root of the d drive) to c drive or if you want to be more specific c:\install . You have to create install directory before that.
/s stand for - include subdirectory
/e stand for - include empty subdirectory

I hope it will help.

Medo

http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[zskillz]

jeez... what a giant pain in the ***... I eventually got it working, but it was a total rig.
thx mntsnow, ur help was the biggest portion of getting it to work...
I tried to run setup to install win2k, but it said that it couldn't run from dos, so I just kinda guessed and ran something called winnt.exe and that installed it pretty well as far as I can tell
thanks again
Z

[hd581]

xcopy32.exe does copy over long filenames. It's not a sector-to-sector copy either I don't think; it's selective by file.

I've xcopy32'd a whole hard drive to another, and booted up on the new hard drive (in Win98) with little difficulty.