Re: off-topic: scheduled backup to external hard drive

[Norman Bauman nbauman@xxxxxxxx]

At 01:24 AM 4/3/06 -0400, Harry Binswanger wrote:
>
>>Another thing I did was to back up to my laptop with DOS LapLink, through a
>>serial port. The problem with that is my old version of DOS doesn't handle
>>long DOS names,
>>There's probably a way to do it
>>without LapLink directly from DOS with a batch file and the right DOS
>>functions, but I haven't researched that yet.
>
>The right DOS function is XCOPY32 or XCOPY (I think the latter also
>preserves long file names). You have to acquaint yourself with the
>switches, which you can do by commanding:
>
>XCOPY32 /?

I haven't tried XCOPY32; that's a good reminder. I assume it can copy the
entire path, along with the files. I just read the XCOPY32 help page, and I
have to read it again more carefully.

My problem, though, is how do I write a batch file to do what LapLink does:
Copy files from one computer to another through the serial port?

(As I understand it, the freeware XXCOPY can copy system files that XCOPY32
can't. If I remember correctly, I once copied a Win98 installation from one
hard drive to another with XXCOPY, and it booted up on the new hard drive.
So you could use it instead of Ghost. XXCOPY has a much longer help page.)

>My wife uses a "one touch" external backup that works through the USB port.
>You just push a button on the external drive and it backs up. No mess, no
>fuss. But it's a little pricey ($200-$300).

Yeah, the Maxtor One Touch. It's simple, it gets the job done, it saves
time, and I think they're cheaper now. But for Lynn and me, there's the
problem of getting it working with Win98.

Norman

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Norman Bauman
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