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

[Norman Bauman nbauman@xxxxxxxx]

At 05:21 PM 4/3/06 -0400, Patricia M. Godfrey wrote:
>
>Norman Bauman wrote:
>>
>> 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?
>You could probably do it with port mapping, but it sounds an awful
>kludge. Once you get a network properly set up, it's perfectly easy to
>copy from a drive on one PC to a drive on the other from the command
>prompt or a batch file. Having named each PC and enabled sharing (THAT
>was the other step I forgot on my previous post), you simply use the
>full path name, which includes the PC's name. E.g.
>
>xcopy \\Petra\Petradat\*.* f:\PetraBU /s /v

But I've used LapLink for DOS, and I was able to transmit files through the
serial ports by simply installing a DOS program -- LapLink -- in a
directory in each computer. It gave me a file shell program like Xtree, in
each computer, with a file directory from the home computer on one half of
the screen, and a file directory from the remote computer in the other half
of the screen. Then I could tag and copy from one to the other. There
*must* be a way to do the same thing from the DOS command line.

I haven't looked it up in my DOS manuals yet. I assume you have a free COM
port on the home computer, a free COM port on the remote computer, and some
command to read from and copy to the remote computer through the COM 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.)
>
>Now that, if true, is quite remarkable. Because Big Brother Bill
>definitely does NOT want you doing that, and has done everything
>possible to prevent it.

Yes, I checked my notes. I used xxcopy to copy a master drive into a slave
drive, then turned the slave into a master and booted from it. If you have
an old computer and a couple of hard drives to play with, try it. I also
back up and restore working Ghost images.

Norman

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Norman Bauman
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