Re: Backing up the BootDrive

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from Patricia M Godfrey  on Fri, 4 Oct
2002 11:35:04 -0400

> Robert: How does your backup routine get around the fact that if you're
> running XCOPY from a DOS Window in Windows, certain files cannot be
> copied because they're running

You *cannot* restore an OpSys BootDrive while it is running, fuhgeddaboutit.

> but if you run it from a rebooted DOS
> prompt you cannot (from 98 on) copy the read-only, hidden, and system
> files? (Talk about Catch-22!)

XCOPY /H copies Hidden/System files (/H /T in OS/2). XCOPY /R overwrites
Read-Only.

I backup/restore Windows from OS/2 (Win BootDrive=FAT32). And vice versa (using
hacked PINBALL.SYS for W2K that permits reading OS/2 BootDrive=HPFS below the 8
gig barrier). I use a "-full-joliet-filenames" hack in CDRECORD for OS/2, to
get long paths\filenames in W2K, plus the "-D" switch to prevent directory
relocation when nesting of dirs is too deep (more than 8 subdirs) -- the CD
just writes files the way it finds them. This violates the strict standards
for a CD file system (ISO 9660), but many OpSyses -- DOS being an important
exception -- don't care. The only problem I ever encounter, and rarely --
about 22 instances on my whole W2K BootDrive -- is very very long
path+path\filename specs >256chars, which MKISOFS (file that creates the
imagefile to be burned) can't read; my routine handles those by ZIPping them to
the root of BootDrive, and they then get copied to CD, so that after you
reformat and restore, you just unZIP them all at once. CDRECORD can reset all
file attributes to full access (file permissions=true), if you want. When you
start up Win2K, it gradually converts them back to whatever file attributes
they have normally, as it uses or rewrites them. (You can do ATTRIB -S -H -R *
/S on W2K, i.e. remove all restrictions on all files, and W2K doesn't seem to
care -- but I certainly wouldn't recommend it, it's just too easy in a moment
of inattention to wipe something critical.)

> As for apps, you are obviously getting most of your apps off the Net (I
> download everything to drive F:, which also holds temporary backups,
> files I'm collecting to burn to a CD, and other oddments).

What image writer/burner programs do you use to backup?

> But when you
> install from a shrink-wrapped CD, it really give you a hard time if you
> DON'T use C:\program files.

Then go with the flow. Just less to backup if you can avoid it. I install
M$Office off BootDrive, for example. And sure, there are Office files strewn
all over BootDrive, notwithstanding. But there's an awful lot of stuff that
isn't there, including all the really big files.

-----------------------------
Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
-----------------------------