Dos help - URGENT

mjquinno

Hi everyone,

Listen i need some help getting files of a crashed computer. Windows 98 is messed up on it. im gonna wipe it but i want to get some files off it before i do. i can get into dos i need to copy the my documents folder to a cd if possible or floppies,


im trying this

xcopy "My Documents" "A:"


it aint working i think cause of the space in the folder name.


anyone got an ideas

cheers,
M

DonkeyStyle \o/

What error are you getting?

If it is crapping out because of the space in the file name, then use the shortened version, which is the first six chars followed by ~1 (or ~2 etc, depending on how many instances of the short form there are).
So it'd be mydocu~1 without quotes.

Also are you sure xcopy is there? AFAICR it's not built into command.com, so it's possible the xcopy program isn't there. (again, what error are you getting?)

Forget about copying files to CD-R in DOS aswell... your options are floppy or a seperate harddrive or partition or a USB key (not sure if USB drive support for this varies between motherboards though)

You might be able to do something nice with a bootable 'live' CD to get your CD writer working... though I've never actually tried this.


[edit] Although....
You could just reinstall windows on the drive without formatting it... install windows to a different folder (like use c:\win98 instead of c:\windows) then you'd have an OS there to help you back up your files... and once you're happy with the backup then reformat and reinstall.
The installer should warn you that an existing windows OS is already installed, but you can ignore that and continue with the install... just make sure that you don't let the installer reformat or mess with partitions or anything.
Though in the past I've happily run two Windows 98 installs on the same partition/drive for months at a time... but it's a little bit messy and/or annoying, so I'd go with the format and reinstall once backup is complete out of sheer tidyness.
Worth a shot if nothing else is working for you anyway.

Cake Fiend

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote:

You might be able to do something nice with a bootable 'live' CD to get your CD writer working... though I've never actually tried this.

IIRC Knoppix has CD writing apps in it these days.

Karoma

Sico wrote:

IIRC Knoppix has CD writing apps in it these days.

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=knoppix
It comes with K3B.

Capt'n Midnight

the location of My Documents varies in various versions of Windows.

if in the root folder it would be

xcopy c:\MyDocu~1\*.* a:\*.* /M /C /S

The /M means you can put in new disks and it won't copy the same file twice. Of course if ANY document is over 1.44Mb then it won't fit on a floppy. and besides you'd need lots of them.


Another option if you have over 300MB of free space is to install win98 again in a different folder so you can use it to copy the files, but a lot more work than the knoppix disk.


With the knoppix disk the drives should appear as icons on the desktop. Right click on them to MOUNT them to see files on them. ( if writing to a USB key or USB HDD or second Hard drive - right click, Actions, and change to WRITE mode ) edit copy paste all work like windows ...

ikoonman

Mmmm if your hard drive crashed i wouldn't recommend using ANY copy command, since you don't know what the state of you FAT's are. Using commands to try and copy may corrupt the hd further (if that is the problem).

You'd be better off using something like Norton's Disk Editor and physically look for data. This is painstaking and time consuming but if the data is valuable then this might be your only option. You can prob only find text-based data with this, as it can be difficult to find binary data.

Alternatively, use Knoppix (or any Linux boot cd) and mount the drive as read-only. Ensuring you have done this, you can perhaps attempt to copy data off the hard drive, but again, if the problem is somewhere with the FAT or OS, you may not be very successfull.

pH

Shiny new FreeDOS 1.0

JohnnieM

spin rite from www.grc.com is worth a go at salvaging the hdd..

EOA_Mushy

pH wrote:

Shiny new FreeDOS 1.0

Wahoo, bye bye xp....

:rolleyes: if only.