Problems Backing up old laptop with DOS

[Geoff Barnard]

Hello

Further to earlier message....

Just spent about an hour of my life watching ARJ do it's bit.

I ran my C: to ZIP disk using the -va option.

C: had 4228 files comprising 63.7 Mb

Result, an .arj file on ZIP disk of 30.5 Mb, process completed fine,
although disk swap process not required. I suggest you try that and
see what happens.

Hopefully, you'll do yourself a floppy boot disk etc so you've got
DOS, Guest etc and ARJ (etc) so you can restore.

Remove garbage from email addr to reply.

Geoff

[Computer Nerd Kev]

Post by Geoff Barnard
Hello
Further to earlier message....
Just spent about an hour of my life watching ARJ do it's
bit.
I ran my C: to ZIP disk using the -va option.
C: had 4228 files comprising 63.7 Mb
Result, an .arj file on ZIP disk of 30.5 Mb, process
completed fine, although disk swap process not required.
I suggest you try that and see what happens.
Hopefully, you'll do yourself a floppy boot disk etc so
you've got DOS, Guest etc and ARJ (etc) so you can restore.

Well I've found the problem, sort of.

I tried ARJ again and was amazed to find that it worked as it
should, however when I tried running it of the boot disk I had
used before, it went back to stopping as it had before. As the
commands I used in both cases were the same, I think the boot
floppy must be the problem, however how this could be I don't
know.

[Todd Vargo]

Post by Computer Nerd Kev

Post by Geoff Barnard
Hello
Further to earlier message....
Just spent about an hour of my life watching ARJ do it's
bit.
I ran my C: to ZIP disk using the -va option.
C: had 4228 files comprising 63.7 Mb
Result, an .arj file on ZIP disk of 30.5 Mb, process
completed fine, although disk swap process not required.
I suggest you try that and see what happens.
Hopefully, you'll do yourself a floppy boot disk etc so
you've got DOS, Guest etc and ARJ (etc) so you can restore.

Well I've found the problem, sort of.
I tried ARJ again and was amazed to find that it worked as it
should, however when I tried running it of the boot disk I had
used before, it went back to stopping as it had before. As the
commands I used in both cases were the same, I think the boot
floppy must be the problem, however how this could be I don't
know.

Maybe ARJ creates the archive or a temporary file on the boot drive or the
current directory. Check if the floppy is write protected. Even if not, if
ARJ is creating a file on the floppy, it may be stopping because there is
not enough free space.

[Computer Nerd Kev]

Post by Todd Vargo
Maybe ARJ creates the archive or a temporary file on the
boot drive or the current directory. Check if the floppy is
write protected. Even if not, if ARJ is creating a file on
the floppy, it may be stopping because there is not enough
free space.

I think the problem was in how I had the memory set up,
however I think I'll stop playing around with ARJ because
after the last try it (or the zip driver or...) somehow
corrupted one of my main directories. Now I'll have to go
through all this again.

Hints on any way to recover the directory? I've only tried
TestDisk.

[Todd Vargo]

Post by Computer Nerd Kev

Post by Todd Vargo
Maybe ARJ creates the archive or a temporary file on the
boot drive or the current directory. Check if the floppy is
write protected. Even if not, if ARJ is creating a file on
the floppy, it may be stopping because there is not enough
free space.

I think the problem was in how I had the memory set up,
however I think I'll stop playing around with ARJ because
after the last try it (or the zip driver or...) somehow
corrupted one of my main directories. Now I'll have to go
through all this again.
Hints on any way to recover the directory? I've only tried
TestDisk.

Google is your friend.

[Computer Nerd Kev]

Post by Todd Vargo
Google is your friend.

If Google's my friend then search terms must be my enemy. Oh
well, this is after all why I saved a backup of the HDD in it's
original state.

--
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#_ < |\| |< _#

[Todd Vargo]

Post by Computer Nerd Kev

Post by Todd Vargo
Google is your friend.

If Google's my friend then search terms must be my enemy. Oh
well, this is after all why I saved a backup of the HDD in it's
original state.

Try using data recovery in your search terms. If the FS/directory structure
was damaged, hopefully your backup is a byte for byte disk image and not
just a compressed file of whatever files were readable.

[Klaus Meinhard]

Hallo Computer Nerd Kev,

Post by Computer Nerd Kev
Hints on any way to recover the directory? I've only tried
TestDisk.

The reason you haven't got much useful advice for this is that you
haven't given enough information to go on. How was "one of your main
directories" corrupted? Were the file names scrambled? Were the files
not found when you tried to open them?

You probably have a vesrion of CHKDSK.ERXE on your MS-DOS 5 (?)
machine. That should be the first step. Use it to repair your disk.

Best regards,

* Klaus Meinhard *
<www.4dos.info>