Cloning an old hard drive

[Exceter]

My mom has an old Unisys 286 computer with a lot of data on it from my childhood. The computer still boots and works correctly and I want to make a copy of everything that's on it. However, my only way of getting data on/off the computer is with 1.2M floppy disks or possibly with a Gotek floppy emulator(if I take the computer apart). Are there any old DOS programs(similar to an installer) out there that allow you to bundle a set of files across multiple floppy disks?

 

[bear]

Pkzip.

 

[jafir]

DOS has backup and restore. You could also use laplink (or fastlynx). I used ghost and an XT-IDE to backup a hard card from an old dead compaq, that I had installed in a 5160. Some versions of ghost support serial port images too.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Why floppies? The Unisys box has a parallel printer port (and probably a serial port). Why not Laplink?

 

[Exceter]

Why floppies? The Unisys box has a parallel printer port (and probably a serial port). Why not Laplink?

I hadn't thought of that. I'll have to look into it. I've never used Laplink before.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Oldie but a goodie. MS came out with a clone with Interlink/Intersrvr, which may also work on your 286 system. I think it came out with MSDOS 5.

 

[jafir]

fastlynx is better, in my opinion, because you can use the DOS client on the old computer and send data to a windows client on the new machine.

 

[Exceter]

Another idea: Would an XT-IDE be able to co-exist with the MFM controller? If so, I might be able to directly copy from one drive to another.

 

[jafir]

Yes, that's how I did it with ghost. MFM hardcard with an XT-IDE and a CF card. It worked fine. You could also just xcopy, but I wanted to see if ghost would work on something so old.

 

[glitch]

Yep, common use for XT-IDEs: copy the original onto whatever is hooked up to the XT-IDE, then remove the original and let the XT-IDE replace it.

 

[lafos]

Yep, common use for XT-IDEs: copy the original onto whatever is hooked up to the XT-IDE, then remove the original and let the XT-IDE replace it.

I tried this on my 5150 and the XT-IDE bios didn't work. The other drive is a Seagate ST238R with a ST11R controller. I tried changing the XT-IDE to D800, and still no luck. Any suggestions?

 

[1ST1]

If you have, you also can use a parallel port ZIP drive, plus a USB ZIP drive to get the data in the new world. That's a way I often use.

 

[Stone]

Or, if you don't happen to have those two ZIP drives you can use a DOS based parallel port two machine network.

 

[Chuck(G)]

See post #4. Of course, he'll need a cable, but I still have a number of those.

 

[Stone]

See post #4. Of course, he'll need a cable, but I still have a number of those.

Laplink is good but you still need to 'tag' all the files you want transfer.

With a small network you can issue a global copy command, i.e., XCOPY *.* /s.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Well, that's how the interlink/intersvr thing works--and it does work on a PC XT--and it's free. See post #6.

 

[Moondog]

Another vote for Fastlynx. As long as you have a copy running on the new pc, you scan set the other pc to "listen" and push a copy of FX over to it.

 

[Svenska]

There is also Norton Commander, which can both replicate itself over a serial connection and show both remote and local files and folders simultaneously.