-=> JOE PAULSON wrote to ROY TELLASON <=-


 JP> Now I can transfer backups from my 386 to the DOS 486 using
 JP> floppies and zipped files.
 JP> At age 78,I learned something new.

Do what I do. Get a second IDE cable with connectors
for two drives.
Replace the existing cable observing carefully where pin one and 
the red striped cable line goes.
Put the boot drive you want to copy on the end connector.
making sure you've got a bracket that raises the drive's 
electronics off of any possible short set it anywhere flat.
Place the target drive on any convenient flat surface, power supply will
do fine. Connect the other IDE connector and power to that drive 
observing proper connector orientation after having set the loose drive 
to slave. For safety loosen a chassis screw and one on the drive
bracket and run a grounding wire from the computer chassis 
to the drive bracket.
XCOPY with appropriate switches the entire drive or with 
the registered pkzip you can zip across hard drives.
I'd sys.com the target drive and have a copy of pkunzip on it
as well if you zipped to it.
Sounds a lot harder than it is. 
I had a drive boot sector go bad and just used
this method to transfer files after booting to a A: drive.
Took me all of 5 minutes to setup and just a few minutes to xcopy
all the files across. 
Observe decent static handling  procedures throughout.
I once destroyed a Seagate drive when my elbow touched
the monitopr screen, it was off but retained a high static 
charge. I immediately had a sinking feeling and when I
tried to use the drive it was a paper weight.
BTW I was just swapping it out for another drive and not copying or
backing up in any way.
Beats the hell out of swapping floppies.
I'm on the lookout for good used drives these days for just
such backup purposes.
I'll still keep a few 1.44 diskettes around for the odd use but 
I'm sick and tired of spending hours doing backup and restore...
and than there's the matter of a sector going bad on a spanned
disk set :-(

 

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