!Hi Marc!

 ml> agreed there... i had to really dig and be creative the last time i had 
 ml> to rescue some data off of a XP laptop... i was 
 ml> finally able to get it to boot off of a FreeDOS (IIRC) 
 ml> floppy with NTFS drivers... then i had to really play 
 ml> around to get a cable together so that i could connect 
 ml> it between that laptop and one of my machines to zip 
 ml> (not pkzip) and/or laplink the data across... getting 
 ml> laplink to work was a real chore and as i recall, i 
 ml> ended up using a very old serial transfer program 
 ml> called zip... i believe it was out before laplink but 
 ml> i may be wrong on that... it allowed me to transfer 
 ml> the data at 115200 with validation to ensure that it 
 ml> was all correct on the receiving end... as i recall, i 
 ml> did use my laplink cable as one of the pieces of the 
 ml> total cable i had to come up with... it wasn't pretty 
 ml> and it took some time but it worked and that's what 
 ml> counted most ;)

I do read other echo areas, grin!  I wonder.  Why can't one just use the
DFSEE utility to simply copy whatever you want this way by simply using it
to boot the laptop from a floppy diskette.  Using the DOS rescue diskette
that it creates.  In that way you get not only DOS, but the required
drivers for USB and whatever.

Then you use this to 'clone' the hard drive to an external USB or whatever
hard drive needed.  From there you ought to be able to just 'attach' that
cloned hard drive to another unit.  Either to clone the whole thing, or, as
needed, using DFSEE to get the cloned drive attached to the other box to
get whatever file data you want from it.

I have successfully, as far as OS/2 has been concerned, to actually clone
an OS/2 Laptop into a fully bootable desktop system.  Of course I have to
be cautious to have the complete needed operating system disk drive drivers
in the OS/2 CONFIG.SYS file so that the desktop will at least boot up.  As
well, I have also been able to reverse the process and clone a complete
desktop system to a laptop.  From which whatever device driver changes
other than the basic disk drivers can be changed to get audio - whatever,
working from there.

I have also easily been able to clone complete tools and things that work
at least in the needed operating systems between boxes this way. True, I'd
expect to have to use a Windows op system load to see some things that were
created as data on  Windows system on an OS/2 box.  Or,perhaps interwork
with Linux or whatever.  But I'd guess this would be easier than going back
to the old LapLink stuff and so on.

Which I have done and do still have here if needed.  And have used on more
than one trip to get data from one network environment to another in the
back a long ways past.

I guarantee you that DFSEE is a WONDERFUL tool set, especially since the
DOS created floppy boot diskette has all the needed tools on it to get
things so that you can see a lot of different drive stuff as needed.

My worst thing I still haven't gotten done yet here is to get a few
WordStar and early data files from the CP/M days from the old HeathKit
5" and even 8" floppies exported to current DOS and OS/2 disk
environments.  I have two Z120 systems that I need to work on to get booted
that could move the CP/M files to DOS diskettes.  As well I still have my
Heath H89 multiple 5" floppy diskette system.  But the Z120 systems
seem to be the best choice for moving that direction with whatever I need,
when, sigh, I get some time to try to do this.  I have a complete fiction
book that is registered in the Library of Congress with full CopyRight
certification in WordStar files that I need to get into modern WordStar in
DOS operations for future expansion of past things.  As well as a host of
other 'text' work that I want to do this with.  Merging old Heathkit hard
drives and so on into interface with modern systems ain't so easy.  Given
that the old Heath hard drive format needs the Heath controller card
interface with which to work them with whatever level of hardware stuff I
have.  Sigh.


--> Sleep well; OS/2's still awake! ;)

Mike {at} 1:117/3001

--- Maximus/2 3.01