OS/2 Shareware BBS: 14 Text/14-Text.zip/cpyos2tx.zip/CPYOS2.TXT

Text File | 1993-10-29 | 4KB | 77 lines

To those of you who want to copy OS/2 from one system to
another, I would suggest that you consider the alternatives
first.  Here's why.  LinkRight transfers at about 200K / minute,
LapLink transfers at about 1 meg / minute, a good tape backup
transfers at about 3 to 5 meg / minute.

If the machines are connected on a Lan, you should consider
a LAN installation.  Even though you think it is slow and
difficult, it is probably quicker and easier than using LinkRight.

For completely FAT systems, you could use EABKXXX to backup and
restore EAs and use LapLink to transfer the files, if you can
get LapLink to work in a VDM on your machine.

A parallel port external disk drive is probably best.  I would
recommend a Trantor Parallel to SCSI converter and a Syquest
external removable disk.  Seven hundred American dollar, tops.

A final possibility is to remove the hard drive from the target
system and install it into the source system and do an xcopy
directly from one disk to another.

Be sure to use the program SYSINSTX.EXE which is found on
diskette 1 or 2 of the OS/2 installation diskettes to get the
boot record installed on the target disk.  Also, do NOT copy
EA DATA. SF, since when you copy other files, EAs will be
copied without copying EA DATA. SF.  Watch out for
incompatibilities between machines!!  OS/2 installs different
things depending upon your hardware.  For example, print01.sys
is installed for unidirectional parallel ports, while print02.sys
is installed for bidirectional parallel ports.  IDE vs. SCSI
hard drives, different video boards, and different mice should
also be considered.

If you choose any of the above methods, I think you should
buy a copy of LinkRight just because of the good advice I
gave you. <G>  This advice is only applicable to Version 1.0
of LinkRight.  Since I have had so many requests on how to do
this, version 1.1 will be much quicker and easier to use for
this purpose.

To copy OS/2 and any applications from one system to another
using LinkRight takes a bit of preparation and effort.  But it
can be done and this is how:

Create an OS/2 boot floppy.  Since you will have to make changes to
the config.sys statement, you probably should not use the original
OS/2 installation diskettes.  Make sure the executable EAUTIL.EXE is
somewhere on the path, since LinkRight needs to use this.  Note that
some methods of creating a bootable floppy do not install COM.SYS, so
serial connections may not be enabled.  I have successfully used
BOOTD21.ZIP for parallel port connections.

Boot the source machine with OS/2 and PM.  Boot the target machine
with an OS/2 floppy.  Establish a connection.  Turn Batch Mode on.
Mark files and directories and hit the Copy pushbutton.  You should
not mark EA DATA. SF, since this would cause problems.  Turn batch
mode off.  This should create a list of files that you will transfer
later.  Save this batch file so you can edit it and reuse it if you
do multiple installs.

Make sure LinkRight is installed on the hard disk of both machines.
LinkRight creates temp files and should be run from the hard disk,
rather than floppy.  EAUTIL.EXE should also be on the hard disk and
in the path statement.

Boot both machines from an OS/2 floppy.  Run LRCMD.EXE on both machines.
For the source (local) system, one parameter should be the name of the
batch file you previously created.  The target system should be set to
be the remote system.

Wait a couple of hours.  You should see the files being xferred.  When
you are done, be sure to use SYSINSTX to get the OS/2 boot record
installed.

Jeff