anderswp@nbivax.nbi.dk (03/09/90)
Some time ago, I purchased Minix v.1.3 in the 512K AT-version. However, Until now I haven't had time do anything with it and now I face a problem: Before doing anything else I would like to make a backup of the disks as I do not trust myself with playing around with them without screwing them up. I thought that this could be done with MSDOS DISKCOPY but this does not work. Do I have do this from within Minix? Running Minix without harddisk would I have to copy a bit to the RAM-disk, then on to the backup disk etc. for the entire set of disks? Somebody please tell me that this is not true. Thanx in advance AndersWP
aubrey@rpp386.cactus.org (Aubrey McIntosh) (03/11/90)
In article <345@nbivax.nbi.dk> anderswp@nbivax.nbi.dk writes: >Some time ago, I purchased Minix v.1.3 in the 512K AT-version. However, Until >now I haven't had time do anything with it and now I face a problem: > >Before doing anything else I would like to make a backup of the disks as >I do not trust myself with playing around with them without screwing them up. >I thought that this could be done with MSDOS DISKCOPY but this does not work. >Do I have do this from within Minix? Running Minix without harddisk would I >have to copy a bit to the RAM-disk, then on to the backup disk etc. for >the entire set of disks? Somebody please tell me that this is not true. > "This is not true." The first block of a Minix filesystem disk is not currently used by minix. One possibility open to you, if you are willing to drive MS-debug, is to create or copy the disk parameters in the boot record. These are described on page 113 of Norton "programmer's guide to the ibm pc" ISBN 0-914845-46-2 or ISBN 0-14-087-144-6 (both numbers appear on the title page I'm reading right now. Thought they were unique until this minute.) When you have done that, MS-diskcopy will work. Alternatively, you can start Norton's Utilities in (perhaps) maintenance mode, do a sector copy, and tell it just what the description of the disk is. Although I did get Norton's utilities to work doing this, I don't know exactly how I did it without going back to some notes. I suppose one could write an assembly program using int-13 in just a page or so to do this, also. -- Aubrey McIntosh "Find hungry samurai." -- The Old Man 1502 Devon Circle comp.os.minix, comp.lang.modula2 Austin, TX 78723 1-(512)-452-1540 (v)
AE200EI%DACTH11@cunyvm.cuny.edu (Thomas Eifert) (03/13/90)
Though I don't have a PC but an ATARI ST, it proved simple to copy the MINIX distribution disks by a copy program, that isn't interested in the disk contents but copies blockwise. As far as I know, MINIX PC uses DOS-formatted disks, so it should be possible to copy Your disks by a something like PCTOOLS. Thomas Eifert