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- 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
-