Clone MS DOS hard drive without breaking it?
I work at a model railway exhibition. The exhibition layout is controlled by a PC with a program specially programmed for this layout, running on MS-DOS.
…and it's been like this for about 20-25 years now. The hard drive will eventually fail.
I'm worried that the hard drive will eventually fail. But I don't really want to clone it with Windows or anything similar, because I'm afraid that modern operating systems either won't recognize the hard drive at all or will even "populate" it with temporary files, so that after a successful cloning, the hard drive will be reinserted into the PC, and MS-DOS will no longer be able to work with it. Is my fear justified?
Has anyone here ever cloned a hard drive from an MS DOS system and been able to successfully continue using it in the MS DOS system?
Thanks in advance!
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Plug it to a Linux machine, and use dd, a standard Linux tool for complete duplicating storage media.
only after file, and from file back to another plate, does not have to happen directly from original plate to target plate. This means that you can also archive complete disk contents (including boot sector, partition tables, all data) to write back to a disk if necessary.
Have you successfully done this on a hard drive of an MS DOS computer?
Which Linux?
With DOS Floppies, and with MS-DOS file system formatted USB sticks. The kind of storage device doesn’t matter. And yes, no matter what Linux.
Thanks for star!
I know. But thanks anyway.
To see which plates are to be seen and how the hot ones you can take lsblk
lsblk stands for List Blocks. This means the drives on Linux
Ok, and Linux can also FAT or Read FAT 16 file systems?
If you want to drive it to the top, you can also use Fat 12 that is the diskette format for 5,25 and 3.5 inch diskettes. You can also copy diskettes without problems. Still from the time of tape or tape drives 🙂
Don’t worry.
Make sure you don’t confuse if and of each other.
To see which plates are to be seen and how the hot ones you can take lsblk
Okay, great. Thank you.
Yes, it can. install dosfstools if not done. It’s usually a default.
Ok, and Linux can also FAT or Read FAT 16 file systems?
Right. sda would be the original plate, sdb the target plate.
if and of stand for “input file” and “output file” – where the complete plates are treated as “file”.
if and of may also be files instead of complete records. Single parititions instead of complete plates also go.
After a short search, I came to the following command;
Is that true?: sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb status=progress
“sda” would in this case be the system hard disk cloned to the second disk “sdb”.
Has already successfully completed several old projects with Linux. Last but not least, an old MYSQL DB from the beginnings of a customer branch reconverted to a current that was better.
Writing the MS dos program by someone, you have to think about it at some point to convert it to a newer or better version.
I had also written myself an old MS-Dos variant of a track control program together with a corresponding specially developed interface card. 64 switches, 128 signals had been controllable at the time.
But even here, old ones have to soften the new one because you get nothing from the old one.
Even if it hurts and costs a lot of work, this pays for example with a RasPi . The magic word is called Muxen . You can control more hardware with few data lines.
With a ras Pi of the 40 I/O pins, this is a good way to realize. who does not need so much can also take an Arduino Uno that comes with an I2C bus that can be used for it.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/multiplexer
Even then in the end of the 1980s until the middle of the 1990s (where I was my plant Besaß) something was known and I used a lot of it to save the grain. Friends have always wondered why I came out with so little lines.
At some point, everything old is at the end and you have to make the new simpler course. Many shy the effort but can’t be changed.
Stupid question:
Would you have developed the software for you privately or for a business?
For hard disk clones I have so far https://www.chip.de/downloads/Clonezilla-BIOS-Version-64-Bit_32145513.html
used, is free but somewhat bulky, but works without errors. I had NTFS on the record, whether it goes with other file system, but I don’t know. Clonzilla starts directly from a CD (to which Clonzilla must be played), so the data on the hard drive is not touched. All data that are on the plate in question are then copied. You might need to connect the old hard drive to a newer computer XP computer, for example. (hard disk interface must fit) would not be sure if it was clear with the old processors (in PC). Maybe it’s a tip.
I guess the PC is as old as the rest.
There is basically the challenge, because you need compatible hardware, e.g. an “old” IDE hard drive to replace the current existing ones.
I had a similar problem with an OS/2 system, which also ran proud 20 years and I can report as long as the hard drive is not “scattered”, your system should run forever.
The advantage of your old system is that you only need a fit “old” Pc, e.g. FreeDos and are even able to connect larger hard drives.
I even dare the assertion that in your case even a Raspi cans could be rich and even more energy-saving at the top. I do not know which interfaces you need or that you should check beforehand.
In the end, you create the base with a DOS system and then only need to copy the EXE or the directory where your program is located. A cloning is unnecessary.
Sounds exciting at any rate, I think there are also old “IT rabbits” in your environment that could have fun in the project.
Good luck!
Use Acronis True Image – you also use it professionally…
With this a cloning is created very quickly, even on much larger plates, as you may not get the little ones anymore…
http://www.acronis.com/de-de/lp/personal/sem-true-image/?utm_content=sfdc%3A7011T000001pnQF%3A7011T000001pnQP&gclid=Cj0KCQiAtbqdBhDvARISAGYnXBMlokomwkA9r
Acronis True Image creates a running Linux image that is started by a disk and thus clones the disk, or plays backups back or creates these…
This is indeed the case of MS Dos. you connect the new plate when IDE is slave, If SCSI you have to give it a free address.
Probably the new drive D is called.
In this case you just give
With this command you format the new record, transfer the boot files and give it the name railway. Of course you can choose the last one.
then, if you’re not already there, go to C:\
with the command
to copy all files, including the files in the sub-verzeicnissen as well as empty subdirectories (E) to the hidden files (H) and lets you check (V)
Now, if you clamp the plate to address “0” jumperst (SCSI) or on Master (IDE), you will be able to use it instead of original plate.
Lg, Anna