• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Large files to floppies!

Z

ziloo

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2006
Messages
990
Location
in the basement
Hello folks,

I would like to copy a large (> 1.44 Meg) file/directory into several
floppies to transfer to another PC. Any recommendations for a
software to do just that ....from PC to floppies and from floppies to PC?

Thank you very much

ziloo
 
Pkzip for DOS can be used to zip up a file in 1.44mb chunks that you can move with floppies and unzip on and other machine.
 
Here are the instructions for doing a transfer with Winzip. Note that Winzip must be available on both computers to unzip properly.

Multiple Disk Spanning
WinZip® makes it easy to create Zip files that "span" multiple disks. This is useful if the files you are working with will not fit on one disk.

Creating spanned Zip files
To make a Zip file that spans multiple disks, simply create a new Zip file on a removable disk, then add files to the Zip as you normally would. If the disk fills during Add operation, you will be prompted for another disk. Simply insert the next disk and click the OK button.

Important: disk spanning is not available when adding files to an existing archive; it is only available while creating a new archive. Also note that you cannot add files to or remove files from a Zip file that spans disks. WinZip requires pre-formatted disks (you can format disks using My Computer or Windows Explorer).

Example:

To zip the files in your c:\data folder to a Zip file called A:\DATA.ZIP:

Start WinZip.
Drag and drop the c:\data folder from My Computer or Windows Explorer to the WinZip window.
In the Add dialog box, type the filename of the Zip file (A:\DATA.ZIP).
Click the Add button.
If more than one disk is needed, you will be prompted for additional disks.

Extracting from spanned Zip files
To extract files from a spanned Zip file, insert the last disk of the series and open the Zip file using WinZip; this will display the directory of the Zip file and allow you to extract the files. WinZip will prompt you for the disks as needed to complete the operation.
 
Yeah, PKZIP (DOS) or WinZip (Windows) would be the way I'd do it. But I'm curious, what are the machines? Sure you don't have an easier method available to you, e.g. Null Modem cable?
 
I'd use PKzip to get them into an archive file (no compression). Then use a program to simply split it into 1.44mb chunks (Norton Commander will do this nicely).

Then on the target maching you can combine with the copy command:
Code: 
Copy file.001 /b+ file.002 /b+ file.003 ...... /b+ file.last output.zip

Then unzip it and you're good to go.
 
Ziloo,

A bit of important information. What OS are you doing this in? Are you ok using pkzip or are you looking for native command or app (I'm not aware of a native splitter in dos but copy can combine files again). http://www.unt.edu/rss/docs/zip.htm has a quick help file and usage guide including the command to have pkzip automatically span over multiple floppies
Code: 
pkzip -& A:\sample.zip c:\dir\largefile
 
By far the simplest to use is SLICE.COM which is 1,904 bytes.
format: SLICE [s:\path\]filename[.ext] d:
where: s:\path\filename.ext is the file to SLICE.
d: is a removable media drive.
Click to expand...
The first disk will automatically contain the complementary executable called SPLICE. You can zip (or whatever) the files into one large archive first if you like.

PKZIP works too, but is a large program. Isn't winzip a Windows program? It seems to me that if you have the kind of resources to run winzip then you might as well use a wired connection or perhaps stick the files on a CD. Higher resource machines support CDs and it is trivial to install a drive - even temporarily. :)

Other choices would be XPORT.EXE which is 14,393 bytes and connects serially. For that matter, why not just split the files using the good old UNIX split program. My DOS port is called SPLIT.EXE and is 11,936 bytes.

Of course, I could be completely off the mark be even assuming that the machine runs DOS! For all I know you are dual booting QNX and Minix3. :)
 
DOS PKZIP doe support spanning multiple floppies, and I remember using this method to move large files from machine to machine. BUT, I would warn against it unless you are sure you have really good floppies; There were many times I extracted a 6 disk set, just to find out disk 6 was bad. If one of the disks is bad, you get nothing!

(I think PKZIP should have created "floppy RAID arrays"; it would be easy to add a parity disk to recover from any single disk loss. Don't say it's too complicated for back then... if you look up the guts of RAID, it's basically just XOR).
 
carangil said:
DOS PKZIP doe support spanning multiple floppies, and I remember using this method to move large files from machine to machine. BUT, I would warn against it unless you are sure you have really good floppies; There were many times I extracted a 6 disk set, just to find out disk 6 was bad. If one of the disks is bad, you get nothing!
.
Click to expand...

Easy, make sure you keep the splits on the HDD and copy them to disk as needed. I used to do this, and used the same disk to copy all the files across. This way if there is a bad file, then you simply re-copy it on a fresh disk.

But then my friends and I discovered the wonders of using a laplink cable and Norton commander. It was magical.
 
Yes, if the machines you want to transfer between are physically close I'd consider one of the file transfer programs like Laplink etc.

If they are both Windows machines, there is always to option of use Hyperterminal. That comes with windows and has file transfer capability over the RS232 using a null modem cable

Tez
 
tezza said:
<snip>
If they are both Windows machines, there is always to option of use Hyperterminal. That comes with windows and has file transfer capability over the RS232 using a null modem cable

Tez
Click to expand...
...or DCC Direct Connect: serial, parallel or IR...

BTW, I don't think HT comes with Windows any longer, and Hilgraeve don't offer a freebie any more either. Still lots of copies and alternatives out there though.
 
I remember vaguely about a program that you would simply ask it
to copy a file/directory to A:, and it would start copying and once
the floppy was full, it would ask that you "insert diskette #2", and
then it would go on to more floppies until the file/directory was
fully copied.

ziloo
 
Not sure but that is what pkzip looks like if you happen to be remembering that. I suppose most other dos apps thought would likely have the same prompt.

Another alternative depending on dos version and available hardware is a parallel zip drive. I found those pretty handy but I don't recall the oldest version of dos I ran it on. I know it works fine on 6.22 but I could be misremembering 5.x since I know I had a null modem cable between most of my systems and used the native interlnk and intersrv to host my systems to eachother. Then I probably accessed the zip drive off my 386 laptop from the 8088.

Either way, got me past a bunch of crunches even if it took a long time to copy files but let's face it, a 20MB hard drive even with slow copy times isn't a complete nightmare to back up.
 
ziloo said:
I remember vaguely about a program that you would simply ask it
to copy a file/directory to A:, and it would start copying and once
the floppy was full, it would ask that you "insert diskette #2", and
then it would go on to more floppies until the file/directory was
fully copied.

ziloo
Click to expand...
I guess you missed my earlier post about SLICE.COM. :)
You type "slice filename a:" Does it get any easier????
 
Ole Juul said:
I guess you missed my earlier post about SLICE.COM. :)
You type "slice filename a:" Does it get any easier????
Click to expand...

Yes yes yes....I just downloaded the program, and I will try it on my
Dos machines! Thank you Ole one :)! I am trying to learn from
everyone's experience, and so I keep asking questions.

Some times you might want to copy a program from one computer, and
move it on to another computer somewhere else, and this might be an
easy way to do so.

ziloo
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top