DOS Basics for Backup

My memories of using DOS basic commands are rapidly fading ...

 

I have a Widows 7 desktop with an external hard drive attached. I would like as a first step in the backup process to make a simple copy of my C: drive that would appear complete as such on the hard drive, possibly under a new drive label.  There is some data stored on the external drive but more than enough disc space to take my desktop C: drive also. I can leave the differential / incremental stuff to a later stage.

 

> What is the sequence of procedures that I need to follow to do this?  Do I need to partition the external drive first (or just "create" a new drive letter?) and how best to go about this? If I do copy c:/*.* it would probably just create a sub-folder. Or I could use the Windows Explorer interface.

 

Thanks for any advice.

Brings back memories of the good old days of changing 360K 5 1/2" floppies.  If memory serves last time I did a DOS backup (5.0) it took over 35 disks.

On a tablet, I cannot type well or fast. I highly recommend making a full image of C onto that ext hd. Using DVD or USB booted macrium reflect or anything similar to make any and all routine backups. I do not recommend any DOS for backups or restore.

I am currently in consultation with Macrium over the differences between a clone and a system image / backup - which I thought I had understood but now have my doubts.

I don't know if you ever got your answer but man, does this bring back memories. Are you looking for the 'diskcopy' or the 'xcopy' cmd? I used to create batch files a loooong time ago to do this stuff. Here's a site I found that has some old school commands:
https://www.ahuka.com/?page_id=25

 

Amy

https://www.ahuka.com/?page_id=5  -- begins the DOS lessons, thanks for the link!

 

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Magic Sam, this is for you 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_are_known_knowns

 

Rumsfeld stated:

Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don't know we don't know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones.^[1]

Edited by RolandJS, 17 January 2020 - 12:49 PM.

I am currently in consultation with Macrium over the differences between a clone and a system image / backup - which I thought I had understood but now have my doubts.

While the lines of the distinctions between the definitions can sometimes cross over:

A clone is a copy of an entire source HD onto the entirety of a target HD.  Both source and target are the same from beginning to end.  Sometime, a difference is the target HD's OS partition mistakenly is not flagged Active.

A system image is most often known to be a copy of the partition that contains Windows, often called "C drive", some purists know it as the OS partition.  A system image can also be a copy of the normally hidden System Reserved partition, often but not always in use by Windows 7.  I think W8 and W10 have other partitions [yep, plural]. 

What I think blurs the lines of distinction is that I have read in a few places that a clone can be made of a particular partition.  Whether that really is a clone or a system image -- let's await when you post what Macrium says.

Edited by RolandJS, 17 January 2020 - 12:59 PM.

my scandisk just would not boot with and formatted in dos binaries...im telling ya its so old....we need another format or protective sub command system for flashing whatever etc...or i need to find another program try to get formatted correctly and read-able.

Getting back to the original question of DOS-copying a Windows C partition, my guess is: unless a DOS-loaded DVD or USB boot is created and used, I doubt DOS is "strong and thorough" enough to copy Windows Prime, 3rd party stuff, en toto, et al, accurately, completely, from C partition onto external media. I suspect once past Windows for Workgroups 3.11, probably for sure past Window 95, 98, 98SE, DOS ceased being the Wizard of OZ and became the man discovered behind the curtain.