Copying Windows 95 Installations Revisited

Kenn's
Tech
Notes

19980407: Copying Windows 95 Installations Revisited

April/1998
Tech Note #7

Last month's Tech Note on copying a Windows 95 installation requires some clarification. First of all, the procedure described there was missing two important steps, which anyone who attempted it no doubt already found out. And secondly, there was some misunderstanding as to which situations would benefit from the WCOPY procedure.

As Steve J pointed out, if you have access to both the source and destination drive at the 32-bit level, there is a much easier way to copy a Windows 95 installation:

a. Prep your target drive, installed as D: - FDISK and FORMAT D:.
b. From the DOS prompt in Windows -
XCOPY C:\*.* D:\ /E /C /I /H /R /K
c. SYS the target drive with the correct version of 95, set that partition active, and you're done!

The WCOPY solution is for situations where - for one reason or another - you either don't have access to 95 while you're doing the copying, or gaining access would be inconvenient. Without access to 95, you lose the long-file names, the attributes, the hidden directories, etc. and 95 is toasted. Running XCOPY from a DOS boot will not give you access to the command line switches noted above in step "b", nor will it copy the long file names, attributes and hidden files. That's where WCOPY is a big help.

So if you're copying a Windows 95 installation from one hard drive to another within the same computer, by all means use the above procedure. However, if you find yourself needing to copy a Windows 95 installation over the network, you'll want to consider the WCOPY procedure.

Speaking of which, I neglected to include one essential piece of information with that procedure: you must disable "tunneling" before using LFNBK, or LFNBK does not run!

Tunneling preserves long filenames when files are opened and saved by applications that do not recognize long filenames. LFNBK will not run while tunneling is enabled. To turn tunneling on or off, follow these steps:
a. In Control Panel, double-click System.
b. Click the Performance tab.
c. Click File System.
d. Click the Troubleshooting tab.
Normally, all options here should be unchecked. To disable tunneling, place a checkmark beside "Disable Long Name Preservation For Old Programs". To enable tunneling (normal operation), clear the checkmark beside "Disable Long Name Preservation For Old Programs". Changing tunneling will require a reboot.

Here then is the complete and revised procedure for copying a Windows 95 installation using the Workgroups Connection diskette and Warren W's WCOPY utility:

a. On the source machine:
  • i. copy LFNBK.EXE from (the admin\apptools\lfnback directory of) the Windows 95 CD-ROM to your Windows directory.
  • ii. Disable tunneling. (Place a checkmark beside "Disable Long Name Preservation For Old Programs" in Control Panel/System/Performance/File System/Troubleshooting, then reboot).
  • iii. Run LFNBK.EXE, with the syntax:
    LFNBK /b
    This will convert the long file names to short file names, and backup the conversion table for restoration later.
  • iv. Remove any hardware devices that will not be common between source and target systems. e.g. Network card, sound card, etc.
  • v. Copy WCOPY.EXE to the root of C: (This is a bug - the program doesn't work right unless it is located on the source drive)
  • vi. Reboot, using your workgroup connection disk, and connect to a share on the server where you can copy the files to. Do not attempt the following step from within Windows!!
  • vii. Run WCOPY, which is now in the root directory of C:, with the syntax:
    WCOPY C: X:
    where X: is your mapped drive to the share on the server. WCOPY will copy all files, with all their attributes.
b. On the target machine:
  • i. Format and SYS the drive using the appropriate Windows 95 boot disk. Delete MSDOS.SYS.
  • ii. Reboot, using your workgroup connection disk, connect to the same share as in step "a:vi" above (X: for example), and run WCOPY with the syntax:
    WCOPY X: C:
  • iii. When copy is done, reboot. Windows will launch.
  • iv. After devices have all been found, run LFNBK again, this time with the syntax:
    LFNBK /r
    This will restore the long file names.
  • v. Enable tunneling. (Clear the checkmark beside "Disable Long Name Preservation For Old Programs" in Control Panel/System/Performance/File System/Troubleshooting, then reboot).

For those of you with labs containing twenty identical Windows 95 worktations, you might see the value of using part "a" to save a workstation image to the domain server. Then, somewhere down the line, when you're having flaky problems on any of those workstations, all you need to do is part "b", and you'll have saved yourself the trouble of either reinstalling Windows and all the software, or taking the hard drive out of the workstation to copy Windows 95 the "easy" way.

Technicians who wish to try this procedure may download WCOPY.EXE from the shop ftp site. It is in the programs directory.

DISCLAIMER: This document is intended for the reference of computer support personnel within Winnipeg School Division No. 1. There is no warranty or liability if procedures recommended here have an adverse affect on any systems. Use them at your own risk. Any trademarks mentioned are the property of their owners, none of whom have certified any information provided here. Opinions expressed here are personal only and do not represent the policy of Winnipeg School Division No. 1 or any other organization anywhere.


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