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How to restore from tape without Win95 running?

I have just re-formatted my hard drive and now only have the command line to work from. I did make a Win95 emergency system disk with Win95's backup.exe, format, etc. on it but it boots to the command line, not Win95. If I attempt to use Win95's backup.exe program to restore my hard drive from tape, I get a message saying that the program can't be run from DOS.

Is there a way around this or are there any other programs that are compatible with Win95's backup.exe that will let me do the restore from the command line?

Thanks,
Jon (jlhomme@sprintmail.com)

p.s. The hard drive formatted perfectly and I already transferred the system to it using 'sys c:'.

JonL

ASKER

Edited text of question

JonL

ASKER

Edited text of question

smeebud

what kind of tape drive and software are you using?

JonL

ASKER

I am using a QIC-80 tape drive (SuperHornet made by Archive Corp) and the backup spans two tapes. Again, the software I am using is backup.exe which comes with Windows 95...BUT does not work from the command line 'c:\'. When I type:
c:\backup
I get "Program cannot be run from DOS" so I can't run the software to restore the software from tape.

kentiler

Window's "backup" can not (obviously) be run from DOS. I've found the best way is to do a quick re-install of basic Windows 95, and then restore. This will re-create your registry, etc. I don't know of any programs that will do this straight from DOS.

--Kent

smeebud

JonL,
Your hardware must be connected in a centain manner to work with 95. If you still have problems after this or don't understand it, leave a comment or "bwil@erinet.com"
--------------------------------------------
For additional information about tape backup units supported by
Backup, view the "Tape drives that are compatible with Backup" online Help topic in Backup (BACKUP.EXE) Help.
--------------------------------------------
Tape Backup Units Supported in Windows 95:
This article lists the tape backup units supported by the Windows 95 Backup program.
MORE INFORMATION
The Windows 95 Backup program supports the following tape backup
units:
QIC 40, QIC 80, and QIC 3010 tape drives made by the
following companies, and connected to the primary floppy disk
controller:
Colorado Memory Systems (CMS)
Conner
IOmega
Wangtek (only in "hardware phantom mode" or "Drive B sharing mode")
CMS QIC 40, QIC 80, and QIC 3010 tape drives connected to a
parallel port.
The following items are not compatible with Backup:
Drives connected to a secondary floppy disk controller or to an
accelerator card.
Archive drives.
Irwin AccuTrak tapes.
Irwin drives.
Mountain drives.
QIC Wide tapes (Backup supports QIC Wide drives using QIC 80 tapes).
QIC 3020 drives.
SCSI tape drives.
Summit drives.
Tape drive controllers of any type.
Travan drives.
Note that some floppy-controller-driven tape backup units
require firmware revisions to work properly with the Windows 95 Backup program.

smeebud

kent's answer was a good one.

JonL

ASKER

Kent's answer is a bad one. Obviously I know that backup.exe will not run from the DOS command line - that's why I posted the question looking for alternative software that would work. Telling me to do a quick reinstall is also an obvious choice. But that wasn't the question. The question asked for a way to do the restore from the command line or alternative software available. If you have no direct answer to the question, save your response.

smeebud

Don't use backup.exe.
Use the software that came with you hardware. OR, did you follow any of the advice I offered in my first responce. If not, i would suggest it again. Also:
For additional information about tape backup units supported by
Backup, view the "Tape drives that are compatible with Backup" online Help topic in Backup (BACKUP.EXE) Help.

JonL

ASKER

Look, the problem is NOT a compatability issue! The tape drive does and has always worked fine. Stop advising to check compatible drives! And obiously the software that came with the tape is not the issue either. Once again, the question asks if there is any software compatible with Win95's backup.exe that will work from the command line. That's it. Simple enough question I thought but you so-called 'experts' keep looking at the tape drive itself instead of just aswering the question. If you don't know, don't answer. And answering 'No' isn't helpful either. I could do that myself. And stop advising to check the tape drive's compatibility with Windows - it's the software I'm asking about. Sheesh.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

kentiler

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kenb030297

Cheyenne Backup runs out of Win95 but allows you to make a recovery diskette that will run in DOS. This system will restore your win95 system even in the event of a completely re-fdisked drive. I know it works on v4.00.950 but am not sure how it would do with OSR2 using FAT32.