I have the old 386 running again thanks to help from this forum so I am back at the well again. I have copied and moved a large portion of my data but I have a set of 6 backup floppies that I would like to restore. It's been since '92 so it obviously can't be too important, but my old employer would like some of his old DRAWINGS if I can find them. The problem is I forgot to record the directory info that they were backed up from so I don't know what directory to restore to. Is there some way to restore to a default or \* directory to save me on this or should I just write them off? I'm running DOS 3.?
Steve
What backup program did you use? If it was a DOS backup you need to use that for sure. What are the file extensions on the disks?The Backup/Restore utilities were changed with each version of DOS so you may need to have the same version of DOS that was used to backup the files. That said, something like this may work:

restore a:\*.* c:\restore /s

With any luck, the restore will build the directory tree from the backups under the c:\restore directory.

Good luck. 8-)

Typing restore /? at the COMMAND prompt will give you all the valid switches.Still no luck with the tough restore...
I have restored and retrieved all of my old data with the exception of the 6 backup discs that I don't know the original directory for. I have tried your suggestion as well as creating directories with names that I may have used in the past and trying to restore to them with no luck. Without the correct directory for a target the PC just says to put in the next disc without actually restoring anything.
I am running DOS 3.30 on the same PC that the backups were done on so the operating system is the same. The only info of any use that I get when I attempt to restore is the date of the backup and the sequential order of the discs.
The discs contain 2 files:
Backup.001 and Control.001, the extension number follows the sequence they were done in. Backup.* is consistent @ 353Kb until the last disc and control.* is 1Kb on all.
Is the directory information I am looking for in Control.001 somewhere and is it possible for a non-code literate rookie like me going to be able to locate it? As I said before the data has been in mothballs for years but this has become more of a personal challenge to try to solve (with much help from this forum) than anything else.
The files on the discs are AutoCAD.DWG files.
SteveI seem to recall that some versions of DOS required the last disk to be inserted first. You may want to try that.Did you, by any chance, create a log file of the backups at the time they were made? The log file should contain the necessary paths. If you did not create a log file, your only option may be to find the backup/restore programs from FreeDos. The FreeDos restore will allow you to specify ANY directory as the base directory for restoring the files.DONE!
I tried FREEDOS.org and found some info that SOUNDED like it would be helpful but I ran into some access problems with the site after I tried to get back on to check some documentation. I am not sure if their program supports backup/restore yet but at this point it doesn’t really matter. I got tired of trying to get back on and kept searching for another option. I located this link searching for “DOS 3.3 restore” http://a2.swlibero.org/a2763.htm
Chapter 642. The valuable DOS Freeware page
Restaur (7) - Replacement for Dos Restore, I downloaded restaur1.0 as a single file and was able to easily install it and restore my files to the directory of my choice. As I ran it I was able to SEE the directory the files were originally backed up from and was able to match the data on the control.001 file from the backup disc to the original folder. I had looked at control.001 in Wordpad before but I was looking for some type of DWG folder when the info on the discs was actually LOTUS. It is pretty obvious now but since I was looking for something else I missed it. All of this for data I have no use for, but it was an interesting experiment.
This is the DOS 3.30 control.001 file viewed in notepad of another backup I did as a test: ‹BACKUP ÿFACAD10\DWGS ÿÿÿÿ"ACAD.DWG ™ ™ ©Y "ESSCH.DWG k ™ k n½{ "ESSN.DWG ¨ §| ¨ S˜w "MOM.DWG - O? - !‚a "ACAD.BAK # |¥ # ¡\ "ESSCH.BAK `U Ÿª `U c¹^ "ESSN.BAK `Ö ÿÿ `Ö 9|\ "COLUMBIA.DWG 5€ _Ö 5€ º*_
ACAD20\DWGS is the folder the files were backed up from and the files themselves are pretty easy to identify. A simple note on the floppy would have saved a lot of work.
Thanks for the input to help me get this resolved. I may keep the old PC around just for fun now…
Steve
Glad to see everything worked out for you. Might be fun to create some REAL dos batch files and do a little programming in the old GwBasic.