Backing up of a Windows 9x system is relatively easy. It is possible to simply copy all files from Program Files and Windows folders (excluding Win386.swp file) to some other location. The problem is with restoring from such an image. I was using a disk editing software to replace cluster numbers in the directory entries. The system was working, but it was not a solution for my clients. I needed some more automated system. I made a few interesting observations: - LFN support is available when Windows runs WINSTART.BAT file. - all core elements needed before GUI is started are in 8.3 named files. So, it is possible to: - restore core 8.3 named files from DOS without LFN support - then, to start Windows - then, using WINSTART.BAT to restore remaining files with long names I needed a way to divide all files to 8.3 and LFN file lists. As the result I created an application. It creates the two lists, then runs an archiver to make two compressed files using the file lists. As the result, it is possible to restore the OS by selecting an option in the boot menu. If all data files are kept in other folders, the restoration does not affect them. So, it is a quite fast and effective system. There are a few other problems related to the whole concept, but they are not very important. I know not about ways of doing the same kind of things with the newer Microsoft systems. So, the DOS boot ability of Windows 9x systems can be considered as an advantage, I believe.
