I HAVE A LAPTOP THAT WILL NOT BOOT TO WINDOWS 98. THE MACHINE HAS BEEN DAMAGED. I CAN EITHER BOOT WITH A FLOPPY DRIVE IN OR WITH A CD ROM IN BUT CAN NOT CHANGE THE DRIVE ONCE THE MACHINE IS BOOTED. I CAN SEE THE ZIP DRIVE FROM DOS. I NEED THE OLD DOS COMMAND FOR BACKING UP A TOTAL HARDDRIVE INCLUDING HIDDEN FILES TO A ZIP. WHEN I USE THE OLD COPY *.* D: /A /S /V IT WON'T GO TO THE NEXT ZIP DISK WHEN THE FIRST ONE IS COMPLETE. HOW DO I GET IT TO ASK FOR THE NEXT ZIP DISK?

Try using the xcopy command instead of copy. The internal help should give you the proper format.

Jan, If you are thinking that the dos version of pkzip will save your windows 98 files, the long file names, you are mistaken. The long file names will be lost when using the dos version. Xcopy from a dos prompt will not preserve the long file names either. The proper command is "pkzip -&rp a:cdrive" you can call "cdrive" whatever filename you want. Personally I would check into the bios settings and see if the laptop recognizes the hard drive. If it does try the command "fdisk /mbr" this will write a generic partition sector into your hard disk. But do this only after you have backed up the hard drive if possible, at least you may be able to salvage your user files from the zip file. Email me if you want for more detail.