Sorry for the delay, but this just hit my inbox last night.

Caroll's suggestion will not work _IF_ the disk is copy protected.

Back in the days of 5 1/4" floppy disks, disk copy protection schemes
were very popular among software vendors. These techniques were
developed to prevent someone from buying a program and then using
copy *.* or diskcopy to create multiple duplicates for thier friends and
family.

IF the program Herb is considering, has one of these protection schemes,
then
he would need a special program that can copy the disk "image" and recreate
it on a new different sized floppy. There was a shareware program called
COPYQM that could migrate disks from the old 5 1/4" to a 3 1/2" disk.
I think it is still available at some of the older shareware sites.

Jim Meagher

----- Original Message -----
From: "Carroll Grigsby" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, October 19, 2000 11:43 PM
Subject: Re: [PCSOFT] transferring from 5.25 discs to 2.25 discs


> Herb:
> I'm making two assumptions:
>         1. You meant to say "3.5", not "2.25".
>         2. You became a computer user after the days of DOS, and 5-1/4
> floppies.
> You'll need access to a computer with both 5-1/4 and 3-1/2 floppy
> drives, and there aren't many of those around anymore. Put a blank,
> formatted 3.5 disk in one drive (a: or b:, depending on how the computer
> is configured), the 5.25 in the other (b: or a:), and enter copy a:*.*
> b:*.* (or copy b:*.* a:*.*) where the first entry refers to the 5.25
> drive (source), and the second refers to the 3.5 drive (target).
>
> If you're not positive about the a: b: thing, test it by entering dir a:
> -- if you get a file listing, all is well; if there are just grinding
> sounds, then try dir b:. Bear in mind that if you get the source and
> target disks wrong, and the 3.5 disk happens to have some files on it,
> you run the risk of overwriting the 5.25 disks. (If you're still
> concerned, there is a slot in the side of the 5.25 floppy envelope.
> Cover it with a piece of opaque (NOT transparent) tape, and the disk
> will be write-protected.)
>
> This is no guarantee that you will be able to install the program,
> however, as some programs (not many) used special formatting techniques
> to prevent piracy. Early versions of Lotus 1-2-3 were notorious for this
> practice. It was impossible to create backups, which meant that if
> something happened to the distribution disks, the user was dead in the
> water.
> HTH.
> -- Regards,
> Carroll Grigsby
>
>
> Herb Chadnow wrote:
> >
> > I just saw an auction that has a program I would like to get.  It
> > expires in 3 days.
> > The only problem is that it is on 5.25 discs. If I purchase them
> > is there a way to transfer it to 2.25 discs.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Herb Chadnow
>
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