Connecting the Hardware, Step-by-Step

Here is a step-by-step guide for getting all the hardware ready to backup. It can be confusing when you think about all of the hardware, and how they might work as separate pieces, but in conjunction with each other they create a great "carry-everywhere" backup solution.

  1. 1. Remove any card in the palmtop's slot and insert the 'Double Slot.'

  2. 2. Insert the TransDigital Trans PC parallel card in the bottom slot.

  3. 3. Power on the palmtop and get to a DOS prompt. Change to drive A:

  4. 4. Execute CIC.EXE to load the palmtop client driver from TransDigital. You will hear audible tones letting you know the card is recognized. (Later, when the Zip drive TSR is loaded, it will likely assign the Zip drive as the F: drive. The CIC executable program has a switch that you can use to automatically assign it to drive B:. If this is something you would like to do, use "CIC /B" instead of just "CIC" by itself. If you use the /B switch, go to step 5, if not, skip to step 7.)

  5. 5. Power off the palmtop.

  6. 6. Power on the palmtop. (You should hear audible tones. Anytime the power is turned off and back on, you should hear that double tone, letting you know the parallel card is recognized each time. Powering off and back on reassigns the F: drive to drive B:)

  7. 7. Attach the TransDigital Zip drive cable to the parallel card and the Zip drive. (The cable is not provided when you purchase the parallel card, but is available separately from TransDigital.)

  8. 8. Execute GUEST.EXE (from the Zip drive install diskette).

NOTE: The files you will need from the Zip drive diskette are: GUEST.EXE, GUEST.INI, NIBBLE .ILM, and ASPIPPM1.SYS. The ASPIPPM1.SYS is a text file you can edit. To make it load the Zip drive as fast as possible on the palmtop, you can edit it or create a text file named ASPIPPM1.SYS with the following information:

[--- begin file ---]

SCAN=ON

ASPI=ASPIPPM1.SYS /INFO FILE=NIBBLE.ILM SPEED= 1

[--- end file ---]

  1. 9. After executing GUEST, the Zip drive will be located and then connected to a drive letter (most likely drive F:. NOTE: if you used "CIC /B" you'll have access to the Zip drive as drive B:.).

  2. 10. Power off the palmtop. Move the parallel card to the top slot and insert your memory card in the bottom slot.

  3. 11. Power the palmtop back on.

  4. 12. You will now have access to three drives: the palmtop C: drive, the memory card (drive A:) and the Zip drive.)

  5. 13. Copy all contents from drive C: and drive A: to a Zip diskette.

(I personally used PKWARE's PKZIP and PKUNZIP to compress and uncompress all files, or selected files, on the C: and A: drives. Other methods of your choice will work well, too, with some experimenting.)

To recover data, simply follow the steps above and recover problem files to the C: or A: drive as needed.

The hardware described in this article is very compact and easily carried while away from the office. When catastrophe hits, you will be ready to recover no matter where you are.