Netware 4 server inpage/explore errors copying to win2k -advice please 2

[DanielUK]

We've just taken receipt of a Dell Poweredge server running netware 4 that has been sitting in one of our offices, so I've not physically seen it before. I've also got one of the workstations that connected to it (running win2k professional) which I hooked up to it with a crossover cable.

I'm trying to copy data from the netware server over to the Win2k client but no matter if I try to copy in DOS or within explorer it keeps starting then within a few seconds crashing out with "Error performing inpage operation" (within DOS COPY) or "cannot copy X the remote computer is not available" (copying from explorer from mapped drive to server).

I've seen various pointers relating to the inpage error but I'm not sure whether to begin looking at the network cards or whether it's something buggy between win2k and netware/DOS. I know pretty much nothing about Netware btw! I've run scandisk on the server but nothing to report there.

Oh, the server shared drive is a spanned drive, don't know if that affects anything.

Ultimately, I'm trying to find the least invasive way of getting some data off the server.

Thanks

Dan

 

[DanielUK]

Please bear with me, a couple more thickie questions!

1. The server loads up to an NWSERVER: prompt (like DOS). I've figured out how to shutdown the server gracefully (DOWN then EXIT) which brings me to the DOS prompt. But, from the DOS prompt I can't find the directories on either of the spanned drives that make up the mapped drive for the client win2k workstation, which are where the folders I want to copy are. I'm assuming then that Netware has to load to make these directories available or am I missing something?

2. If indeed the server software has to load, how do I get to the dos prompt without turning the server off? If the errors in the first post I made are related to the networking i was thinking of maybe putting a scsi drive in and copying from the drives to the new one.

Thanks

Dan

 

[TheLad]

Probably best to go to basics with this question:

1. The server is a server, plain and simple. It has a DOS partition which contains system files only, and a "Non DOS" partition which actually contains the NetWare partition. The NetWare partition contains the SYS volume and other possible volumes which contain the data. You cannot access this partition if you DOWN and EXIT the server to DOS. You cannot map a drive to your Windows server from the NetWare server. Scandisk will only scan the DOS partition, not the Non-DOS partition (which contains the NetWare partition)

2. You will have to connect to the server from a workstation as you would do with any other server. NetWare 4.x servers only communicate via IPX so your workstation will have to have the NetWare Client with IPX support installed. At the same time, you can connect to your Windows server (connect the NetWare box up to the network using a normal network connection, not a cross-over), map drives to both, and copy whatever data you require.

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"It's true, its damn true!"
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[DanielUK]

Thanks for the explaination TheLad,

So is the crossover causing the errors I get in my first post?

Thanks

Dan

 

[TheLad]

Well providing your server and workstations IPX settings match, and providing you have the NetWare Client installed with IPX support, a crossover cable should do just fine.

-----------------------------------------------------
"It's true, its damn true!"
-----------------------------------------------------

 

[DanielUK]

Thanks again TheLad,

If I can't get the networking side to work for whatever reason, is there a way to get to the dos prompt from the server itself without unmounting the sys volume?

Thanks again

Dan

 

[terry712]

why would you want to

it's like asking if you can throw a rope out the side of your car so you can climb underneath when it's moving

 

[DanielUK]

Thanks,

so I can fit a scsi drive and use DOS to copy some files from sys to that drive and then remove it...currently I can only get to the DOS prompt from a networked PC which is giving me those errors when I copy files. As I'm working against the clock I thought it'd be far easier for me to get at them physically on the server itself. It was just an idea......or, to put it another way, how do I use Netaware to navigate SYS and copy and manipulate files? As I said, Netware isn't my strong point!

Dan

 

[terry712]

no you cant do that

let's go to basics - firstly unless your server is really badly setup then the data will not be on the sys

you need the server running - ie at prompt it says bigshineynetwareserver: or something like that
type volumes

it should say sys , data and maybe apps or somthing like that
now ideally we want to do what it's listening for - ie what protocol it's using - get this from autoexec.ncf or load monitor then lan wan or somthing like that
cant remeber if load config tells you on a 4.x

plug the pc to croos over - preferably with a client that is configed correctly with ipx

login to server - map and take off

typing track on at the server will tell you if it can see the pc

 

[DanielUK]

Thanks, will try that tomorrow. Excuse my Netware ignorance, not had much call to use it.

This particluar win2k client I'm using has been working fine with the server for a number of years,at least with the database application it's been running, so I'm not sure why this error is coming up now...how do I know for sure that it's correctly configured for IPX?

Thanks

Dan

 

[DanielUK]

OK, progress of sorts.

I'm guessing it didn't like the crossover cable...I wired the server/workstation to our switch and now it's allowing me to copy files with no inpage error BUT, whilst it starts off copying as fast as you'd expect, a couple of hundred meg down the line it slows to an absolute crawl...what starts off as taking a couple of minutes ends up being an hour. What's at fault here? I've checked the IPX/SPX settings on the win2k client and notice it's using nwlink ipx/spx. I'm sure I've read somewhere that this is not ideal but I can't find where I read it! Any ideas?

Thanks again,

Dan

 

[DanielUK]

Oh, and data is on SYS!

Dan

 

[MarkhP]

Dan,
TheLad mentioned it earlier - have you installed the Novell client (client32) on the 2k box? - if not download it from Novell support and that may well help.

If you are really stuck and your C: drive on the server has space, you could download the Netware toolkit.nlm. It had a copy function that allows files to be copied from SYS: to C: on the server itself. This is by no means an ideal solution however, and what has been said earlier should have helped.

See

http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/tools/13950.html

 

[DanielUK]

Thanks for that but I think I've inadvertently lost something when installing the Novell Client for win2k I downloaded from Novell. Before, I would log locally onto the Win2k client and the mapping to the Netware server (drive F in this case) would automatically happen.

Since installing the netware client32, it seems to be asking me for a username and password and can't seem to detect the server anymore or find it in Explorer. One thing I did do which may have been a mistake, is I opted for it to remove the Microsoft netware when it asked me...now I don't have any of the NWLINK listings in my Network settings or anything relating to IPX/SPX. What I do notice though, is that the Client for Netware now has many more tabs under Properties. Have I done wrong?!

Thanks

Dan

 

[marvhuffaker]

You should install it (the novell client) again, this time select "Custom Install", and then when you get to the protocols screen, select IP & IPX. (Not IP w/ IPX Compatibility). Technically you could just select 'IPX only' since I assume this is the only novell server.

Since you probably did a default installation, IP is only installed by default. IPX is required for connecting to a NEtware 4 system.

Refer to this link for some handy visuals:

http://www.redjuju.com/resources/novelltips/client49/index.htm

Marvin Huffaker, MCNE

http://www.redjuju.com