HOWTO: Copy Files from Cabinets on DMF-Formatted Disks

• Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows, version 3.0

SUMMARY

The files on Disks 2 through 7 of the Standard Edition and 2 through 16 of the Professional Edition of the Setup program for Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows are stored in cabinet files on DMF-formatted disks. If you need to copy the files from the disks to a network server or other permanent storage drive, you must use the /C copy switch with the Extract.exe utility located on Disk 1 to copy the application files to the target location.

Extract.exe allows you to copy the entire cabinet file (*.CAB) or extract and decompress individual files contained in the cabinet file. You can also use the Extract utility to search a cabinet file and list its contents.

To obtain a complete list of command options for the Extract utility, insert Disk 1 and switch to the drive containing the disk. For example, type A: if the disk is in drive A. Type EXTRACT or EXTRACT /? at the command prompt to obtain the list of available command options.

MORE INFORMATION

A cabinet (*.CAB) file contains many files stored as a single file. The following examples show how to use the Extract utility to copy and extract files from a cabinet file and how to locate the files contained in a cabinet file.

Copying an Entire *.CAB File

The following examples show how to use Extract to copy the entire cabinet file to another location. To copy a cabinet file named VFP2.CAB to the current directory, use this syntax:

   EXTRACT /C A:\VFP2.CAB VFP2.CAB

   EXTRACT /C A:\VFP2.CAB C:\DISK2\VFP2.CAB

Copying Files from a *.CAB File

To copy all files from all cabinets on all disks to the C:\FLAT directory, use this syntax::

   EXTRACT /E /A /L C:\FLAT A:\VFP1.CAB

To copy all files from the VFP4.CAB cabinet to the current directory, use this syntax:

   EXTRACT /E A:\VFP4.CAB

Locating a File in a *.CAB File

If you need only a single file that is contained in one of the cabinet files, you can search for it using the /D switch with Extract.exe. Once you find the file, you can use Extract.exe again to copy the file to the desired location. The following examples show how to use the Extract to find files.

To list all files in a cabinet file, use this syntax:

   EXTRACT /D A:\<cabinet filename>

   EXTRACT /D A:\<cabinet filename> *.EXE

Copying a Single File from a *.CAB File

The following examples show how to use Extract to copy a single file from a cabinet file.

To extract Any.exe to the current directory, use this syntax:

   EXTRACT A:\<cabinet filename> ANY.EXE

   EXTRACT A:\<cabinet filename> /L C:\VFP ANY.EXE

Copying Contents of Distribution disks to Hard Disk for Installation

If you are experiencing errors extracting files from the original distribution diskettes, you can copy Disk1 to a clean (empty) subdirectory.

Using the extract command, extract the remaining CAB files into the same directory, then run setup from that directory.