Transferring files between Windows and AIX

UNIX AIX
1

How do I transfer Plain Text and/or BMP image files between my WindowsXP PC and my AIX 4.1 PowerPC?

I have no network or USB options, just a Floppy disk drive and a CD drive on each machine.

Is it possible at all? Any help would be gratefully received:)

2

Write your stuff on a floppy disk, put the floppy disk into your AIX box and check the man page for "dosread". Example No. 2 could be helpful.

3

Third party softwares like "Smart FTP" will do this

4

He wrote:

So it will be not easy with smartFTP I guess.

5

oops.. i miss that statement...

6

I will assume that you are comfortable on the PC-side to read/write to floppy disk or cdrom. On the AIX, what do you know about those media devices normally at /dev/disk or /dev/dsk ?
In general sense, you will need to
mount the disk
>mount /dev/disk/floppy0 /mnt
or
>mount /dev/dsk/c0t2d0 /cdrom

You will need to learn more about your system in order to know how to use the above two examples.

then see what is on the disk
>ls -l /mnt
or
>ls -l /cdrom

7

As far as i know AIX (unlike Linux) has neither a NTFS- nor a FAT16/FAT32-driver, therefore mounting a floppy drive in AIX seems to be impossible.

There are - as zaxxon has already mentioned - the "dosdir", "dosread" and "doswrite" commands, which can read/write/list FAT16-formatted floppies though. The commands are quite straightforward and their usage is easily picked up by reading the manpage.

I hope this helps.

bakunin

8

Are you sure that networking the two is out of the question?

  1. You did not indicate the Windows version or pSeries machine type/model. AFAIK, every pSeries model built in the last 10 years or more has a built-in Ethernet adapter. And a Windows PC likely either has one or one can be bought for very little money. Depending on the type of adapters, a cross-over cable or some other very simple physical connection will get these two machines connected. If this is an option, try it first. If you need help with the software configuration of the networking, ask back here.
  2. There is also the option of using SLIP/PPP link between the systems using a TTY serial port. It will be slow, but it will work. Each system likely has a free TTY port. The cable you need is called a null-modem cable, and the number of pins and gender on each cable end will vary. If you want more advice on this option, ask back again. The Windows configuration of SLIP/PPP is found here: MS Windows SLIP/PPP FAQ from UNET or here Svensk forskning för hållbar tillväxt| RISE
    And the AIX configuration is found here: Asynchronous Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) Subsystem