copy/paste help

[helpme888]

How do you force copy/paste an entire drive WITHOUT having to answer questions like "file is a system file do you really want to copy" or "folder already exists do you want to copy". In other words is there a way to Xcopy [source] *.* [destination] /E /C /Q /H /R /Y using a windowsxp copy/paste command or will it simply work to use xcopy from the cmd window?

 

[aldan]

to avoid confusion this is the answer i gave your other post. if you are talking about copying one drive to another use a program like macrium reflect to clone your drive the the other.

 

[helpme888]

I can't reply because this site is broken, but the problem with cloning is first the old drive is 250 gig so unless I want only half a drive I can't clone (right?).

Also number 2 is that the drive is broken (or at least it stopped functioning so I pulled it until I could get a new drive to emergency copy onto)

 

[aldan]

thats unfortunate. if you could get it to run you can clone it to another drive of equal or greater size.other than that not sure what your options are but i dont think ive ever heard of copy paste files from one drive to another.

 

[helpme888]

So I have my 250 gig drive partitioned in 2 parts (not sure why I did this) 125 and 125.
I could use that program to clone each one straight onto the new 500 gig drive and it would still register 250 gigs remaining (500-(125+125))?

What about if the original has bad sectors or something? Would cloning it then add the bad sectors onto my brand new drive?

I am still not really sure what happened to this drive. I got an error similar to when a flash drive fails (i.e. a dialog box that has a bunch of gibberish and an ok button when clicked on removes the drive from My Computer). So if it has bad sectors that would be cloned onto my brand new drive I would rather not do that.

Also if I go Start->run->cmd
and do Xcopy [source]*.* [destination] /E /C /Q /H /R /Y

switches
/E = all directories and subdirectories plus files
/C = continue copying even if errors occur
/Q = do not display file names while copying
/H = copy hidden and system files also
/R = overwrite read only files as well
/Y = Suppress prompting to confirm you want to overwrite files

Will this work for an NTFS drive on WinXP or is it strictly a dos command?

 

[aldan]

you would be best to partition your new drive into 3 partitions.one for the os.one for one of your partitions on the old drive and a third partition for the other on your old drive.once you get everything cloned you can merge the partitions on your new drive.bad sectors are a physical thing and wont affect your new drive unless you have files on the bad sectors in which case the files may not transfer properly.in any case the new drive wont be damaged.

 

[helpme888]

Ah thanks, so bad sectors will affect the files' copying but not make my new drive damaged (I should have known that). But (in my post above) is it also possible to use Xcopy in the command window?
I think I'd like to skip the repartitioning in case I lose the transferred data (since the data I am trying to rescue is about 200 gigs of my own DJ mixes, guitar sessions, and the 26 albums I have made from those mixes and sessions plus the digital art I have made including 19 UT maps, about 6 partially started maps, bryce scenes, digital photos I took, and scanned in paintings of mine)

Luckily I already have a working drive for my OS this will be my secondary drive

 

[aldan]

i hear you there.never used xcopy but would assume there was as much chance for failure there as well.at any rate if the drive is as bad as you say,make sure you have a plan in place before booting it up as it may not have many more boots in it.you could also send it from your old drive to a usb and put on your new drive that way,but i think thats just as risky as my first suggestion.

 

[helpme888]

I was wondering is it possible to use Xcopy (WinXP cmd window) to copy an entire drive or is that just a dos program?

 

[aldan]

hey,there is a post on your other thread that might answer that question. just saw it.