How to copy every single file I select (read more)

[vampm]

Hi all! I was trying this: I have a disk 80gb, 34 only used, I connected it as slave, and the master was a 40gb. Both have Xp os. The 80gb is that i work on, but i want to copy ALL the contents (about 34gb) of the 80gb drive to the master one. As I was simply copy-paste, after the copy, I checked to see the count of bytes, if the selected from the slave (all the files) were the same size as the copied, but there were missing several files. As I saw, if u try to copy etc the windows folder, witch has many files and subfolders, the copied files will not be the same because one or two folder or files aren't going to be copied. I don know why this happening. Also I have the problem of setting rights to copy some folders, like system volume information.

How to make EXACT copies and also not to have to set again rights in any folders or files???

 

[Ijack]

You can't - not in the way you are trying to. Some files will be in use and will be inaccessible, others you will not have access rights to so, without setting rights, you can't copy them.

The easiest solution would be to boot your computer from a Linux Live CD and do the copy from within Linux - the files will then not be in use and the access rights will not apply.

 

[vampm]

The disk I copy the files from is slave, so everything in it is inactive. Also, if there is rights problem, is set new rights and the file gets copied. Is there any application to do copy and also bypass the rights???

 

[tigsounds]

Try a backup program and don't allow compression.

 

[Ijack]

The disk I copy the files from is slave, so everything in it is inactive. Also, if there is rights problem, is set new rights and the file gets copied. Is there any application to do copy and also bypass the rights???

You confused me by talking about the Windows folder. No, there's no way - within Windows - to copy files that you don't have access to. It would rather defeat the purpose of access rights if you could do that, wouldn't it?

 

[vampm]

Hmm... I tried and booted ubuntu linux, and made a copy. I booted the copied disk (the small one) and in the window there were several changes like:

Every desktop.ini was like a simple file, when i logged in, it appeared 2 or 3 times, because there was a desktop.ini in the start-up folder, in the start menu folder (the section were windows update is, if u put a shortcut, it will execute after the login, just like the start-up folder.

Every hidden folder is now as a simple folder. Also in "my computer" folder, wich shows the documents, both common and current user's, these folders were somehow different, the seamed like simple folders, not the "system's" folders (and their names were different..)

Forgot to mention that I my account is the Administrator, so i have almost unlimited access in every folder and file.

"""You confused me by talking about the Windows folder. No, there's no way - within Windows - to copy files that you don't have access to. It would rather defeat the purpose of access rights if you could do that, wouldn't it? """

What you didn't understood? Yes, with the windows functions, as I saw myself, it isn't going to copy some folders and files, not because the might have protection (wich in this case it pops an error message, and you have to manually set the the rights), but for a reason I don't know. When I copied the "windows" folder (selected, right click copy, and paste to the other disk), it didn't popped any message, it did and it seemed that everything was copied as it should, but when I checked (right click -> properties) the old windows folder and the copied one had different byte count, and in the copied one, 2 or 3 folders were missing...

 

[hollett]

if you need to copy files and keep the Ownership and Rights then you can use Xcopy from the command prompt.

Go to, Start-Run-'CMD' OK
from the command prompt type in somthing like
Xcopy d:\windows\*.* c:\Backup\*.* /e /o /h
This will copy all files in the d:\windows\ folder (*.*), including all subdirectories including empty ones (/e), and keep all ownership and ACL information (/o), including all hidden and system files (/h),to the C:\Backup directory.

for more options type 'XCOPY /?'

 

[vampm]

Ok!!! Xcopy sounds good! Can it used at the recovery console, or it has to be through the command prompt? If its in the command prompt only, then can it copy system files wich might be used by the system and cannot be copied?

 

[hollett]

If the source is a non active install (an old copy of windows) and you are not trying to overwrite the existing windows install (that would be dumb) then there are no locked files to worry about.

As for the recovery console I can honestly say I have never tried. If i need to work in a system in that situation I have a Server running WDS with Windows PE on. that has all my utilities for managing disks and data.

If you would like to check out Windows PE, you can make a bootable DVD with the tools. Search for 'Microsoft Windows PE' and you can download all that you need for free (and legal) from Microsoft.

 

[vampm]

I want to copy from an active source to an inactive (from running windows to an empty disk). I hope i can do it!

 

[-lukin-]

You could try robocopy as well as it is alot more robust than xcopy. Or if you like nifty little gui's and all that, go download the thirty day trial of vice versa, its a pretty powerful file copy tool. I always tend to prefer using file copy tools like this when moving large chunks of data, as they will not error out and stop the copy process if one file or another is not copy/moved, and they create error logs so you can go and find the culprit of the problem and move/delete the file another way.

 

[tigsounds]

I want to copy from an active source to an inactive (from running windows to an empty disk). I hope i can do it!

This why to use a backup tool as it can use the Windows Volume Shadow Copy process.
If you don't use compression, all files will appear as they do on original drive. Delete the ones you didn't want copied later if they can't be selected in the first place.

Learn more HERE