On Tuesday, February 29, 2000 6:55 PM, Demetri Kolokotronis
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:


>Walter R Worth and Herbert Graf wrote of using XCOPY to copy from one
>hard drive to another. It would help if they could give their procedures.
>I have used XCOPY a number of times, but not for copying a hard drive.
>

Here is one way of doing so: XCOPY32 C:*.* D:/E/C/H/R/K will copy the entire
contents of Drive C: to Drive D:  with all directories and subdirectories
(/E), while ignoring errors (/C), copying hidden and system files (/H),
overwriting read-only files (/R) and copying file attributes (/K). This set
of switches is very useful for making a
complete backup of all files and the directory structure for a given drive.

The XCOPY32 command must only be used at the DOS Prompt within Windows 95/98
(normal or "Safe Mode"). Booting the computer to the command prompt without
starting Windows 95/98 will not allow the execution of XCOPY32, but will
execute the older and less useful version of XCOPY instead. Irrecoverable
truncation of long filenames will occur. Note that while operating within
Windows 95/98, using the XCOPY command will actually execute XCOPY32 without
notice.

If the contents of the Windows directory are to be copied, the Windows swap
file (WIN386.SWP) will not be copied. This is of no importance and using the
"/e" switch will ignore the normal error message and copying will continue
uninterrupted.  Using XCOPY32 with the  appropriate switches can be very
effective in making a complete system backup. When making a system backup to
a bootable drive, apply the "SYS" command to the backup drive
after using XCOPY32. Keep in mind that the bootable partition of a hard
drive must be made active using the FDISK utility. If your system BIOS and
hardware will allow, only a few caveats (below) need to be dealt with for
the backup drive to boot and perform identically to the original main drive.

If the backup drive is a hard drive and not a removable hard drive, you must
use the "TweakUI" utility from the Microsoft Power Toys collection to
normally keep the drive "hidden". Otherwise, unpredictable cross-writing of
Windows files can occur during normal operations. This will lead to file
corruption on both drives.
Expect to repair many "shortcuts" in Windows. Some Windows shortcuts not
only contain the path to the intended file, but the serial number of the
partition in the path as well. A newly formatted partition will have a
different serial number making the shortcut's path invalid.
While XCOPY32 will copy all file attributes using the "/R" switch, XCOPY32
will not copy directory attributes. This may appear to be of minor
consequence, but Windows 95/98 requires that certain attributes be set for
some directories. Most notable is the WINDOWS\HISTORY directory used to
store visited Internet URLs. With the attributes reset, Windows Explorer
will list the three files "MM256.DAT", "MM2048.DAT" and "DESKTOP.INI".
 Normally, Windows 95/98 sets the read-only attribute on the WINDOWS\HISTORY
directory. Windows Explorer will then display the directory's contents as a
listing of previously visited URLs. The "DESKTOP.INI" file is normally
hidden regardless of the "Show All Files" setting in Windows Explorer.  HTH.
:-)

Walter R. Worth
[log in to unmask]

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                      Bob Wright<[log in to unmask]>
                       Drew Dunn<[log in to unmask]>