> Date:    Thu, 2 Mar 2000 08:56:35 -0800
> From:    "Walter R. Worth" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: How to copy Hard drive

[snip <lengthy discussion of xcopy merits, etc.>]

> OTOH, using this command may possibly change of some SFN's and not which
> sector a file occupies, then whether or not you get an "exact copy" will
> depend entirely on the names of the folders and files on the source HD.
It
> is "possible" to have a HD that will not cause any SFN problems, although
> this is probably not true of most HD's.  Xcopy is no longer my preferred
> method for

FWIW, I've had good results using xcopy on systems that aren't
too cluttered.  If you go into regedit, & search for a tilde character,
note any tildes pointing to directories that have multiple names
listed (e.g., C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~5\OFFICE\OSA.EXE), it will help you
in determining if your drive is a good candidate for xcopy.

If you see something bigger than a '1' following a tilde (as in
the case above), there's a good chance that xcopy won't work
(i.e., there will be a lot of 'fixing up' to do after the copy).

However, this isn't a sure thing, since certain SW companies
may store their path information encoded, in binary, or in
INI files, etc.  Just a thought...

Tom Mishler
mailto:[log in to unmask]

                Curious about the people moderating your
                   messages? Visit our staff web site:
                     http://nospin.com/pc/staff.html