back up ?

[Joy]

I am now using Vista Home Premium and I have an external hard drive that I
use to save a lot of my larger files, photos, etc,
When I used XP I had no problem transferring things over. However, now when
I try, I get a message saying that I will lose properties from my files if I
continue.
I did an experiment to see what would happen, and it would seem that, all my
original files are read only but when I move them to the external drive they
suddenly become archive. This has never happened before.
What problems will that cause me, if any?
Hope someone can help me.

 

[Ringmaster]

I am now using Vista Home Premium and I have an external hard drive that I
use to save a lot of my larger files, photos, etc,
When I used XP I had no problem transferring things over. However, now when
I try, I get a message saying that I will lose properties from my files if I
continue.
I did an experiment to see what would happen, and it would seem that, all my
original files are read only but when I move them to the external drive they
suddenly become archive. This has never happened before.
What problems will that cause me, if any?
Hope someone can help me.

What (Windows itself or some application) is giving you the message
and exactly what does it say?

Just making a wild guess without further information it sounds like
you are using some backup program to move the files to your external
drive. If so, many set the file's attribute to archive. It's purpose
is intended to tell which files are archived. It should not impact you
ability to access your files in any way. If you download a lot of
files off the web they may already have the "A" attribute set.

 

[Tim Slattery]

I am now using Vista Home Premium and I have an external hard drive that I
use to save a lot of my larger files, photos, etc,
When I used XP I had no problem transferring things over. However, now when
I try, I get a message saying that I will lose properties from my files if I
continue.

Is the external drive using FAT32? The NTFS file system stores some
file properties in Alternate Data Streams (ADSs). See
http://members.cox.net/slatteryt/Streams.html for an explanation. FAT
file systems don't have these things. When you copy a file from an
NTFS system to a FAT system, only the unnamed stream (which has the
"real" file in it) gets copied, any named streams stay behind.

I did an experiment to see what would happen, and it would seem that, all my
original files are read only but when I move them to the external drive they
suddenly become archive.

The "archive" flag simply means that the file's been changed since the
last backup was run. (Backup software is supposed to clear the bit
when it copies a file.) Since you're looking at a file that's just
appeared on your external disk, the archive bit should be turned on.

Are the read-only files still read-only? I think the four original
property flags (read-only, archive, hidden, system) are stored in the
directory entry in both systems, I know they are in the directory
entry in FAT32. So I'd expect the settings of those flags to carry
over. Other things, like file protection properties, would disappear.

 

[Joy]

What (Windows itself or some application) is giving you the message
and exactly what does it say?

Just making a wild guess without further information it sounds like
you are using some backup program to move the files to your external
drive. If so, many set the file's attribute to archive. It's purpose
is intended to tell which files are archived. It should not impact you
ability to access your files in any way. If you download a lot of
files off the web they may already have the "A" attribute set.

Hi
I am not using any specific back up program, other than whatever is built in
to Windows.
I don't know what is giving me the message, but it has the yellow triangle
with black exclamation mark. It says the following
‘Property Loss
Are you sure you want to copy this folder without its properties?
The folder friends&family2 has properties that cannot be copied to the new
location.’
This experimental folder contains only four small word documents. The
strange thing is, if I copy each document over individually, I don't get the
'property loss' message, although they have gone to archive with no prompting.