"Copy" command won't work

[Guest]

I am trying to copy files while running the recovery console. I typed the
command exactly as written but I get an error message "COPY does not support
wildcards or directory copies"

 

[John John]

What are you trying to copy and from where to where are you trying to
copy it. Let us see the command syntax that you are using.

John

 

[Guest]

At the c:\windows prompt I typed

copy c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\windows\tmp\system.bak

 

[John John]

Do you actually have a c:\windows\tmp\ folder on the drive? Or should
that be c:\windows\temp\ ?

John

 

[WTC]

Are you trying to perform these steps from this KB article:

How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from
starting
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307545

At the "c:\windows" prompt did you type:

md tmp

before executing

copy c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\windows\tmp\system.bak

 

[Guest]

Yes, that is the article I'm using because of a corrupted registry. And yes
I typed the "md tmp" first.

 

[John John]

Did you type md from the right location? At the "c:\windows" prompt
like WTC said? Maybe you made the directory in another location, can
you use the cd and dir commands to access or see the directory. What
happens when you do:

cd \windows\tmp

or:

cd c:\windows\tmp

John

 

[Guest]

Yes, I typed that in correctly from the correct directory. I can see the
windows\tmp directory without any problems. So I type in the copy command
with all of the paths and files (I've tried it many times just to be sure)
and get the message that "COPY does not support wildcards or directory
copies". I even tried it from the c: prompt but it didn't help.

 

[WTC]

Hi BevH,

Do you access to another computer? If you do, can you create a BartPE
bootable disk and copy the files to the c:\windows\tmp directory.

Read the following website on how to create a BartPE CD.

Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows CD/DVD
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

Also, you could also remove the hard drive from the problematic computer and
install the hard drive as a slave to a non-problematic computer and copy the
files to the desired location.

 

[Guest]

Here's something else I found, In the following command:

copy c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\windows\tmp\system.bak

it seems to have a hangup because there is no file extension on the original
"system" file and that is why it is calling it a directory transfer. Maybe
it is because this is the corrupt file. I found that if I type in:

c:\windows\system32\config> copy software c:\windows\tmp\software.bak

this command will perform successfully (software is the next file to
transfer according to instructions)

Here's the next question: If I can't copy SYSTEM (which shows the size as
0) do I copy the system.sav file or not worry about the system file at all?

Thanks for your time!

 

[John John]

It would hardly matter unless you intend to restore it back and it isn't
working now, so it's broken, what gain wold there be in restoring it
later? The file should be several MB in size. It's up to you to decide
but the installation isn't booting as it is and the file appears to be
toast, I would say do the other steps and proceed to delete it and
replace it with the System file from the repair folder. But that is for
you to decide... even though you have little other options to chose from.

John