Most reliable way to copy files?

[RobW]

Hi all,

I was wondering what the general consensus was in regards to Windows
file copying.
Specifically, system files etc.
Say you wanted to copy someone's profile to another machine or back it
up, what would be the most reliable way to do this.
I tend to boot to a knoppix boot disk most times but even then I get
the odd file copy error.
Thank-you in advance.

Rob

 

[Guest]

The Windows XP's file system is NTFS which the knoppix would have difficulty
to read. Also user profile folders are usually marked as Private meaning
encrypted which only an administrator login would be able to access.

If running Windows XP pro, use loadstate and scanstate utility to copy the
profiles.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/deploy/usermigr.mspx

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

BartPE http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder

Knoppix has limitations when working with NTFS.

But, you can't copy profiles that way. The user would need to create a new
profile on the destination machine, log into it to create the system
folders, then copy their data into it. Programs would possibly need to be
reinstalled.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Malke]

The Windows XP's file system is NTFS which the knoppix would have
difficulty to read. Also user profile folders are usually marked as
Private meaning encrypted which only an administrator login would be
able to access.

This is incorrect. Knoppix can *read* files on an NTFS system with no
problem. It is *writing* to NTFS that is dangerous for the data on the
Windows system since corruption can occur. Using Knoppix is an
effective and easy way to retrieve data on problematic Windows systems,
and there is no problem retrieving data that has been password
protected or has a Windows ownership restriction. If true encryption
has been applied, that is another matter. Making a folder private does
not apply encryption.

However, since the OP asked about copying a user profile:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=811151

I'm not sure that copying a user profile is actually what the OP wants
to do; my guess is that s/he wants to back up the system. However,
without a more exact post, I'm not going to guess.

Malke

 

[Ken Blake]

In

The Windows XP's file system is NTFS...

This is not correct. NTFS is entirely optional. It would be
correct to say "The Windows XP file system *may be* NTFS..."

 

[RobW]

Thanks for the info gentlemen,

Basically what I want to know is what is the best (best being the most
reliable) way to copy files from hard disk (either FAT32 or NTFS)
forcefully & recursively to ,, say another HDD without stopping for
errors. In the original post I used a user profile simply as an
example. The reason for the question is I am never sure whether the
copy is going to complete or not.

Kind regards,
Rob

 

[Yves Leclerc]

You should not that in XP there is a 4GB file size limit on FAT32
partitions. This means that a file can not exceed 4GB if you want to store
it on a FAT32 based partition/disk.

 

[RobW]

You should not that in XP there is a 4GB file size limit on FAT32
partitions. This means that a file can not exceed 4GB if you want to store
it on a FAT32 based partition/disk.

Thanks Yves,
But that is not what I asked.

 

[Anna]

On Tue, 5 Jul 2005 11:03:17 -0400, "Yves Leclerc"
Thanks Yves,
But that is not what I asked.

Rob:
I'm not entirely sure what you mean when you say you want to know the best,
i.e., most reliable way to copy files from one HD to another HD "forcefully
and recursively". Obviously you're aware of the ability to copy
folders/files through a variety of means -- drag & drop, using a flash drive
or CD or other removable media to store data, etc., etc. Is this not
sufficient for your purpose?

Or are you interested in copying massive amounts of data from one HD to
another for the purposes of maintaining a good backup system? If so, using a
disk imaging program such as Symantec's Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image
to clone the contents of one drive to another might be another practical
approach, no?

Perhaps you could give a clearer indication of just what you want to achieve
in this area.
Anna

 

[RobW]

Rob:
I'm not entirely sure what you mean when you say you want to know the best,
i.e., most reliable way to copy files from one HD to another HD "forcefully
and recursively". Obviously you're aware of the ability to copy
folders/files through a variety of means -- drag & drop, using a flash drive
or CD or other removable media to store data, etc., etc. Is this not
sufficient for your purpose?

Or are you interested in copying massive amounts of data from one HD to
another for the purposes of maintaining a good backup system? If so, using a
disk imaging program such as Symantec's Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image
to clone the contents of one drive to another might be another practical
approach, no?

Perhaps you could give a clearer indication of just what you want to achieve
in this area.
Anna

Hi Anna,

Thank-you for your reply, sorry to not be clear enough with my 1st
post.
To copy a system/partition I use Partition Magic. No drama there.
To copy normal data e.g. docs, and non system files I use Windows
Explorer drag & drop, copy & paste, whatever. However I have found
that a certain amount of the time when I am copying a profile or the
contents of a whole disk that is to be archived I get 45 minutes
through a 52 minute copy and I get an error. (*times are just an
example, could be 15 seconds) I don't know whether I have got all the
info I need. (Which I do need to know.) I have tried booting into safe
mode to lessen the amount of things running when I am doing the copy,
however it still happens occasionally. I have experienced this many
times, it's not on just one machine or with just one operating system.
The original question is to see if there is some command line app or
some switches I can throw to Copy that will make the copy continue
regardless of the odd error. It would be nice if the errors were
logged so that I could decide if the file that was missed is important
and needed further attention.
Would XCOPY be the thing I am after?


TIA
Rob
..

 

[Anna]

Hi Anna,

Thank-you for your reply, sorry to not be clear enough with my 1st
post.
To copy a system/partition I use Partition Magic. No drama there.
To copy normal data e.g. docs, and non system files I use Windows
Explorer drag & drop, copy & paste, whatever. However I have found
that a certain amount of the time when I am copying a profile or the
contents of a whole disk that is to be archived I get 45 minutes
through a 52 minute copy and I get an error. (*times are just an
example, could be 15 seconds) I don't know whether I have got all the
info I need. (Which I do need to know.) I have tried booting into safe
mode to lessen the amount of things running when I am doing the copy,
however it still happens occasionally. I have experienced this many
times, it's not on just one machine or with just one operating system.
The original question is to see if there is some command line app or
some switches I can throw to Copy that will make the copy continue
regardless of the odd error. It would be nice if the errors were
logged so that I could decide if the file that was missed is important
and needed further attention.
Would XCOPY be the thing I am after?

TIA
Rob

Rob:
It seems to me that you would be best served by using a disk imaging program
such as the ones I previously mentioned to routinely & systematically clone
the contents of your working drive to either another internal drive or a
USB/Firewire external hard drive. These programs are simple to use,
relatively fast in their cloning speed, and quite effective in their
results. For all practical purposes, the clone is a bit-for-bit copy of your
source disk and in my view is a near-ideal backup system for most users . By
creating a "clone" of your day-to-day working HD, you have at hand an exact
copy of your operating system, registry settings, all your programs &
data -- in short *everything* that's on your source disk. And an added
crucial advantage in that where the recipient of your clone is another
internal HD, that drive will be bootable. (The USBEHD is not bootable in an
XP environment).

It's been some time since I used the xcopy DOS command. For a variety of
reasons, I don't really think that it's a practical alternative for your
objective. There is a third-party program - xxcopy - that's been around for
awhile that many users swear by for copying large amounts of data. I haven't
used that program for a long time, but when I did I swore *at* it. I found
it awkward to use and inconsistent in its results. But that was some time
ago, so maybe it's improved since I've come across favorable user reports
about this product from time to time.

My advice still stands - for a practical, near-failsafe backup system,
consider using a disk imaging program for disk-to-disk cloning.
Anna