drive to drive copy

[ecc83]

I now have a 466G partiton of a 500G drive spare and tried to copy/paste the contents of another drive (about 300G) over to it. The files are 95%.wav or MP3 with a few megs of text files, Ms Works, Notebook, e.t.c.

All went swimingly for about ten minutes then, warning box "Cannot copy system file". Ok thinks I. I probably don't need to copy it anyway (don't know what it is mind!). But the fekking thing won't let me skip it and progress to the rest of the files!

I have Googed a bit and there are several software apps' that "say" they can help but the setup needs to be simple enough for myself and even more so, my son (bless him) as we are not that pc cute.

I don't mind sitting there and skipping files every now and then as I feel safer that way. If P comes to S he will just have to copy his files (Oh yes! All his!) piecemeal.

Any ideas chaps?
Dave.

[Dave Boulden]

Open a DOS command window and type:

XCOPY D: E: /E /C /Q /H /R /K /Y

assuming D: is the source drive and E: in the destination drive. Explanation of the command line switches is here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../bb491035.aspx

[sureno]

Originally Posted by Dave Boulden

Open a DOS command window and type:

XCOPY D: E: /E /C /Q /H /R /K /Y

assuming D: is the source drive and E: in the destination drive. Explanation of the command line switches is here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../bb491035.aspx

very useful tip mate

[saxman]

Originally Posted by Dave Boulden

Open a DOS command window and type:
XCOPY D: E: /E /C /Q /H /R /K /Y
assuming D: is the source drive and E: in the destination drive. Explanation of the command line switches is here:

Unfortunately this will likely screw things up if you have long file names in any files of folders. This is because xcopy will only be able to produce the 8.3 character equivalent of those names.

To clone a Windows XP disc including all long file names I use xxcopy;
http://www.xxcopy.com

[Dave Boulden]

Actually, XCOPY in the WinXP (or Vista or Win7) OS is a different beast to the original DOS XCOPY and handles long filenames just fine. However XXCOPY will also handle the task with no problems.

[saxman]

Originally Posted by Dave Boulden

Actually, XCOPY in the WinXP (or Vista or Win7) OS is a different beast to the original DOS XCOPY and handles long filenames just fine. However XXCOPY will also handle the task with no problems.

Aha ! Was I really running Win95 when I last ran across that long file name problem with xcopy? - seems I must have been! Thanks Dave.

[modz1]

Stickied - short, but very useful tips here...

[ecc83]

Thanks chaps,

I shall give that a do this very weekend.

BTW. both drives are external usb Maxtors but they show up in My Computer as "Local Drive" and behave just the same way as far as I can see.

Dave.

[EdRyan]

Got something to add to this for mac users. I've just swapped out the stock 120GB HD in my macbook for something with a bit more space...A Toshiba 250GB.

Forget 'Time Machine'. That won't let you create a bootable disk image. It would only be of use if you installed a new disk, with a fresh OSX install and wanted to go back to what you had on the old disc. This takes time. Formatting the disk is a pain, installing OSX takes awhile and then you have to wait the excruciating period it will take Time Machine to dump the extra bits back onto the newly installed disk/OSX. Time Machine is only handy as a basic incremental backup device.

You'll need

A Free Utility called Super Duper
A 2.5" external SATA drive case
Another 2.5" Sata drive (obviously )
a Torx T8 and Phillips size 1 screwdriver.

Method:
Install the drive into the case. Hook the case and drive upto your macbook.
Launch Superduper. Use the default script "Back up all files". Select your Mac HD as the source, and your new Sata drive as the destination. It will take a few hours for the drive to be copied. Providing that it completes successfully...
Switch off your mac. Let it cool for around 10 minutes. Take your new Sata drive out of the external case.
Pop open the battery compartment of your macbook. Look at the compartment and see 3 tiny phillips screws holding in the L bracket. Unscrew these and remove the bracket...carefully.
You should then see a white plastic tab on the left hand side. Carefully unfold this tab and pull. You are now removing the disk and the chassis it is housed in.
You will need to separate the chassis from the disk, as it is needed to fit to your new disk. There are 4x Torx T8 screws (2 on either side of the chassis) that attach the disk. Remove these, and the disk will become free. TAKE NOTE OF THE WAY THE DRIVE IS MOUNTED. The last thing you want to do is put the drive in upside down and connect metal on metal. Pop the drive and chassis back in the way it was. Making sure you give a firm final push to ensure the SATA connection is made properly.

Reinsert the L-plate and battery. Switch your mac on...and everything is as it was, but you will have more space.



Anyhow, for anyone wanting to make bootable copies of their macintosh HD. SuperDuper is the way to go. Seems a lot less painful then doing it on a PC

[jonzipper]

[QUOTE=EdRyan;36570]
Anyhow, for anyone wanting to make bootable copies of their macintosh HD. SuperDuper is the way to go. Seems a lot less painful then doing it on a PC[/QUOTE]

Completely agree, SuperDuper is a great bit of s/w to make (and maintain) a clone of your HD.