Can't copy a folder like in XP

  • Thread starter Thread starter RScotti
  • Start date Start date
RScotti: Lets say you have a folder called AAA on your machine and you have
a copy of that folder, also called AAA on another drive (let's call it drive
B).
If you dragged the AAA folder from your machine and put it over the icon of
the AAA folder in drive B, then it would just be placed inside Drive B's AAA
folder as a subfolder, also known as AAA.
However, if you drag the AAA folder and put it anywhere else in the open
Drive B, then it will ask you if you want to overwrite the existing AAA
folder in Drive B.
I assume you know this already. that's the way it's always worked for me in
XP.
Is it possible you simply forgot that it worked that way? Or maybe you
didn't realize all the time that you were doing it that way?
If you're sure it worked the other way with your copy of XP, then I'd have
to say you had a very special copy of XP.
Or perhaps there is an option to have XP behave that way. If so, I never
knew about it and wouldn't know where to go searching for the option.

Do you still have that installation of XP so that you can doublecheck the
behavior?
 
I just figured out a workaround.
When you have a folder view open, you should see a panel on the left side
called Favorite Links. Right-click on an empty space in that panel and
choose Open Favorite Links Folder.
When that comes up, right-click inside the RIGHT panel (the one that shows a
listing of the various links) and choose NEW>SHORTCUT.
Using that process, create a shortcut to your USB drive or whichever drive
you want to copy your folder to.
Once you've done that, go back to the original folder view you started this
process with.
From that folder view you can drag the folder you want to copy over to that
new shortcut you've just created. The default choice should be to copy that
folder (the plus sign that shows up indicates you're copying, not moving).
Let go of the mouse button to drop the dragged folder onto that shortcut. It
should then ask you if you want to replace the existing folder of the same
name with a new folder of the same name. You do. Once you've done that, you
may get a confirmation box for every file you want to copy for which there
is an existing file of the same name in your destination folder. You can
figure out how to avoid having that box come up again, though.
Sounds complicated, but once you set it up, it should be easy.
Two caveats:
1)When I said open a folder view at the top of this note, I meant open the
folder that CONTAINS the folder you want to copy (Let's call it AAA again.)
You don't want to open the AAA folder, you want to open the folder or drive
that AAA resides in on your computer.
2) When you create the shortcut, you want to create the shortcut to the
DRIVE that contains the copy of the AAA folder. You don't want to shortcut
to the copy of the AAA folder itself. You want to open to one level above
it.

I'll leave it there to avoid getting too wordy. But I'll happily answer any
questions.
 
However, if you drag the AAA folder and put it anywhere else in the open
Drive B, then it will ask you if you want to overwrite the existing AAA
folder in Drive B.
Click to expand...
This is exactly the way I do it all the time. I tired this with Vista but it didn't do that 4 times. Maybe I have to put
it farther away from the folder?

RScotti: Lets say you have a folder called AAA on your machine and you have
a copy of that folder, also called AAA on another drive (let's call it drive
B).
If you dragged the AAA folder from your machine and put it over the icon of
the AAA folder in drive B, then it would just be placed inside Drive B's AAA
folder as a subfolder, also known as AAA.
Click to expand...
I assume you know this already. that's the way it's always worked for me in
XP.
Is it possible you simply forgot that it worked that way? Or maybe you
didn't realize all the time that you were doing it that way?
If you're sure it worked the other way with your copy of XP, then I'd have
to say you had a very special copy of XP.
Or perhaps there is an option to have XP behave that way. If so, I never
knew about it and wouldn't know where to go searching for the option.

Do you still have that installation of XP so that you can doublecheck the
behavior?
Click to expand...

Have a good day,
RScotti

remove "nospam" in order to email me.
 
I guess it wouldn't hurt to get as far away as possible. I just tried it on
my machine and didn't have a problem.
 
Hi DP,
Sorry I got lost trying to do that. The link I wanted wasn't there.
Anyway I did this and it works both fast & well and it settled my problem with the limited space message on the flash
drive with you can't copy cause you need 876 MB more space.

However, I still think that should be fixed. Maybe SP1?

I had the file but didn't think of adding the flash drive to it. The F:\ drive is the flash drive.
Stupid me.

@echo off
xcopy /s /y /d /h /c "C:\users\rls\Agent" "E:\Agent\"
xcopy /s /y /d /h /c "C:\users\rls\Agent" "F:\Agent\"
xcopy /s /y /d /h /c "C:\Users\rls\Documents" "E:\Documents\"
xcopy /s /y /d /h /c "C:\Users\rls\Downloads" "E:\Downloads\"
xcopy /s /y /d /h /c "C:\USERS\RLS\Pictures" "E:\Pictures\"
xcopy /s /y /d /h /c "C:\Users\rls\Favorites" "E:\Favorites\"
xcopy /s /y /d /h /c "C:\Users\rls\Backup" "E:\Backup\"
xcopy /s /y /d /h /c "C:\Users\rls\Backup" "E:\ABackup\"
xcopy /s /y /d /h /c "C:\Users\rls\Setup" "E:\Setup\"
rem xcopy /s /y /d /h /c "C:\Users\rls\Backup" "E:\ABackup\"
Click to expand...


I just figured out a workaround.
When you have a folder view open, you should see a panel on the left side
called Favorite Links. Right-click on an empty space in that panel and
choose Open Favorite Links Folder.
When that comes up, right-click inside the RIGHT panel (the one that shows a
listing of the various links) and choose NEW>SHORTCUT.
Using that process, create a shortcut to your USB drive or whichever drive
you want to copy your folder to.
Once you've done that, go back to the original folder view you started this
process with.
From that folder view you can drag the folder you want to copy over to that
new shortcut you've just created. The default choice should be to copy that
folder (the plus sign that shows up indicates you're copying, not moving).
Let go of the mouse button to drop the dragged folder onto that shortcut. It
should then ask you if you want to replace the existing folder of the same
name with a new folder of the same name. You do. Once you've done that, you
may get a confirmation box for every file you want to copy for which there
is an existing file of the same name in your destination folder. You can
figure out how to avoid having that box come up again, though.
Sounds complicated, but once you set it up, it should be easy.
Two caveats:
1)When I said open a folder view at the top of this note, I meant open the
folder that CONTAINS the folder you want to copy (Let's call it AAA again.)
You don't want to open the AAA folder, you want to open the folder or drive
that AAA resides in on your computer.
2) When you create the shortcut, you want to create the shortcut to the
DRIVE that contains the copy of the AAA folder. You don't want to shortcut
to the copy of the AAA folder itself. You want to open to one level above
it.

I'll leave it there to avoid getting too wordy. But I'll happily answer any
questions.
Click to expand...

Have a good day,
RScotti

remove "nospam" in order to email me.
 
Why is the last line in there. It doesn't do anything, right (since it's
preceded by "rem")?
And do you do this as a batch file? You don't type in each line every time
you need to do this, do you?

Meanwhile, I still can't figure out the original problem you were having. Do
you still have that HP OEM installation to check it?
 
Same here, I went to the bottom of the folder and worked OK. No folder in folder.
Thanks for all your help on this.
I guess it wouldn't hurt to get as far away as possible. I just tried it on
my machine and didn't have a problem.
Click to expand...

Have a good day,
RScotti

remove "nospam" in order to email me.
 
I'm not sure what can be "fixed." The XP experience you're describing is
alien to me and to everyone else who answered you. If you drag a folder
icon over to another folder icon (i.e., on top of the other icon), it moves
or copies the dragged folder as a subfolder of the second one, no matter
what the names of the two folders are.
 
Why is the last line in there. It doesn't do anything, right (since it's
preceded by "rem")?
Click to expand...
It's remed out cause I just copied it and saved it to edit later.
And do you do this as a batch file? You don't type in each line every time
you need to do this, do you?
Click to expand...
Yes every day. It is much easier.
Meanwhile, I still can't figure out the original problem you were having. Do
you still have that HP OEM installation to check it?
Click to expand...
No the system crashed and will be sending it back to HP. That's why I got this loner with Vista.
Have a good day,
RScotti

remove "nospam" in order to email me.
 
I'm not sure what can be "fixed." The XP experience you're describing is
alien to me and to everyone else who answered you. If you drag a folder
icon over to another folder icon (i.e., on top of the other icon), it moves
or copies the dragged folder as a subfolder of the second one, no matter
what the names of the two folders are.
Click to expand...

That's not the problem I am talking about.
When you have limited space like a 1 GB flash drive with 88 MB free and you try to copy a big file 956 MB it says it
can't do it but doesn't realize the most of the files are duplicates and only a few are newer 5-8 MB's. Maybe it should
probably try till it runs out of space

Have a good day,
RScotti

remove "nospam" in order to email me.
 
You can give Vista the same copy and move commands as WinXP with regedit by
doing the following:
go to [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFileSystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers]

Copy To= {C2FBB630-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}
Move To= {C2FBB631-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}

Create Two new Keys under ContextMenuHandlers folder - that is, right-click
on ContextMenuHandlers and select New>Key twice and name them 'Copy To' and
'Move to' (without quotes) respectively. Then left-click once on each
folder, go to the right pane in Registry Editor and double-click on the
(Default) entry and aggign the appropriate values shown above, including the
parentheses around the numbers. This will create two new context menu
entries that allow you to right-click on an item, select either 'Copy To
Folder' or 'Move To Folder', and then specify the location to copy or move
them to.
 
Captain Cuspid,
Thank you very much. I miss the way XP did that. It was so much easier at least for me.
You can give Vista the same copy and move commands as WinXP with regedit by
doing the following:
go to [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFileSystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers]

Copy To= {C2FBB630-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}
Move To= {C2FBB631-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}

Create Two new Keys under ContextMenuHandlers folder - that is, right-click
on ContextMenuHandlers and select New>Key twice and name them 'Copy To' and
'Move to' (without quotes) respectively. Then left-click once on each
folder, go to the right pane in Registry Editor and double-click on the
(Default) entry and aggign the appropriate values shown above, including the
parentheses around the numbers. This will create two new context menu
entries that allow you to right-click on an item, select either 'Copy To
Folder' or 'Move To Folder', and then specify the location to copy or move
them to.

RScotti said:
Thanks, I will check it out.


Have a good day,
RScotti

remove "nospam" in order to email me.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Have a good day,
RScotti

remove "nospam" in order to email me.
 
Did you try SyncToy?

RScotti said:
Captain Cuspid,
Thank you very much. I miss the way XP did that. It was so much easier at
least for me.
You can give Vista the same copy and move commands as WinXP with regedit
by
doing the following:
go to [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFileSystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers]

Copy To= {C2FBB630-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}
Move To= {C2FBB631-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}

Create Two new Keys under ContextMenuHandlers folder - that is,
right-click
on ContextMenuHandlers and select New>Key twice and name them 'Copy To'
and
'Move to' (without quotes) respectively. Then left-click once on each
folder, go to the right pane in Registry Editor and double-click on the
(Default) entry and aggign the appropriate values shown above, including
the
parentheses around the numbers. This will create two new context menu
entries that allow you to right-click on an item, select either 'Copy To
Folder' or 'Move To Folder', and then specify the location to copy or move
them to.

RScotti said:
Thanks, I will check it out.
On Mon, 5 Mar 2007 10:22:30 -0800, "CanaKiwi"

Take the pain...you'll be better for it.

Then download this from Microsoft to simplify things for you
SyncToy v1.4
Brief Description
SyncToy helps you copy, move, rename, and delete files between folders
and
computers quickly and easily.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...54-c975-4814-9649-cce41af06eb7&DisplayLang=en


Yes I can do that but where it is a flash drive it is very slow and
takes
about 8 minutes. to do that.

On Mon, 5 Mar 2007 09:54:16 -0800, "CanaKiwi"

Why not just delete the destination folder on the flash drive and copy
the
new folder over?

Hi,
In XP I use to be able to copy a folder to the same folder in a
backup
drive. Now when I try to do that it says I need
twice as much room and puts the copy folder inside the backup folder
instead of just updating the files.
Now I have to delete the backup folder and recopy all the files.

What am I doing something wrong?

Have a good day,
RScotti

remove "nospam" in order to email me.



Have a good day,
RScotti

remove "nospam" in order to email me.



Have a good day,
RScotti

remove "nospam" in order to email me.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Have a good day,
RScotti

remove "nospam" in order to email me.
Click to expand...
 
Did you try SyncToy? Yes it is a good application.

RScotti said:
Captain Cuspid,
Thank you very much. I miss the way XP did that. It was so much easier at
least for me.
You can give Vista the same copy and move commands as WinXP with regedit
by
doing the following:
go to [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFileSystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers]

Copy To= {C2FBB630-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}
Move To= {C2FBB631-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}

Create Two new Keys under ContextMenuHandlers folder - that is,
right-click
on ContextMenuHandlers and select New>Key twice and name them 'Copy To'
and
'Move to' (without quotes) respectively. Then left-click once on each
folder, go to the right pane in Registry Editor and double-click on the
(Default) entry and aggign the appropriate values shown above, including
the
parentheses around the numbers. This will create two new context menu
entries that allow you to right-click on an item, select either 'Copy To
Folder' or 'Move To Folder', and then specify the location to copy or move
them to.

Thanks, I will check it out.
On Mon, 5 Mar 2007 10:22:30 -0800, "CanaKiwi"

Take the pain...you'll be better for it.

Then download this from Microsoft to simplify things for you
SyncToy v1.4
Brief Description
SyncToy helps you copy, move, rename, and delete files between folders
and
computers quickly and easily.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...54-c975-4814-9649-cce41af06eb7&DisplayLang=en


Yes I can do that but where it is a flash drive it is very slow and
takes
about 8 minutes. to do that.

On Mon, 5 Mar 2007 09:54:16 -0800, "CanaKiwi"

Why not just delete the destination folder on the flash drive and copy
the
new folder over?

Hi,
In XP I use to be able to copy a folder to the same folder in a
backup
drive. Now when I try to do that it says I need
twice as much room and puts the copy folder inside the backup folder
instead of just updating the files.
Now I have to delete the backup folder and recopy all the files.

What am I doing something wrong?

Have a good day,
RScotti

remove "nospam" in order to email me.



Have a good day,
RScotti

remove "nospam" in order to email me.



Have a good day,
RScotti

remove "nospam" in order to email me.
Click to expand...

Have a good day,
RScotti

remove "nospam" in order to email me.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Have a good day,
RScotti

remove "nospam" in order to email me.
 
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