Copy XP to new drive - is xxcopy alright?

  • Thread starter Thread starter DVL
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DVL

I need to move XP to a new hard drive. I'm looking for a free and easy way
to copy the data over. Will xxcopy work alright with moving the files over?
 
It will work well for your personal files. It is not capable of moving over
a workable and bootable operating system as system files that are in use, or
otherwise locked, will not be copied.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from: George Ankner
"If you knew as much as you thought you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!"
 
It will work well for your personal files. It is not capable of moving
over a workable and bootable operating system as system files that are
in use, or otherwise locked, will not be copied.
Click to expand...

Thanks. What tools are available for backing up the entire drive and
keeping it bootable on the new drive? I'm trying to avoid reinstalling
windows -- my consumer PC only has a recovery CD so I can't install over my
files to preserve my applications and settings if I reinstall with the cd.
 
Thanks. What tools are available for backing up the entire drive and
keeping it bootable on the new drive? I'm trying to avoid reinstalling
windows -- my consumer PC only has a recovery CD so I can't install
over my files to preserve my applications and settings if I reinstall
with the cd.
Click to expand...

Symantec Ghost, PowerQuest Drive Image, the utilities that come bundled
with some new hard drives...

There are probably some good freeware ones, too - I've not tried these.
 
Those other folks are cluelesss...XCOPY will copy over to another hd ALL
Files,
not just personal files,locked files system files all get copied.....Simply
format
the new drive set as slave on the same IDE cable as C: Once formatted,go to
run,type:XCOPY C:*.* D:\ /c/h/e/k/r Agree to all in the DOS window,when
its thru the transfer is complete.Only works with IDE deives not SATA or
RAID.
 
Have you ever made such a drive where you have copied as such the master
drive? Did you boot from that drive. Was the operating system "totally"
functional?

Don't respond in your usual clipped and incomplete sentences. Give a
"concise" report (1-2-3-4 etc steps) of how you claim to have done this,
along with the results when trying to use the drive as a master to boot
from.

Then I will try it, yet again!

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from: George Ankner
"If you knew as much as you thought you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!"
 
From
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/xcopy.mspx

. Comparing xcopy and diskcopy

If you have a disk that contains files in subdirectories and you want
to copy it to a disk that has a different format, use the xcopy command
instead of diskcopy. Because the diskcopy command copies disks track by
track, your source and destination disks must have the same format. The
xcopy command does not have this requirement. Use xcopy unless you need a
complete disk image copy.



Xcopy will "blow up" when it reaches the first open file!

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from: George Ankner
"If you knew as much as you thought you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!"
 
Andrew E. said:
Those other folks are cluelesss...XCOPY will copy over to another hd
ALL Files,
not just personal files,locked files system files all get
copied.....Simply format
the new drive set as slave on the same IDE cable as C: Once
formatted,go to run,type:XCOPY C:*.* D:\ /c/h/e/k/r Agree to all in
the DOS window,when its thru the transfer is complete.Only works with
IDE deives not SATA or RAID.
Click to expand...

Have you ever tried it? I have and it blows up in the Windows directory or
in System or System32.

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP, IE/OE
Please respond in Newsgroup only. Do not send email
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Protect your PC
http://www.microsoft.com./athome/security/protect/default.aspx
http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com/
 
At least this time he didn't give out dangerous information. It is only
WRONG!

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from: George Ankner
"If you knew as much as you thought you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!"
 
In
Andrew E. said:
Those other folks are cluelesss...XCOPY will copy over to
another hd
ALL Files,
not just personal files,locked files system files all get
copied.....
Click to expand...


First of all, the question was about XXCOPY, not XCOPY.

Second, as usual, you don't know what you're talking about, and
you're wrong once again.
 
No, you're not wrong! But Andrew E certainly is.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from: George Ankner
"If you knew as much as you thought you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!"
 
Andrew E.

Unfortunately, it does not leave the user with a working bootable drive..
 
DVL said:
I need to move XP to a new hard drive. I'm looking for a free and easy way
to copy the data over. Will xxcopy work alright with moving the files
over?
Click to expand...

Most new drives come with a CD that has everything you need to clone the old
disk...

Bobby
 
I use xcopy32 c: d: /s/h/r/c/k/y/q. Works 100% for win98 systems from a
dos prompt.Doesn't copy the swp file, which gets rebuilt under boot. I
seem to recall doing this with a win XP drive a long time ago but can't
remember if it worked.......
Anyway, I always use ghost from floppy now.Works 100% so long as you
remember to flag 'copy mbr'
 
chartman said:
I use xcopy32 c: d: /s/h/r/c/k/y/q. Works 100% for win98 systems from a
dos prompt.Doesn't copy the swp file, which gets rebuilt under boot. I
seem to recall doing this with a win XP drive a long time ago but can't
remember if it worked.......
Anyway, I always use ghost from floppy now.Works 100% so long as you
remember to flag 'copy mbr'
Click to expand...

You were fortunate.

XCOPY in Windows 9x has a tendency to change the short (8+3) names for
files that use long file names.

So a folder that had a short name of Micros~5 might end up with a
short name of Micros~4 or Micros~6 on the copied drive. That will
play hell with any and all registry entries that use the 8+3 file
names.

To see how serious the problem could be use Regedit on a Windows 98
machine and search the registry for references to Micros~

That specific problem does not occur in Windows XP because the
registry does not use the 8+3 file names.

But XCOPY is still not a desirable method for copying drives in
Windows XP because the boot files and many of the other hidden system
files will not be copied.


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm
 
DVL said:
I need to move XP to a new hard drive. I'm looking for a free and easy way
to copy the data over. Will xxcopy work alright with moving the files over?
Click to expand...

Many new hard drives come with a utility disk that includes a disk
cloning utility.

If you did not get a disk with your new drive then you can download
one free from the hard drive manufacturer's web site. Note that a
copying utility from either the manufacturer of your new drive or from
the manufacturer of your old drive will do the job for you. These
utilities generally only require that one of the drives, either the
source or the target, be from that manufacturer.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm
 
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