copy drive info to external drive

I've had recent problems with my secong hard drive. I'm wanting to reformat
the drive but want to copy the contents over to an external HD. I can only
boot into safemode so I'm wondering if through a command prompt I can copy
everything from my second drive over to the external drive through a dos
command? My second drive is assigned drive letter d:. Thanks

"Mathers" wrote in message
...

I've had recent problems with my secong hard drive. I'm wanting to
reformat
the drive but want to copy the contents over to an external HD. I can only
boot into safemode so I'm wondering if through a command prompt I can copy
everything from my second drive over to the external drive through a dos
command? My second drive is assigned drive letter d:. Thanks

It would be simpler to use the Windows utility distributed
free from www.xxcopy.com It runs in DOS but as 16-bit,
thus preserving long filenames, and has many useful
parameters e.g. /clone.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

"Don Phillipson" wrote:

"Mathers" wrote in message
...

I've had recent problems with my secong hard drive. I'm wanting to
reformat
the drive but want to copy the contents over to an external HD. I can only
boot into safemode so I'm wondering if through a command prompt I can copy
everything from my second drive over to the external drive through a dos
command? My second drive is assigned drive letter d:. Thanks

It would be simpler to use the Windows utility distributed
free from www.xxcopy.com It runs in DOS but as 16-bit,
thus preserving long filenames, and has many useful
parameters e.g. /clone.

Wait a minute. XXCOPY comes with a 16-bit version, but according to
the web page, that wouldn't preserve LFNs. You'll want to boot into
safe mode and use the 32-bit version. Or check out the built-in xcopy
command (open a DOS box and type "xcopy /?" for details.)

--
Tim Slattery
MS MVP(DTS)

If the external drive and the internal drive are both accessible in Safe Mode, and
assuming the drive you are copying is a data drive rather than containing the
operating system, why not just open Windows Explorer in Safe Mode, and drag'n'drop
the files and folders?

To be sure you don't accidentally create shortcuts when dragging, instead of
copying, right-click/drag the files and select Copy on the menu that appears when
you drop the files.
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP Shell/User, A+
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"Mathers" wrote in message
...
I've had recent problems with my secong hard drive. I'm wanting to reformat
the drive but want to copy the contents over to an external HD. I can only
boot into safemode so I'm wondering if through a command prompt I can copy
everything from my second drive over to the external drive through a dos
command? My second drive is assigned drive letter d:. Thanks

I'll give it a shot. Thanks

"Don Phillipson" wrote:

"Mathers" wrote in message
...

I've had recent problems with my secong hard drive. I'm wanting to
reformat
the drive but want to copy the contents over to an external HD. I can only
boot into safemode so I'm wondering if through a command prompt I can copy
everything from my second drive over to the external drive through a dos
command? My second drive is assigned drive letter d:. Thanks

It would be simpler to use the Windows utility distributed
free from www.xxcopy.com It runs in DOS but as 16-bit,
thus preserving long filenames, and has many useful
parameters e.g. /clone.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

All that shows on the internal HD through windows is command.com so I can't
drag and drop. I just want to copy all of the drives contents over. If I copy
command.com over to the external drive, will I be recreating the same problem
I hove now. If I understand what has happend to my internal drive is that
when putting command.com on this secong drive, it creted a partition of just
the boot info and that's all that windows sees. It does not see all the other
38Gb of data on the drive. So do I need to make sure I don't copy over
command.com?

"glee" wrote:

If the external drive and the internal drive are both accessible in Safe Mode, and
assuming the drive you are copying is a data drive rather than containing the
operating system, why not just open Windows Explorer in Safe Mode, and drag'n'drop
the files and folders?

To be sure you don't accidentally create shortcuts when dragging, instead of
copying, right-click/drag the files and select Copy on the menu that appears when
you drop the files.
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP Shell/User, A+
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"Mathers" wrote in message
...
I've had recent problems with my secong hard drive. I'm wanting to reformat
the drive but want to copy the contents over to an external HD. I can only
boot into safemode so I'm wondering if through a command prompt I can copy
everything from my second drive over to the external drive through a dos
command? My second drive is assigned drive letter d:. Thanks

"glee" wrote in message
...

If the external drive and the internal drive are both accessible in Safe
Mode, and
assuming the drive you are copying is a data drive rather than containing
the
operating system, why not just open Windows Explorer in Safe Mode, and
drag'n'drop
the files and folders?

1. The main reason not to use Windows copy routines is
that Windows own protection system may not let us copy
certain system files. XXCOPY bypasses these restrictions.

2. If we plan to copy this way, for most mouse users, the
keyboard is safer than the mouse (fewer chances for error) i.e.
-- Select all
-- Copy to

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

"Mathers" wrote in message
...

All that shows on the internal HD through windows is command.com so I
can't
drag and drop. I just want to copy all of the drives contents over. If I
copy
command.com over to the external drive, will I be recreating the same
problem
I hove now. If I understand what has happend to my internal drive is that
when putting command.com on this secong drive, it creted a partition of
just
the boot info and that's all that windows sees. It does not see all the
other
38Gb of data on the drive. So do I need to make sure I don't copy over
command.com?

Your first post said the problem is your second HDD,
call it D: You need COMMAND.COM only on your
boot HDD in C: So you can safely delete duplicates
of this file from every non-boot drive. Duplicate
sytem files are not likely to cause the problem (which
you did not describe.)

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

I've tried deleting it by command in dos: "d:\ del command.com". It tells me
that I don't have access.

"Don Phillipson" wrote:

"Mathers" wrote in message
...

All that shows on the internal HD through windows is command.com so I
can't
drag and drop. I just want to copy all of the drives contents over. If I
copy
command.com over to the external drive, will I be recreating the same
problem
I hove now. If I understand what has happend to my internal drive is that
when putting command.com on this secong drive, it creted a partition of
just
the boot info and that's all that windows sees. It does not see all the
other
38Gb of data on the drive. So do I need to make sure I don't copy over
command.com?

Your first post said the problem is your second HDD,
call it D: You need COMMAND.COM only on your
boot HDD in C: So you can safely delete duplicates
of this file from every non-boot drive. Duplicate
sytem files are not likely to cause the problem (which
you did not describe.)

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

I've installed xxcopy but don't know how to answer through the first question
it asks. Can you tell me how these questions need to be answered so it
executes what I want to have done. Copy everything off the D: drive over to
an external drive.

"Don Phillipson" wrote:

"glee" wrote in message
...

If the external drive and the internal drive are both accessible in Safe
Mode, and
assuming the drive you are copying is a data drive rather than containing
the
operating system, why not just open Windows Explorer in Safe Mode, and
drag'n'drop
the files and folders?

1. The main reason not to use Windows copy routines is
that Windows own protection system may not let us copy
certain system files. XXCOPY bypasses these restrictions.

2. If we plan to copy this way, for most mouse users, the
keyboard is safer than the mouse (fewer chances for error) i.e.
-- Select all
-- Copy to

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)