XCopy good for images?

[plmartin]

I know Ghost and Partition Magic (and their counterparts) are good at this and can be easier, but will xcopy copy one partition to another? I want the contents, XP, programs, etc., copied over to another drive and I don't want to use a program that doesn't come with Windows. Can xcopy do this? Xcopy C:\*.* D:\ /s/e/r/c/h/k/y ???? Will I be able to boot off this newly loaded drive and run its contents and programs without any adverse effects?

[DukenukemX]

I've used Xcopy32 to do the job. You would need the partion to be in Fat32. You could probably use a DOS NTFS reader but I have no idea if Xcopy32 will work for that.

Xcopy32 C:\*.* D:\ /e

That usually works fine. Also for the love of god don't forget to use Smart Drive.

[plmartin]

Awesome man. Strange to see somebody that's actually heard of (and used!!) xcopy :D Of course this drive would be formatted for NTFS, SO I'd have to access this from DOS. I assume I couldn't just Start/Run since files would be in use to run Windows.

[DukenukemX]

DOS can't read NTFS. You'd need some sort of NTFS reader plus I have no idea if Xcopy will work with a NTFS reader.

You could format the partition in Fat32 and once XP is installed you could convert the partition to NTFS with the convert command. This would work if the old HD has NTFS so you could use NTFSDOS to read it and just copy the data straight onto a FAT32 partition. NTFSDOS can only read and I think you need to pay for it to write.

If you bought the HD new wouldn't it have a boot disk that would make this job much easier? You could even download the special boot disk if you somehow didn't get it.

[plmartin]

Yeah, this is actually something for work. We have approved software we can use and there is no imaging software in that mix. We have lots of customers that want complete clones of their HDD to another and we can't do it. Some type of NTFS reader for DOS obviously wouldn't be usable since it's not approved. I've actually never used the convert command. Is it just "convert" followed by the drive letter? Another thing I'm thinking is hooking up the drive to be copied as a slave and booting to the master, xcopy to the master, then hook up the new drive as slave and xcopy from the master to the slave, so doing this within Windows and not actually running any of the copied files on the master.

[Thor]

how about a seconed pc, dublle slave drive's one target and source and a master boot drive... the question is, will it be bootable?

hmmm... knoppix?

thore

[plmartin]

I know there is lots of software out there like Knoppix, Ghost, Partition Magic, etc. that do this. All I was asking is if there was a way to do this without using 3rd party software?

Since I've only got one drive I made 2 more partitions and installed another copy of XP on one. I went Start/Run/xcopy f:\*.* d:\ /s/e/r/c/h/k/y and it copied everything. It seems to have taken up the exact amount of space this stuff used on the other partition. I edited boot.ini to boot from D: and........ IT WORKED! I even had a program installed on F: that copied over to D: which ran flawlessly.

[djnes]

You're taking a big chance each time using xcopy that the drive partition isn't going to be usable when you're done. If you're taking the time to install XP first, that's just insane, because a disk cloning tool would do it in 5% of the time.

If Ghost isn't on your approved software list, do what you need to in order to get it there. It's the defacto standard for enterprise imaging. Those approved software lists are about control, not about filtering out bad software.

If cost is an issue, and this is not a corporate use, just use the free tools that come with each drive.

[Phoenix86]

I'll second the "get it on the approved list". You don't want to re-invent the wheel unless you gotta. ;)

By it I mean some standard imaging tool like Ghost or Arcronis.

[S1nF1xx]

If cost is an issue, and this is not a corporate use, just use the free tools that come with each drive.


This is my recommendation. Every HDD manufacturer has a free utility that will clone one drive to another. They are ridiculously easy to use. Oh, and FREE too.

[Ranma_Sao]

Xcopy is supported for this djnes, but the switches are:

xcopy /cherky C: D:

I suggest using WinPE or BartPE though. ;)
http://nu2.nu/pebuilder/



This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

[plmartin]

Thanks. It's up to corporate to approve programs. I think it's more trouble than it's worth anyways and as was stated before it's not guaranteed to work all the time. Maybe I just got lucky. Thanks for the help though.

Ranma I see you're in Redmond. You work at Microsoft?

[Ranma_Sao]

Thanks. It's up to corporate to approve programs. I think it's more trouble than it's worth anyways and as was stated before it's not guaranteed to work all the time. Maybe I just got lucky. Thanks for the help though.

Ranma I see you're in Redmond. You work at Microsoft?
Yeah, I used to work on the OS Deployment team. I now work on the Security Technologies Team. The xcopy /cherky trick is documented in opk.chm of the opk documentation.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

[GreNME]

Is Windows Server not on your "Approved Software" list? Why isn't RIPREP (http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/Default.asp?url=/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prbc_cai_ogbp.asp) an option? You want images, it can do images.

I don't see the problem here, and no offense, but this is a perfect example of a flooded market.

[Thor]

Xcopy is supported for this djnes, but the switches are:

xcopy /cherky C: D:

I suggest using WinPE or BartPE though. ;)
http://nu2.nu/pebuilder/



This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

just tryed this to verify, it results in a non working partition, if copyed from a working active partition, thats not to say it wont work in a 3 drive set up... i might thow XP on my other raid set just to verify, system files that are inuse cannot be copyed, from windows\system32\config\system (system being the file name, no extention) upon examining the orriginal dir. there are files there with no extentions and there are the same files with the .sav extention, renameing the files so they dont have an extention will result in the pc booting, but into an install mode, if you have XP w/sp2 installed, you will need the xp sp2 cd (i download it off the net, there for dont have a cd ) im shure a slipstreamed cd will work for this prupose, however i havent confermed this yet myself, putiong the XP sp1 cd in the drive will cause the install to continue , but crash when it cant find the right libarys,

all in all yes it works, but expect to reinstall windows to make it work again

thore

[Ranma_Sao]

Notice the BartPE step? You need to boot BartPE first. ;)

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.