From: Mark Bell (electrosoft_at_earthlink.net)
Date: Thu Feb 01 2001 - 03:07:12 EST
In addition, the command line parameters do the following:
/c continues copying even if an error occurs. This is more
of a convenience feature, as when you are cloning a
drive with Xcopy32, it will halt when it encounters your
swap file and sometimes other select files that will be
recreated or should be (like hibernation files IMHO).
/h copies hidden and system files (unless you really want to
attrib - your whole HD and then worry about what should
be hidden and system files. ;-P )Files that normally would
be skipped are copied.
/e copies all directories and sub directories (even empty)
This keeps your hierarchial file structure intact.
/r overwrites read only files (this makes sure to copy over
any pre-existing sys/io files and compression schemes
amongst useful, er, well, uses...)
/y Overwrites existing files without prompting. If you run into
any DOS hidden files for the above flag on the destination
drive, it will literally stop at each instance of file encountered
and ask you if you want to overwrite. This can add hours
to the process. If you run it with this switch, you can literally leave
the room while it clones the drive.
This command works all the time. I install the second HD
using Road Warriors Bullet drive external chassis (Parallel)
or if available, their PCMCIA device (MUCH faster). Once you
can fdisk/format the drive and have it mount successfully
within Windows, you are in business. Drop to a DOS prompt,
execute, "Xcop32 Source:\ Destination:\ /c/h/e/r/y" and leave
the room or go do something else. Make sure you have a bootable
floppy (better to create one before or after cloning your drive
contents), and make sure to put fdisk and sys on it. Shut down, swap drives,
make sure the drive is set to primary, go into fdisk and make sure
the desired boot partition if active, and you are good to go! If for
some reason your command.com msdos and io files are mixed,
just boot from the floppy and issue a, "sys c:" Since the boot disk
was made from the original installation, you know it is the correct
version.
I use the Xcopy32 procedure all the time at home and work. I have
cloned too many drives to remember and it has always worked. If
I really want a generic Windows9x clone, I will clone Win9x from one
system to another type, safe boot, remove the enum key, and have
Windows redetect all the hardware. In this instance, it is better to make
sure that the flavor of Win9x you are using is as close to the age of
the machine you are cloning to. (Like I would not want to try and clone
Win95 from a 755cx to an A21p, but if I had Win98 or Win98SE on the 755cx,
it would be much easier to deal with). The more internal support for
devices the better when attempting this. It lowers the chance of error or
crashes.
What Xcopy can't do is automatically partition and set sizes like some ghosting
utlities can do. It requires a lot of manual work to get the job done. You must
go in and set each partition size, all the fdisk work and copying partition by
partition. When I need to copy multiple partitions, I will fdisk and format
each
partition accordingly, then I create a batch file to do all the Xcopying
for each
partition so I do not need to monitor its progress. If your system encounters
a catastrophic error (read/write error of the mechanism itself), it will
halt so you
will know. /c has problems with physical layer problems versus logical layer
problems, but with a physical layer problem, wouldn't you WANT it to stop? :)
Mark
At 11:09 PM 1/31/01 -0500, James H. E. Maugham wrote:
>With thanks to Mark Bell (we're not worthy!!!):
>
>The command to clone a drive within Windows 9x is:
>
>xcopy32 c:\*.* d:\*.* /c/h/e/r/y
>
>Regards,
>
>James
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Matt Winston [mailto:mattwinston_at_ameritech.net]
> > Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2001 10:33 PM
> > To: Thinkpad Users Group; Dr. Jeffrey Race
> > Subject: Re: Ghost vs XCOPY
> >
> >
> > Ghost will duplicate the entire drive image (directories and files) to
> > another partition or hdd. Like a Xerox copy.
> > Since I can't remember all the suffix's for xcopy, Ghost is a great no
> > brainer. Fast and simple.
> > Matt Winston
> >
> >
> >
> > Recent discussion mentioned Ghost for re-creating directories
> > on a second hard drive in a Thinkpad. What are the differences
> > and advantages of Ghost over XCOPY, and what are the limitations
> > of XCOPY? I and to copy logical drive structures in an OS/2
> > system.
> >
> > Jeffrey Race
> >
> >
> >
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