Re: Coping whole HD's without cloning.

Hi, Kalbo.

While Microsoft has deprecated it in favor of Robocop (which I've not yet learned to use), I've often used the ancient Xcopy.exe to move whole partitions of files. My current lineup is 4 SATA II HDDs; the first two are standalones (200 GB and 1 TB) and the last two are identical 300 GB Seagate Barracudas in a RAID 1 mirror. I'm running out of alphabet letters for new volumes because I have so many beta installations, 2 DVD burners, several USB drives and a card reader, etc.

To copy everything from Drive F: to Drive X:, for example, I would open a Command Prompt window (probably as Administrator) and type at the prompt:

xcopy F:\ X:\ /c /h /e /r /k

Then I would press Enter and wait. It can take a LONG time to copy a drive with a lot of files. (The number of files affects the total time more than the size, as I'm sure you know. A single 1 GB file can move much more quickly than 1,000 files of 1 MB each - or 100,000 files (emails or newsgroup posts) of 10 KB each! But that is true in the GUI as well as in a CP window.)

As usual in a CP window, type xcopy /? to see a mini-Help file listing all the switches and parameters. I've almost forgotten what all those (/c /h, etc.) do, but they work for me in almost all cases. The /C switch "Continues copying even if errors occur"; obviously, this calls for caution, but it has almost always worked for me. I've even used that set of switches to move boot volumes for WinXP and Vista, running it from a different Windows installation (moving one from F: to X: while booted into Vista on C:, for example). Then I have to edit the BCD, but the old Windows usually will boot and run fine in its new location.

I tried BootIt NG a couple of years ago and did finally manage to rescue some "lost" data, but it was not intuitive - for me. I'm much more comfortable using the built-in commands in Windows: Disk Management, DiskPart.exe, Xcopy, etc.

Your mileage may vary, of course, but it has almost always worked for me. Please report back and let us know how this works out for you.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8089.0726) in Win7 Ultimate x64

"Billkalbo" <billkalbo@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:C3415C4D-538F-4924-8194-A396DF2A7653@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I have a system with Vista Home Basic and Vista Ultimate (dual boot). I have a RAID 5 with 4 500 gb drives that is partitioned into 2 500 gb drives. I also have a SATAII 500 gb and 1gb drive installed.

I'm upgrading all the drives to all 1.5 GB drives.

I can juggle drives in and out of the system so I can always have a clean 1.5gb to move data onto.

What is the best software to clone/copy the data, without error, and not have to end up with the original 500gb partition on the 1.5 TB drive?

I've used the basic copy methods in Windows for years but I always get some error that stops the copy and then I have to go back and try to figure out just where it left off and do manual partial copies. What a pain in the *** plus you are never sure that you got everything.

The other catch that I might run into with some of your solutions is that if it requires a reboot with a CD or whatever, I may or may not be able to see the RAID. This would have to be run in native Vista. I can reboot into any OS required, as long as I can see the RAID.

Just in case this helps, I have a pre-release version of Windows 7 that I never installed on this PC that might be a possible avenue.

Regards,

Kalbo

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