Copying a whole drive

streetfighter 2 · Jul 7, 2011

So a friend of mine asked me to copy his HDD so I could then reformat it for him. The thing is loaded with crap so I'm not doing an image, I'm just doing a 1:1 copy of everything on it so he can take his time and restore only the files he wants.

Apparently this is much harder than I imagined . . .

(1) So I tried by dragging and dropping and

(i) in XP it failed because "hiberfile.sys" was in use (or not readable).
(ii) in Windows 7 it wouldn't ignore file/folder permissions so it only copied about 4GB of 80GB.

(2) So I tried the command prompt and

(i) xcopy fails because of the stupid 254 character file name limit. (Honestly who wrote this shit?)
(ii) robocopy just plain doesn't work right. Instead of copying from source to destination it copied randomly from both source and destination (and scared the crap out of me). I still don't know if it overwrote anything from the source :eek:

. Here was my command:

Code:

D:\>robocopy .\ G:\backup_for_j\ /E /R:0 /COPYALL

(iii) hobocopy wouldn't start because I can't figure out which vcredist to use.

So any help before I throw in the towel? Whodathunk this would be so impressively difficult?

Wrigleyvillain · Jul 7, 2011

Yeah you will run into permission and hidden file issues and shit. Also thats the boot drive so some stuff in use (loaded into RAM). Seeing as how you want a full copy of the drive you essentially do want an image. He can just mount it and grab what he wants later.

streetfighter 2 · Jul 7, 2011

Wrigleyvillain said:
Yeah you will run into permission and hidden file issues and shit. Also thats the boot drive so some stuff in use (loaded into RAM). Seeing as how you want a full copy of the drive you essentially do want an image. He can just mount it and grab what he wants later.

Which imaging program should I use?

It is a boot drive, but it's attached eSATA to one of my rigs so that no file should be in use. For whatever reason though . . . **** you Windows!! :laugh:

newtekie1 · Jul 7, 2011

Try RichCopy. http://download.microsoft.com/downl...c359cc0842/HoffmanUtilitySpotlight2009_04.exe

Though if you are in Win7 you will likely have to disable UAC to prevent it getting hung up due to file security issues.

Wrigleyvillain · Jul 7, 2011

I knew that was coming next.

Personally, I have only used Ghost (at work) and Acronis True Image (home). The latter is good and easy for sure and also you can get a free version if he happens to have a Western Digital drive in his system. Google Acronis WD edition.

Ah NT's suggestion looks promising.

ron732 · Jul 7, 2011

On an XP machine I had success copying large amounts of files and folders to an external USB drive using Teracopy. http://www.codesector.com/teracopy.php On Windows 7 you may have to disable UAC like newtekie1 said.

CryoGene · Jul 8, 2011

You should make an image copy. Here (at work) we use partimage, free linux software; booting on linux usb key and make image on usb HDD. Copy system files with a basic prompt command isn't really easy.

St.Alia-Of-The-Knife · Jul 8, 2011

its called drive migration, search it on google for some free programs or somethign

qubit · Jul 8, 2011

I'd try NT1's suggestion first, as it's a freebie utility.

I use Paragon Hard Disc Manager for all my disc copying and imaging needs, but it's not free. If none of the other suggestions work, then this app will do an ace job. On top of that, you'll have an excellent utility that you'll use again and again whenever you have to manage partitions and do similar stuff.

www.paragon-software.com

95Viper · Jul 8, 2011

Free? Try EASEUS Todo Backup or EASEUS Disk Copy.

Easeus Info How to
EASEUS Disk Copy FAQ
Easeus Help online manual

EASEUS Disk Copy allows you to backup one disk to another. The two disks are exactly same in each sector.

Jetster · Jul 9, 2011

Just have him buy a new drive. Really, who coudnt use the extra space

RejZoR · Jul 9, 2011

EASEUS tools are by far the best. I just copied whole system to a bigger HDD using EASEUS Todo Backup for my sister. Worked like a charm and like 30 or 45 minutes later, the files transfered from internal drive to the USB external drive. Then i just swaped the drives and the job was done.

System Name	DarkStar
Processor	i5 3570K 4.4Ghz
Motherboard	Asrock Z77 Extreme 3
Cooling	Apogee HD White/XSPC Razer blocks
Memory	8GB Samsung Green 1600
Video Card(s)	2 x GTX 670 4GB
Storage	2 x 120GB Samsung 830
Display(s)	27" QNIX
Case	Enthoo Pro
Power Supply	Seasonic Platinum 760
Mouse	Steelseries Sensei
Keyboard	Ducky Pro MX Black
Software	Windows 8.1 x64

Processor	Intel Core i7 10850K@5.2GHz
Motherboard	AsRock Z470 Taichi
Cooling	Corsair H115i Pro w/ Noctua NF-A14 Fans
Memory	32GB DDR4-3600
Video Card(s)	RTX 2070 Super
Storage	500GB SX8200 Pro + 8TB with 1TB SSD Cache
Display(s)	Acer Nitro VG280K 4K 28"
Case	Fractal Design Define S
Audio Device(s)	Onboard is good enough for me
Power Supply	eVGA SuperNOVA 1000w G3
Software	Windows 10 Pro x64

System Name	DarkStar
Processor	i5 3570K 4.4Ghz
Motherboard	Asrock Z77 Extreme 3
Cooling	Apogee HD White/XSPC Razer blocks
Memory	8GB Samsung Green 1600
Video Card(s)	2 x GTX 670 4GB
Storage	2 x 120GB Samsung 830
Display(s)	27" QNIX
Case	Enthoo Pro
Power Supply	Seasonic Platinum 760
Mouse	Steelseries Sensei
Keyboard	Ducky Pro MX Black
Software	Windows 8.1 x64

System Name	Everyday driver
Processor	AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition
Motherboard	Asrock 870 Extreme3
Cooling	Xigmatek Prime SD1484
Memory	4x GSkill 4GB DDR3 1866
Video Card(s)	EVGA GTX 780ti
Storage	2x WD Black 640GB RAID 0
Display(s)	Samsung 245BW 1920x1200
Case	Antec 900
Audio Device(s)	on board
Power Supply	Corsair TX-850
Software	Windows 7 Home Premium 64 SP1

System Name	\|OldSchool\|
Processor	Intel i5 2500
Motherboard	Gigabyte PH67 Rev3
Cooling	Thermalright Ultra 120 + Noctua NFS12B ULN
Memory	Samsung 2x4Go DDR3 @1333 9-9-9-24
Video Card(s)	Gainward Phantom GTX560 1Go
Storage	Hitachi 7k3000 1.5To 64Mo
Case	Antec 1080 AMG (this is OldSchool)
Audio Device(s)	Onboard 7.1
Power Supply	Thermaltake TR2 420w
Benchmark Scores	P3968 (http://3dmark.com/3dm11/1485666)

Copying a whole drive

streetfighter 2

New Member

Wrigleyvillain

PTFO or GTFO

streetfighter 2

New Member

newtekie1

Semi-Retired Folder

Wrigleyvillain

PTFO or GTFO

ron732

CryoGene

New Member

St.Alia-Of-The-Knife

New Member

qubit

Overclocked quantum bit

95Viper

Super Moderator

Jetster

RejZoR

Processor	Phenom II 955 @ 3955Mhz 1.45v
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Memory	4x2Gb Kingston DDR3-1333 8-8-8-22 @ 1527Mhz
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Storage	320Gb Western Digital WD3200AAJS
Display(s)	Samsung 23" 1920x1080
Case	Azza Solano 1000R Full-Tower
Audio Device(s)	VIA VT1708S (integrated) + quadraphonic speakers
Power Supply	CoolerMaster Extreme Power Plus 700w
Software	Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit

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Processor	Intel Core i7-2700K @ 4GHz
Motherboard	Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3
Cooling	Noctua NH-D14
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Display(s)	ASUS ROG Strix XG27UQR (4K, 144Hz, G-SYNC compatible) \| Asus MG28UQ (4K, 60Hz, FreeSync compatible)
Case	Cooler Master HAF 922
Audio Device(s)	Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty PCIe
Power Supply	Corsair AX1600i
Mouse	Microsoft Intellimouse Pro - Black Shadow
Keyboard	Yes
Software	Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

System Name	Juliette // HTPC
Processor	Intel i7 9700K // AMD Ryzen 5 5600G
Motherboard	ASUS Prime Z390X-A // ASRock B550 ITX-AC
Cooling	Noctua NH-U12 Black // Stock
Memory	Corsair DDR4 3600 32gb //G.SKILL Trident Z Royal Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 3600
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Keyboard	Logitech 920-009300 G512 SE
Software	Windows 10 Pro // Windows 10 Pro