Can't copy files

[brutus6294]

I'm trying to copy the C: drive of my laptop to a USB drive. I have stuff all over the place, so I was hoping to copy the whole drive over and I can search thru the USB drive for what I need if I need it...
However, I keep getting can't copy file - file may be in use by another user or process or something along those lines. I don't care about those files anyway. Is there a way to tell my copy to just skip over those files and continue on (instead of aborting with the error message?)

 

[linney]

Have a look at this thread, it might give you a few clues?

Copying Files Notifications
thread779-1196229

Get a GUI for RoboCopy in Windows XP

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10877_11-6148549.html

Microsoft Robocopy GUI frontend
thread779-1296098

 

[Wazz]

The easiest way would be to put your laptop hdd as a secondry in another laptop (you will need a special bay for this that goes in your cdrom slot) or buy a cheap usb caddy off ebay for you laptop hdd then plug this into a pc to copy the files over.... However,
What files you copying? Documents etc? Why do you need the whole of your c drive?

 

[JockMullin]

Hi, Brutus6294

The easiest way I know is via xcopy in a cmd window.

Assuming your hard drive is C: and your USB is G:

Open dos window
xcopy c:\*.* g:\ /e /c

The /e option copies subfolders, including empty ones
/c continues despite errors, such as file in use.

Jock

Dos lives!

 

[jwynn]

sorry xcopy won't copy system files in use by the system
if you really want to copy the files use bartpe or knoppix live cd and copy them