Win XP Recovery Console [XCOPY]

[dodgyone]

My friends PC has become corrupted and I'm helping him out.

My plan is to [1]add a second large hard drive which is fat32 [2]boot into NTFS primary drive through the Win XP recovery console [3]copy the required files (there are lots) to the slave drive [4] format the primary and reinstall Win XP [5]Copy the files back onto the primary drive.

The problem I'm having is copying the files. Using the "COPY" command you can only copy 1 file at a time and no directories but there are so many files that this would take ages. I've tried using "XCOPY" and "XXCOPY" but neither seem to work. I copy the "XCOPY" exe to the directory where I'm working and then try to use it from there to copy to the new hard drive:

[1] Copy xcopy to C:\films
[2] xcopy "C:\films\" "D:\films"

This just brings up a message saying the command is not recognised. Could somebody please explain what's going on and how I can solve this problem.

Thanks...

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"Chaos, panic & disorder - my work here is done!"
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[chaps]

Try the xcopy32 command: xcopy32 C:\ . D:\ /e /c / h /r /k
Or: xcopy32 C:\*.* D:\ /e /c /h /r /k

Apply your own driver letters copy from to, e.g. C:\ to D:\, or D:\ to C:
The xcopy32 command can copy hidden files etc. the switches are (e) copies folders, the ( C ) continues to copy after errors, the (h) copies hidden files, (R ) overwrites read only files, the (K) preserves file attributes.

Mike

 

[wolluf]

xcopy/xxcopy won't run from recovery console (its not a command prompt).

Why not install XP (temporarily) on the second disk, so you can backup files on the problem one from within Windows?)

 

[dodgyone]

I tried putting the corrupted hard drive as a slave on my machine and tried to reach it from within Windows. But I couldn't get a drive letter appearing in my version of Win XP. The hard drive is NTFS though so has that got a something to do with it?

================================
"Chaos, panic & disorder - my work here is done!"
================================

 

[dodgyone]

Does anybody have any suggestions about the above?

================================
"Chaos, panic & disorder - my work here is done!"
================================

 

[wolluf]

If you are running XP, and problem drive is NTFS, it should be accessible as slave in your machine. If its not, could be that its too badly damaged or has overlay software installed (assuming its jumpered correctly and is recognised in the bios). You may need a data recovery app.