OT: XP Blue Screening
Turbo Mini Forums

As said, I would just copy your entire drive onto the external drive then you have everything (bar the reistry) that you will need. It's very easy to overlook a folder then wipe your disk...

Then re-install windows and all the software, then just copy your data back.

Personally, I would split your hard disk into 2 partions. About 50GB on C: drive for windows and software, then the rest as d: for all your data.

Keep everything you need (work, pic's, porn films etc) on d: and then if windows fucks up again you can just wipe the c: drive and reinstall. Your data will be safe on your d: drive.

But if you do this remember to reconfigure you email programs etc to store you inbox, pst files and contacts on the 'D:'drive.

I have had a similar error message from a Dell machine. I put the drive into another PC as a slave to back it up but that PC detected errors and did some wizadry - when I returned it to the dell PC t worked fine!!

Thanks for the advice andy. The partition idea sounds like a rally good idea. My netbook had a similar setup with one drive even labelled as XP.

Graeme, unfortunately I don't have any computer with two HDD ports. Nothing but laptops in my house. I might see if one of my mates can sort me out though

On 12th Nov, 2009 Paul S said:

I think Gary OS has taken over my role as the forum smart arse

More bad news. I hooked up the external drive but the laptop won't let me paste anything. I can cut and copy but when I go to the new location it seems to have forgotten the info I previously selected.

Does this mean I will have to install it as a slave drive?

On 12th Nov, 2009 Paul S said:

I think Gary OS has taken over my role as the forum smart arse

Can you copy from the dos prompt to the backup drive?

http://www.jolyonway.com

at the command prompt, use xcopy or if you can get a copy of robocopy even better

yup i was going to suggest use xcopy too.
Don't forget that normal xcopy resets attributes so add the /K command.

ie I'd go navigate to where you want to back up your files to and (assuming you want to backup the entire drive) type:

xcopy c:*.* /e /k

http://www.jolyonway.com

I have finally plucked up the courage to try this. I just want to make sure I have everything right.

In the dos screen, I type "XCOPY C: E: /K/E". That is assuming that C is the name of the laptop HDD and E is the name of my external HDD

BadgerBaiter, is "/E" used to copy all files and folders, even empty folders?

Is the prompt case sensitive?

Do I want to use "/H" to copy hidden and system files or do I ignore them as they are the corrupted files and I will be re-writing them by re-installing XP anyway?

Should I use "/V" to verify that everything copied correctly?

On 12th Nov, 2009 Paul S said:

I think Gary OS has taken over my role as the forum smart arse

wouldn't bother with the verify option. see if you can download robocopy. much more reliable

have you hidden your porne or anything like that? If so use /h

No, nothing hidden as I'm basically the only person who uses it so it's a porn free-for-all. I'll check out Robocopy now, thanks

On 12th Nov, 2009 Paul S said:

I think Gary OS has taken over my role as the forum smart arse

After quickly reading about Robocopy, should I use the command line prompts or should I use the GUI version? Will the GUI work since my OS is on its last legs?

On 12th Nov, 2009 Paul S said:

I think Gary OS has taken over my role as the forum smart arse

Ah yes, sorry only just seen this post! oops.
If you want the hidden folders copied as well, use /h

I would consider it only for the sake of being complete, but thats just me

PS.
I'd go with the command line prompt as its one less thing to bugger up.

Edited by BadgerBaiter on 12th Mar, 2010.

http://www.jolyonway.com

I only dragged this topic back up today, so it wasn't you! If it won't cause any harm then I think I will take the hidden folders too

Thanks for the info on Robocopy too. Command line it is

On 12th Nov, 2009 Paul S said:

I think Gary OS has taken over my role as the forum smart arse

Ah ok!

Good luck

http://www.jolyonway.com

Thanks, I'll need it!

One last thing, does this command prompt make sense?

ROBOCOPY C: E: /E IA:H

Do I also want to copy read only and system files?

Lastly, for now , what is the purpose of "*.C*"?

On 12th Nov, 2009 Paul S said:

I think Gary OS has taken over my role as the forum smart arse

im not sure about robocopy, but xcopy is
c: *.*

the * is a wildcard that will stand in for anything either side of the ' . ' and as a result will basically copy everything...

from

setup.exe

to

boobies.jpg

etc
not sure if that makes sense!

http://www.jolyonway.com

Yeah, that makes sense. I'll read into the "everything" prompt in Robocopy.

Thanks

On 12th Nov, 2009 Paul S said:

I think Gary OS has taken over my role as the forum smart arse

More great news. I can't get Robocopy to run. The laptop won't recognise my USB stick and I can't copy anything across from my external HDD. I tried running the Robocopy .exe from the HDD but nothing happens.

Anybody know how I can get it running or should I just run XCOPY?

On 12th Nov, 2009 Paul S said:

I think Gary OS has taken over my role as the forum smart arse

jsut use xcopy if robocopy is being a BAC

Thanks again Andy, time to get cracking now

On 12th Nov, 2009 Paul S said:

I think Gary OS has taken over my role as the forum smart arse

OK, more problems. I am getting a "Sharing Voilation" message when I try xcopy.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...B;EN-US;Q308421

Do I need to do the above to get around this or is there a more simple way?

On 12th Nov, 2009 Paul S said:

I think Gary OS has taken over my role as the forum smart arse

sharing violation? Sounds more like something has the file locked and you can't copy it rather than permisions problems.

Any idea which file?

Judging by the names, they are roms for a Sega Megadrive emulator as well as some generic sounding stuff that I don't recognise i.e. language.dat, log.txt, ntuser.dat

They could well be part of the emulator stuff

On 12th Nov, 2009 Paul S said:

I think Gary OS has taken over my role as the forum smart arse

ntuser.dat is part of your profile. can't help with the sega stuff...

Any idea why I don't have permission? I might search the file names and see if it's safe to exclude or delete them from xcopy

On 12th Nov, 2009 Paul S said:

I think Gary OS has taken over my role as the forum smart arse