Xcopy strangeness

[sorcerer]

Well here's something else I've not come across before

Got a Toshiba laptop in running Vista Business SP2 32-bit on a 60GB hard drive. The drive was partitioned in such a way that the system drive (C: ) was 26GB, with just 30MB (yes that's correct, 30MB) free space on it. The remaining space was split equally in two, one partition (D: ) with about 800MB of user data on it and the rest was unallocated space.

My plan was to save the 800MB data onto an external drive so that I could delete the D: partition and then extend the system partition to use the whole of the drive (apart from the recovery partition of course ). Once completed, I could then create a folder called "oldstuff" and put the 800MB back on the machine.

Copying via Windows Explorer made the system complain that some file names and/or paths were too long to be copied. There was no room to install a program like Teracopy or Unstoppable Copier, so deep in the dusty corners of my brain I remembered Xcopy.

I created a folder on my external USB drive called jonxcopy and then, from an elevated command prompt, used the command "xcopy D: G:\jonxcopy /s /e" Well, the stuff copied over but the folder "jonxcopy" is now invisible on my external drive! It's still there, because when I ran the command to put it all back on the machine, ie, "xcopy G:\jonxcopy C:\oldstuff /s /e" you could see the copy operation happening in the command window - but now I can't see the folder "oldstuff" on the C: drive!

What's going on - please tell me I haven't just lost 800MB of my customer's data!! It was all so much easier when computers were just a hobby to me

 

[lcoughey]

It is hard to say. But, I would recommend making a full backup clone of the client's original drive before you do anything else.

 

[sorcerer]

It is hard to say. But, I would recommend making a full backup clone of the client's original drive before you do anything else.

Oh I did that - I always make that the very first step!

 

[mr m]

XCOPY, that is a trip in the way back machine!

Check the attributes. XCOPY might have changed the folders attributes to hidden.

 

[NYJimbo]

.... used the command "xcopy D: G:\jonxcopy /s /e" Well, the stuff copied over but the folder "jonxcopy" is now invisible on my external drive! It's still there, because when I ran the command to put it all back on the machine...

WHY would you do this ?

You made a copy that didn't look right but then you just went and made the copy back ? Did you blow away D: between copies without making sure the copy was good ?

If you copied from the old D: and then checked (assuming you checked) the output on G: and felt something was not right why did you proceed with the rest of this ?

Shouldn't you have stopped and either confirmed it was readable or slaved the drive to another machine and copied ?

Maybe your data is still there... or maybe it's not.

 

[sorcerer]

XCOPY, that is a trip in the way back machine!

Check the attributes. XCOPY might have changed the folders attributes to hidden.

Mr M, once again you've come up trumps! Xcopy had indeed set the folder attributes to hidden. Once I ran the command "attrib -s -h -r jonxcopy" (or oldstuff) the folder became visible again.

Cheers my friend

 

[sorcerer]

WHY would you do this ?

You made a copy that didn't look right but then you just went and made the copy back ? Did you blow away D: between copies without making sure the copy was good ?

Well I wasn't too worried in the sense that I always make an image (and validate it) using Acronis before starting work on any system, so I could always reinstate the image if something went wrong. But there was also the fact that, although the folder seemed to have disappeared, it still had a 'presence' - free space on the drive went down by the size of the folder and its contents, so it was 'there' somewhere, just not visible.

But I admit, it does rank as one of my sillier moments

 

[mr m]

Mr M, once again you've come up trumps! Xcopy had indeed set the folder attributes to hidden. Once I ran the command "attrib -s -h -r jonxcopy" (or oldstuff) the folder became visible again.

Cheers my friend

Cheers to you too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!