how to Backup C (hard drive) to external drive using DOS copy command?

Question

how to Backup C (hard drive) to external drive using DOS copy command?

Anonymous

I cant seem to find a DOS newsgroup so I hope you can answer this here.

I want to backup my entire C drive to an external drive. The windows backup utility skips windows programs that are in use at the time of backup such as settings etc.

What is the DOS copy command used from the DOS command prompt to copy my entire C drive to F:\Backups\C Drive Backup.
When I open the command prompt it is not at the root directory of the C:\ drive so how do I do that first?

Thanks

Barry

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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3 answers

Answer 1

You can get the free edition of Macrium Reflect that is much better than Paragon.

With Macrium Reflect you can backup your hard drive to external storage device, Create a rescue SD stick and clone your main hard drive to any external hard drive.

Clone to a SSD drive etc.

I have Paragon and Macrium Reflect both and I use the Macrium Reflect most for backing up my system because it has better compression and options to clone and back up to a storage device that paragon doesn't have.

Answer 2

Hi,

You may try using the backup utility, refer the below link for the same: How to use the Backup utility to back up files and folders in Windows XP Home Edition: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308422

If you want to you use the DOS copy command:

Copy *.* f: if they wish to copy their c: to f:

To get to the Root Directory of C:\ use the format

Example: C:\Windows\users cd.. *press enter* do that until you get the Root drive C:\

Answer 3

<pedantry alert> There is no DOS in Windows XP. There is, however, a Command Prompt from which you can use many of the commands that used to be available in DOS. </pedantry alert>

Using the "copy" command is not the way to backup your drive. Copy is used for copying files to a specified location. So unless you want all your files in one giant directory, it's not much use as a backup.

The "xcopy" command copies files and directories, including subdirectories.

Although I haven't used it, robocopy is a much better tool than either copy or xcopy. In fact, it's name derives not from "robot copy" as you might assume but from "robust copy." Robocopy can be obtained as part of the Windows Server 2003 Resource kit.

None of these copying tools is particularly designed as a backup tool. You would be far better off getting disk imaging or disk cloning software. These applications are not free, but they make restoring far easier. Here are a few:

Acronis True Image Home

Paragon Backup and Recovery

Casper 6.0 Backup

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how to Backup C (hard drive) to external drive using DOS copy command?

3 answers