Share via

Cannot copy documents folder in cmd

Anonymous
2023-10-31T17:01:49+00:00

My wife's computer died and won't boot. We plan on doing a fresh reinstall but want to save a few files first. Some of these files are in the documents folder. I have cmd running from a boot drive and when I try to xcopy to the folder it says "file creation error - the file cannot be accessed by this system". How do I get a round this to save these files before it's wiped?

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Files, folders, and storage

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.

0 comments

3 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. DaveM121 891.6K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2023-11-01T07:30:09+00:00

    Sorry, I was offline.

    Are you able to drag files and folders onto a USB in that dialog?

    If not, do you know if OneDrive was enabled on that PC, have you checked on OneDrive online if the files are available there?

    https://onedrive.live.com/

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2023-11-01T01:15:13+00:00

    That does work. However it's still not letting me copy and paste. Along with the folder being hidden in c:/users.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. DaveM121 891.6K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2023-10-31T17:35:08+00:00

    HI, I am Dave, I will help you with this.

    In Command Prompt, type notepad.exe and press Enter.

    Does the Notepad application open?

    if it does, select File - Open and you can then use the Open File Dialog like a small File Explorer to frag the files and folders onto a USB to back them up.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments