Hi, I was looking for someone to point me in the right direction when it comes to copying files from one drive to another in DOS. Firstly, can it be done with xcopy without DOS shortening all the names? Secondly, is there a command that makes sure that xcopy accounts for all the subfolders and files within a main folder? One of drives is somehow broken and cannot be picked up in a windows enviroment AT ALL. Hence my painfully slow xcopy ordeal. Anyone know of little DOS based program where you can use a mouse to drag and drop? This would be a lifesaver. Thanks! Paul S.

Hi Paul, You can not avoid DOS 'shortening' the long file names without a 3rd party LFN provider. Next, the switch you want to get the subdirectories is /s. Yes, it will be slow. You can help the speed by running smartdrv. As to mouseable DOS file selection, don't know of any. HTH M2 If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.

Just what version of "DOS" are you using? The XP command prompt? Bootdisk? Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.

To include empty subdirectories /E There 'may' be a utility that copies the long file names into a file for restoration under a FAT32 environment.

Thanks all, What's the command to get smartdrv up and running before the copy? I'm using a bootdisk. I tried the /s and /e commands with xcopy which indeed copies the subdirectories, but they're empty of files >:( Paul S.

/s should copy subdirectories with files. /e creates empty subdirectories. smartdrv should be installed in the config.sys.