I am trying to make a mirror image of the C: drive to a D: drive on the same machine using xcopy in ms-dos. I am using the switches /e/m/y/v. Operation copies for diffent intervals of time and stops with an error message "path not found". What is the exact command I should use?

I imagine it could be a long file name problem. I don't think xcopy will copy the long file names so you'll end up file and directory names truncated to file name~1 even during a 32 bit windows session. So even if you did manage to get it copied using xcopy, it wouldn't be close to a mirror. You might want to run xxcopy instead. It's a third party program similar to xcopy but has to ability to copy the long file names. Or if your d: drive is a separate physical drive and not just a second partition on the same drive, you could use the disk/partition copying software available from the hard drive manufacturer.

I think xcopy will 'do' long file names in a 32 bit session. But, there's a limit; maybe 255 chars. You can get it to 'continue' even if errors are encountered, with the /c switch. You might 'work around' a very long path with subst p: c:\ohmygosh-extra long\ xcopy p: d: /c/e/m/y/s M2

Xcopy can work in some cases - although it's hard to be sure if it has or hasn't. There is a long filename 'bug' Read on... Click

I agree with DAVECAPS & jboy that xxcopy is what you need. I tryed the same thing you are and xcopy wouldn't work so I downloaded xxcopy and ran it and it worked great. The URL for xxcopy is below and is a free download. http://www.xxcopy.com/index.htm

Thanks, Looks like xxcopy is the best try. I will report later. John