Need command prompt help for recovery

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2008-01-11 09:23pm

Okay, so I've got a friend's dead computer that won't boot properly into Windows- I can get it in to Safe Mode with Command Prompt though.

Strangely, I can't boot off any of my Knoppix disks.

I've got an external drive hooked up, and he's got one huge directory with many, many gigs of files, more than the old external drive can hold.

To be specific, there is one folder ("Music") which contains hundreds of other directories (bands) each of which contains a few files.

So, I try to copy the whole thing, but it only gets halfway through (copies everything through the letter R) before it runs out of space. No big deal, I take it to my PC, copy everything to the PC, wipe the drive again, and hook it back up.

Here's the problem. If I try to copy the whole folder again, it'll only copy the first half (letters A-R) which I already have on the other PC now.

Is there a way to copy in reverse alphabetical order, or a way to copy every folder starting with a letter (trying xcopy *s E:\ /s only results in it copying every FILE with the letter s, not every folder), or a way to delete every folder starting with a letter?

There's too many folders for me to manually delete one by one or manually copy one by one.

Thanks!

MJ12 Commando · Post by **MJ12 Commando** » 2008-01-11 10:22pm

Which version of Windows is this? That changes some of the commands IIRC, so that might be necessary. For now I'll assume windows XP, in which case try taking a gander at this: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/libr ... 91035.aspx

It looks like you'd use /s or /e to copy everything you want.

For Vista, you would use Robocopy instead: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robocopy

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2008-01-11 10:30pm

Windows XP, and like I said in my post, I already tried xcopy /s... I run out of disk space before I can copy all of it, and I have no way to start from the other end.

Post by **Beowulf** » 2008-01-11 10:43pm

You need to use the /exclude option.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2008-01-11 11:02pm

It might be easier to just pull his drive out and put it into another computer to transfer the files.

Braedley · Post by **Braedley** » 2008-01-12 01:59am

The most likely reason that you can't boot to a live cd is that the harddrive is a higher boot priority than the cd drive. Quick change in the bios will fix that. I agree with just sticking the drive into another computer to copy the files. Also, you can just select R through Z for the rest of the files. That would be the easiest way. Except that you're running in cmd line, my apologies.

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2008-01-12 11:58pm

Braedley wrote:The most likely reason that you can't boot to a live cd is that the harddrive is a higher boot priority than the cd drive. Quick change in the bios will fix that. I agree with just sticking the drive into another computer to copy the files. Also, you can just select R through Z for the rest of the files. That would be the easiest way. Except that you're running in cmd line, my apologies.

No, I get further than that; I get to the Knoppix boot screen, and type "knoppix" after the "boot:" prompt. It starts booting, but when it gets to the part where it checks the CD drive it promptly locks up.

Tried an older build of Knoppix STD and a current Linux built. No clue why it's doing it.

I do Windows desktop support for a living, I know them basics

Just can't figure out a way to get R through Z in Command Prompt. I guess the point is moot- I went and wiped my external drive (after moving files off to my larger FireWire drive, but this PC doesn't have FireWire) to make the Windows partition larger. I'll just copy everything on to that.