Does XCOPY work on Windows/XP?

I was trying to find the easiest way to make simple backups on Win/XP when I discovered that the DOS XCOPY command will apparently run in a Command Prompt window. So I made a batch file that copied a folder (with a bunch of subfolders and files) to my CD-RW drive. It seemed to work, but when I took the disk to my Windows/ME machine it wouldn't read it. Then I took the disk back to my Win/XP machine and it only found one subfolder when I had written a half a dozen of them. Both machines gave a message that said that the disk had an error, but this is a relatively new disk that I had just formatted on the XP machine last week so I suspect that something else is going on. Finally, when I was using the CD-RW drive on the XP machine last week, it gave me an option called "Make Disk Compatible" when I got done, but it didn't give me that option today after the XCOPY. SOOO, does anybody know what's going on here?

1. Is XCOPY supposed to work on a CD-RW drive on WIN/XP? or is there some reason why it won't?

2. I'll try another disk tomorrow just in case it really is a read error. But if I get the same result, what other explanations could there be for this error?

Thanks for any response.

 

I have used xcopy continuously in all windows OS since I first started using a computer in 1988 as has my software developer brother. It is great because it is simple, produces readable files and has so many switches available. We use it with ' /a/s' (copy files with archive bit set and copy subdirectories) for our first backup and ' /m/s' for the second (/m unsets the archive bit). The effect of this is that only changed files are written to cd saving much time backing up unchanged files.

However, I now have a dvd writer and it doesn't like Roxio's formatting or writing to dvd. I changed to Nero but it doesn't seem to recognise xcopy at which I'm very sad and am using Nero's Backitup faut de mieux.

 

Thanks to all for your comments. I am still working on this and will post results when I get it figured out.

 

I have been using xcopy, with various switches /L S A M H & V as applicable, to backup on RW CD and everything seems OK.
With three exceptions-- 1) How can I be sure that Verify is really working ? 2) Will I be alerted when repeated writing on a disk renders is unreliable ? I am using the CD as one would use a floppy; copy all files initially and subsequently backup only revised files. 3) I do have problems when copying files much larger than 15 MB to RW CD either by xcopy or mouse. (when copying 55, 34 & 27 MB files the computer hung and even restart would not work). Is there some remedy other than decreasing file size ?
Thanks in advance for any advice on these three questions.
Dave Webster

 

I have had similar problems copying very large files. Unfortunately, I STILL do not understand what's going on.

 

If you are still really interested in using an 'xcopy' type utility, you might want to look at --> http://www.xxcopy.com/

Good Luck!
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