Alternate way to move files

I'm really not sure what happened (I think my .net went bad) but my windows install is trashed, and I mean trashed. Its beyond all hope so I'm just going to reformat my c drive and start over. The problem is, I have a lot of important files on said c drive and need to transfer them over to my secondary.

One of the problems I'm having right now is that I can't move files.
I am unable to drag/drop and copy/paste. These are the only methods I've ever used to transfer data, and I don't know how to proceed.

I might be able to put all of the data I need to keep into a .rar archive and unpack it somewhere else (my other hdd), but I don't like the idea of packing and unpacking ~100 gb of data.

Any ideas?

 

You can go to Start\Run, type in "CMD" and use the DOS copy command to transfer the files over to another drive.
http://www.computerhope.com/copyhlp.htm
A better example for you might be this for instance.

Code:

copy c:\my documents\*.* d:\destination

The above command will copy all the files in My Documents (not subfolders) into a folder named Destination on the D: drive. The *.* is a wildcard, meaning all files, easier than typing in all the names.

 

Thanks!

Now my files are at least safe, but I really have no clue what's going on now. I got all of my files backed up on a secondary drive, and tried to format my C drive but the windows XP installer crashes and returns an error. When I get to the part where you choose which partition to install on/format the drive, the C drive cannot be accessed. Attempting to install on or format the drive causes Windows to crash out with the error "PAGE FAULT IN UNPAGED AREA" or "DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL ". The same happens if I attempt to format the drive with the FORMAT command in Windows recovery console.

Anybody know why this is happening? I don't think its a hardware problem, as both my hard drive and RAM work just fine; the only problems are the glitches in Windows. I'm thinking about finding a windows 98 floppy and using that to try and format the drive before putting the XP disc in, since my problems seem to be originating from XP. Would this work?

 

Perhaps it would be wise to verify that you actually have your files backed up properly before doing anything rash.

The command line given earlier is not in the proper syntax and will not execute without adding some parenthesis surrounding the path that contains an embedded space. Moreover, when you add the parenthesis and execute the file as given, it will combine all of the files in the source directory into a single file. I think that will be less than useful for any future data retrieval.

If you have used another command and are satisfied with your backups, then by all means use the XP install CD to format the drive. Prior to doing that, it would be smart to get the drive manufacturers diagnostic software and run it to test the drive for defects.

HD Diagnostic Software

 

hello people. I kind of like the send to option. Go to my computer,open drive C, go to Docs and Settings.Be sure to show hidden files and folders.left click Send To. Right click in open space,select new shortcut and follow directions. Can do for any and all drives.