startup disk on xp

Hi, does anyone know how to copy a whole directory + sub directories and files from one dir to another from an xp startup disk, i've tried xcopy but it doesn't recognise te command. thanks

isn't xcopy on the windows CD (I don't have XP)? Just run it from there. You may need to change to the dir it's located in first, though.

ok, i've tried the windows disk but all i get is the command is not recognised, and it is not present in the list of supported commands, also from the recovery console i can't access anything even dir listings, but i can from the windows start up disk? any more advise, thanks.

OK, this is getting confusing. Can you say exactly what it is you're trying to do?

ok, here is the problem, basically a driver went missing on my hard drive so windows will not start, i can't reinstall windows as the company made a restore cd which doesn't allow me to back up my files, i can't use a normal windows xp disk as something is wrong with the partitions and i cannot access them. so what i'm trying to do is copy all the files from c:\docume~1 to my d:\backup folder... the reason i'm trying to do this is because i know from past reinstallations that the second hard drive does not get touched when i reinstall windows from the recovery disk supplied hence i dont loose any of my data. and the only command i know of that is supposed to copy all files/directories and sub directores is xcopy, but for some reason is not present. thanks

Cant you boot windows into safe mode?

lol nope, tried everything from safemode, restoring configurations to the last best ect, the computer just restarts, windows just wont work at all.

Hold on, this is a Tiny PC, right? In that case, all bets are off. :P

Seriously though, I don't know what else to suggest. I'm really no IT tech support guy. ;)

ok well by the looks of it, i'll have to do it manually with the copy command, which will take ages knowing how many directories i have on my pc but oh well. thanks for the advice big10p. cheers

Kain....

I refer you to my post today...

http://www.blitzbasic.co.nz/Community/posts.php?topic=70912

Maybe this can help you too?

IPete2.

I assume you can get some form of command prompt up judging from your post above?

So as Windows installation has xcopy already why not just type in the full path to use it, for example C:\Windows\System32\xcopy

well i've managed to locate the xcopy program in command but it says it cannot be run in dos mode?

http://www.bootdisk.com/

Don't know if there's xcopy inside, but the disks are nicely configured to do such work.

What? xcopy is a DOS command - how else are you supposed to run it?

thats the question, it's supposed to be a dos command but it is not recognised as one. would it maybe work if i put on the xp startup floopy, so it would be in the same directory as the start up dos?

Worth a try.

No luck, didn't work, even tried renaming the extension to .com but still didn't work, went and downloaded dos v6.2 and that woldn't work either. This is really confusing.

thanks for the help and advice, in the end i just borrowed 'the ultimate boot cd' from a friend so should be able to sort it. thanks again. cheers