Windows move files, anoying stuff

[CVMichael]

I got a new hard drive, and I wanted to move all files from old hard drive to new one.

I select all, cut, then paste in new hard drive. It tells me it takes 2 hours to move. So I left the computer doing it's thing, when I come back in 2 hours, I see it completed only about 5%, and a message: "Are you sure you want to move system file 'Thumbs.db'?"

Why can't they make the stupid copy file show the message at the beginning !? or why can't they just put a checkbox (or something) on the copy file window to stop asking me stupid questions !?

Is there any registry setting to override those messages ?

[JuggaloBrotha]

Cutting and Pasting files will move them, not copy, therefor you'll get that dialog for each readonly file

Also when you click the Yes button, hold the shift key when clicking it

[CVMichael]

A friend suggested I should use TeraCopy, so I'm gonna try it to see how it is...

[Lord Orwell]

do the "copy" and then "paste".

You won't get that message on each individual file as long as you check the box "apply this to all" in the bottom corner of the dialogue. But you'll get it again for system files. If you do the copy and paste instead of cut and paste not only are you not going to get the message but the copy will happen much, much faster since it's sequentially reading everything instead of deleting each file after reading it, which involves resetting the drive head to the file marker in the ntfs database. You can then delete all the files when you are done, if you wish. just select them all and hold down shift when you click "delete" and it will erase them instead of recycling them.

[chris128]

Just use XCOPY, its a built in command in Windows. Open command prompt (start -> run -> cmd -> OK) and type XCOPY /? to see how to use it.

Example:
XCOPY C:\SourceFolder D:\DestinationFolder /C /Y /E /H

To see what each of those switches does, just look each of them up in the list you got from XCOPY /?

[dee-u]

Or RoboCopy?

[chris128]

I was going to suggest robocopy but then in this situation it really doesnt give you any advantage over XCOPY and as XCOPY is built into the OS you dont need to download anything

[dee-u]

I was going to suggest robocopy but then in this situation it really doesnt give you any advantage over XCOPY and as XCOPY is built into the OS you dont need to download anything

There are advantages to using Robocopy like the things listed here.

[JuggaloBrotha]

I was going to suggest robocopy but then in this situation it really doesnt give you any advantage over XCOPY and as XCOPY is built into the OS you dont need to download anything

Built into the OS? hardly, but it is convenient since it's been around since DOS 2.0 back in the early 80's

[Siddharth Rout]

I would suggest creating a small program in vb6... will hardly take time... use the API "SHFileOperation" plus you can use it in the future if you want to... I believe that's what Windows use...

[Lord Orwell]

Built into the OS? hardly, but it is convenient since it's been around since DOS 2.0 back in the early 80's

it's no longer a dos program. It functions by accessing windows dlls now. And xcopy32 is the functioning version you would want to use. It has more functions available than the "compatibility" version xcopy.

Notice that according to it's own properties window, it is in fact part of windows.

[CVMichael]

I installed TeraCopy, and I love it...

It replaces the windows file copy window, so whenever I copy or move files it will use this program.

Even though there are small things they could improve on it (like minimize to tray, and transparency), other than that it's perfect.

[JuggaloBrotha]

it's no longer a dos program. It functions by accessing windows dlls now. And xcopy32 is the functioning version you would want to use. It has more functions available than the "compatibility" version xcopy.

Notice that according to it's own properties window, it is in fact part of windows.

My mistake, I don't use Vista so I didn't know that yet, but the one in XP is old school still.

[chris128]

the one in XP also has its 'product name' set to Windows Operating System

[Lord Orwell]

it hasn't been a 16-bit program since win me.

2000, xp, and vista contain absolutely no 16 bit code.

And in fact the 64-bit versions don't even contain a 16-bit compatibility layer.