Copy all files

[jbald1]

Is it essentially impossible to use Beyond Compare or even any Backup utility to copy an entire folder from one drive to another, say usb drive?

It seems like between files being open and files having special access rights, that there are always some files in some folders that I can't copy no matter what I do. This is particularly true when I am cloning a drive or copying it in it's entirety for backup purposes.

Am I going about this all wrong? Do I need to try and do it in "safe mode" or something?

I keep thinking back to the early windows and dos days when we would use tape backup software and backup the whole thing. Now it seems like no matter what I use, there are any number of files that can't be accessed,and therefore backed up.

Thanks for your time

John

[lhasadad]

Alternatives?

Your describing what could be 2 different ways to backup the files.
by individual file or bulk at the disk sector level. a live cd version of qparted would work for the bulk transfer I think. for the file level. you might want to have a second copy of windows installed on a separate partition with just bc on it. you could boot to that any time you want to move stuff from the primary partition since its files would not be in use at that time.

[Aaron]

Beyond Compare can perform the same copies that My Computer/Explorer and Windows can. If your user does not have access or the files are in use, then the copy can be blocked.

As Ilhasada suggests, you may be looking for a full imaging utiltiy (which is what the tapes would have used). The files you are having trouble with: do you know what they are? Can you copy them with My Computer to the same destination?