Index | Syntax COPY | XCOPY



DISKCOPY--Notes

Invalid drive for DISKCOPY DISKCOPY messages Disk serial numbers Omitting drive parameters Using one drive for copying Avoiding disk fragmentation Copying Startup disks DISKCOPY exit codes Invalid drive for DISKCOPY The DISKCOPY command works only with uncompressed removable disks, such as floppy disks. You cannot use DISKCOPY with a hard disk or a network drive. If you specify a hard disk drive for drive1 or drive2, DISKCOPY displays the following error message: Invalid drive specification Specified drive does not exist or is non-removable DISKCOPY messages The DISKCOPY command prompts you to insert the source and destination disks and waits for you to press any key before continuing. After copying, DISKCOPY displays the following message: Copy another diskette (Y/N)? If you press Y, DISKCOPY prompts you to insert source and destination disks for the next copy operation. To stop the DISKCOPY process, press N. If you are copying to an unformatted floppy disk in drive2, DISKCOPY formats the disk with the same number of sides and sectors per track as are on the disk in drive1. DISKCOPY displays the following message while it formats the disk and copies the files: Formatting while copying If the capacity of the source disk is greater than that of the destination disk and your computer can detect this difference, DISKCOPY displays the following message: Drive types or diskette types not compatible Disk serial numbers If the source disk has a volume serial number, DISKCOPY creates a new volume serial number for the destination disk and displays the number when the copy operation is complete. Omitting drive parameters If you omit the drive2 parameter, DISKCOPY uses the current drive as the destination drive. If you omit both drive parameters, DISKCOPY uses the current drive for both. If the current drive is the same as drive1, DISKCOPY prompts you to swap disks as necessary. Using one drive for copying When you use a single drive as both the source and destination drive, DISKCOPY stores an image of the source disk in the directory specified by the TEMP environment variable. If there is not enough space on that drive to contain the source-disk image, you might have to swap floppy disks. DISKCOPY prompts you each time you should insert a disk in the drive. DISKCOPY reads from the source disk, writes to the destination disk, and prompts you to insert the source disk again. This process continues until the entire disk has been copied. Avoiding disk fragmentation Because DISKCOPY makes an exact copy of the source disk on the destination disk, any fragmentation on the source disk is transferred to the destination disk. Fragmentation is the presence of small areas of unused disk space between existing files on a disk. A fragmented source disk can slow down the finding, reading, or writing of files. To avoid transferring fragmentation from one disk to another, use either the COPY command or the XCOPY command to copy your disk. Because COPY and XCOPY copy files sequentially, the new disk is not fragmented. Copying Startup disks If you use the DISKCOPY command to copy a startup disk, the copy will also be a startup disk. If you use COPY or XCOPY to copy a startup disk, the copy usually will not be a startup disk. DISKCOPY exit codes The following list shows each exit code (ERRORLEVEL parameter) and gives a brief description of its meaning: 0 The copy operation was successful. 1 A nonfatal read/write error occurred. 2 The user pressed CTRL+C to stop the process. 3 A critical error occurred. 4 An initialization error occurred. You can use the ERRORLEVEL parameter on the IF command line in a batch program to process exit codes returned by DISKCOPY. For an example of a batch program that processes exit codes, see the <CHOICE> command.
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