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Copy Windows 95 to another hard disc drive using XCOPY32.EXE

Update: Back in 1997 there were no programs, that I knew of, that facilitated copying one hard disc drive directly to another. But now there are several. I usually use Norton Ghost to clone hard disc drives. Ghost will also work via a network using TCP/IP, USB cable, or parallel LapLink cable.

1. The GUI for Windows 95 must be running in order to access XCOPY32.EXE.
2. Make sure that the new drive has been partitioned, formatted and the system files have been copied to it.
   e.g. FDISK then FORMAT D:/S
3. Make sure that you write down what the current CMOS parameters are for your hard drives.
4. Create an Emergency Boot Disk:
   Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs > Startup Disk.
   The Emergency Boot Disk will be needed later to configure the new drive so that it will boot.
5. Open an "MS-DOS Prompt" window.
6. Type cd \ to make sure that you are at the "root" directory of drive c:
7. Type xcopy c: d: /e /c /f /h /r /k /y /v

   What the parameters mean

   • /e    Copies directories and subdirectories, including empty ones.
   • /c    Continues copying even if errors occur.
   • /f    Displays full source and destination file names while copying.
   • /h    Copies hidden and system files also.
   • /r    Overwrites read-only files.
   • /k    Copies attributes. Normal Xcopy will reset read-only attributes.
   • /y    Overwrites existing files without prompting.
   
   
8. Once the copying is complete, type "exit" to close the Command Prompt window.
9. Shutdown Windows 95: Start button > Shut Down... > Shut down the computer?
10. Turn off the power on the computer.
11. Disconnect the old drive C:.
12. Set the jumper on the new drive to make it the master drive.
    If the new drive was plugged into the secondary IDE port, then unplug it from the secondary IDE port and plug it into the primary IDE port on the IDE interface.
13. Turn on the computer and enter the CMOS setup. Reconfigure the drive types in the CMOS, if necessary.
14. Boot with the Emergency Boot Disk that was created in step 4.
15. Run FDISK and make the new drives 1^st partition bootable by choosing "2. Set active partition." When you choose option, "4. Display partition information," an "A" should be listed under "Status" for drive C:.
16. Remove the Emergency Boot Disk from drive A: then exit from FDISK.
17. Reboot the computer. The new hard drive should boot into Windows 95 with all of your previous software and settings intact.

1. If you had created a Briefcase on the Desktop with the old drive, the Briefcase will show up as a folder on the new hard drive's desktop and won't be considered a Briefcase by Windows 95 anymore. Since Windows 95 doesn't think of it as a valid Briefcase database anymore, you'll have to create the Briefcase again.
   
2. Because the volume serial number for the new hard drive is different from the original drive, any Briefcases that referred to drive C: on the old drive will now think that the drive/volume is no longer available. You will have to update the links to the files by using the same method that you used to create the links the first time. i.e. Sync Copy