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 Ghost to clone hard disc drives. Ghost will work via a network using TCP/IP, USB cable, or parallel LapLink cable.

You would use this information if you were going to replace your current drive C: with a larger capacity drive and would like to try and avoid having to reinstall Windows 95 and all your other software from scratch.

1. The GUI for Windows 95 must be running.
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 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.
   
   
7. Once the copying is complete, type "exit" to close the MS-DOS Prompt window.
8. Shutdown Windows 95: Start button | Shut Down... | Shut down the computer?
9. Turn off the computer.
10. Disconnect the old drive C:.
11. Set the jumper on the new drive to make it the primary or master drive. If the new drive was plugged into the secondary IDE port, the jumper should already set.
    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.
12. Turn on the computer and enter the CMOS setup. Reconfigure the drive types in the CMOS.
13. Boot with the Emergency Boot Disk that was created in step 3.
    
14. Run FDISK and make the new drive's 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:.
15. Remove the Emergency Boot Disk from drive A: then exit from FDISK.
16. Reboot the computer. The new hard drive should boot into Windows 95 with all of your previous configurations and settings intact.

Notes regarding the Windows 95 Briefcase:

1. If you had created a Briefcase on 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 data base 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

You may also want to check out the Microsoft Knowledge Base article, Duplicating Windows 95 Installation to a New Hard Disk, Article ID: Q166172 at http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q166/1/72.asp.