Diskcopy (original) (raw)

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Diskcopy

Article
08/31/2016

Syntax

diskcopy [<Drive1>: [<Drive2>:]] [/v]

Parameters

Parameter	Description
	Specifies the drive that contains the source disk.
	Specifies the drive that contains the destination disk.
/v	Verifies that the information is copied correctly. This option slows down the copying process.
/?	Displays help at the command prompt.

Remarks

Using disks
Diskcopy works only with removable disks such as floppy disks, which must be the same type. You cannot use diskcopy with a hard disk. 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 nonremovable

The diskcopy command prompts you to insert the source and destination disks and waits for you to press any key on the keyboard before continuing.
After it copies the disk, 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

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
Run diskcopy from a drive other than the floppy disk drive, for example the C drive. If floppy disk Drive1 and floppy disk Drive2 are the same, diskcopy prompts you to switch disks. If the disks contain more information than the available memory can hold, diskcopy cannot read all of the information at once. Diskcopy reads from the source disk, writes to the destination disk, and prompts you to insert the source disk again. This process continues until you have copied the entire disk.
Avoiding disk fragmentation
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 process of finding, reading, or writing files.
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. To avoid transferring fragmentation from one disk to another, use copy or xcopy to copy your disk. Because copy and xcopy copy files sequentially, the new disk is not fragmented.

Note

You cannot use xcopy to copy a startup disk.

Understanding diskcopy exit codes
The following table explains each exit code.

Exit code	Description
0	Copy operation was successful
1	Nonfatal Read/Write error occurred
3	Fatal hard error occurred
4	Initialization error occurred
To process the exit codes that are returned by diskcomp, you can use the ERRORLEVEL environment variable on the if command line in a batch program.

Examples

To copy the disk in drive B to the disk in drive A, type:

diskcopy b: a:

To use floppy disk drive A to copy one floppy disk to another, first switch to the C drive and then type:

diskcopy a: a:

Additional references

Command-Line Syntax Key