xcopy "invalid number of parameters"

greetings all

this seems so silly, i know i have used xcopy successfully in the past (2 years or so ago) but here goes.

I have a small server in my domain to backup (428 mb) of developer code . The server is a cvs repository. My main file server is configured to be backed up everynight as it should be. We got into this development project DEEP and now the repository is critical and I needed to back up the 400 or so mb of development code.

Due to licensing restrictions, I am not able to install the client backup agent on the repository.

My solution is to map the repository drive to the file server as lets say z:\ . Then run an xcopy with alll the flags to only copy over "archive" or modified in x day files to a specified directory on the main file server.

When i try to run an xcopy <source> <destination> /l just to see if it will work, and see which files will be copied i get the "invalid number of parameters" spit back at me. I have tried this with xcopy /d /s /a whatever on a dead beat up ntserver just to figure out what is wrong. But only to get the same message spit at be again.

What happened 1to xcopy? or is it me? SP upgrade?

any help will be most appreciated

PEACE \/

Can't see anything wrong with what you're trying to do. Why don't you post the exact command you're using - the whole command file if that's what you're using - and hopefully we'll be able to help.

Have you tried using RoboCopy from the resource kit? This will establish and maintain a copy of the directory structure. I use it to copy changed files every two to four hours from one server to another - just in case https://discussions.virtualdr.com/.

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Howard Marsh
HWM Consulting Pty Ltd
Harbour City Computers
QLD, Australia.

Did we help?

Please post back and let us know the results.

I tried using xcopy for the first time today - i got the same error msg regarding "invalid parameters". I figured out that anytime I specified copying a directory which was longer than one name it would spit that reply back to me. I tried using every switch I could, but the only way I could copy a directory was either to copy everything on the partition (*.*) or copy directories which were only one name long (Data vs. My Data)

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Like a stream of bat's piss, I strive to be a gleaming shaft of light amid a sea of darkness

I dunno, maybe I wasn't using xcopy for its intended purpose (whatever that is). I couldn't get a folder to copy over unless I specified its name in the destination. I figured xcopy would just copy the folder over and keep the same name as in the source. Which seems dumb because if I had 30 folders on a partition and only wanted to copy over 15 of them, I wouldn't want to specify 15 folder names in the destination path; I would hope the program was smart enough to know if I didn't specify a destination folder name then I meant for the folders to retain their names in the destination partition.
Also experienced the destination partition losing all its permissions (the everyone group was somehow removed and I had to go reset perms on it).

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Like a stream of bat's piss, I strive to be a gleaming shaft of light amid a sea of darkness

sorry for another post on this, but I wanted to paste my commands and its output to see if anyone could make any sense of it. I don't like xcopy for the short time I've used it but I'm curious to hear any explanations of this. The F: drive is a different computer than the C:


C:\>xcopy f:\icons c:\icons /E /C /I /H /K /X
F:\icons\GRAPHICS.EXE
F:\icons\HUMAN.EXE
F:\icons\TRAFFIC.EXE
3 File(s) copied

C:\>xcopy f:\icons c:\icons /E /C /I /H /K /X
Overwrite C:\icons\GRAPHICS.EXE (Yes/No/All)? a
F:\icons\GRAPHICS.EXE
Access denied
F:\icons\HUMAN.EXE
Access denied
F:\icons\TRAFFIC.EXE
Access denied
0 File(s) copied


For some reason after I ran the same identical command twice, I get two different results. The first time the directory gets copied perfectly (as long as I of course specify the destination directory name). The 2nd time I run the cmd it asks me I want to overwrite all the files, I say yes, then it says access denied. I checked the perms on the C: drive and it showed Everyone with FC. What the heck is going on?
I realized for some reason if I used the O option, that it would remove the Everyone group from the C: partition rendering it inaccessible. I know the O option copies over the ACLs, but does that make sense that it would remove the Everyone group from a different machine? The source partition also has Everyone with FC by the way.

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Like a stream of bat's piss, I strive to be a gleaming shaft of light amid a sea of darkness