Frank Slootweg wrote:
pyotr filipivich wrote:

[Myriad of problems when using robocopy to make backup of C:.]

It seems to me that robocopy is not the best tool for making backup of
a system drive (C.

Exactly. The C: partition has too many "land mines"
to make OS backups this way into an easy option.

Back in the Win98 days, with say FAT32, such a copy would
have been simple. Fewer permission/attribute/crazy-file-system-features
to worry about.

I have no problem recommending Robocopy for data partition backups.
Nothing wrong with that. System Volume Information is the only
potential land mine there.

You *could* manually make a shadow copy of C: and interact
with the shadow copy. But that doesn't solve any permission
problems, and merely prevents a Robocopy attempt to copy
the pagefile, from failing because "file is busy". There
could remain, any number of *other* failure codes when
you touch the pagefile :-) At least it would be funny
to watch, without any expectation it could succeed.

Regular backup software is just soooo much better for this.

I also wouldn't have a problem with copying my Downloads folder
using Robocopy. Anything where there aren't any Junction Points
underneath, should be "easy". You can "skip" copying Junction Points,
but remember to wear your pointy hat when figuring out exactly
what just got backed up. Even if an "automated" copy procedure
looks like it's working, you could have wide swathes of stuff
not getting copied. People don't seem to worry about that
aspect too much, the "missing files" problem. Robocopy does
generate a log, so you can marvel at what it skipped or copied.

Paul