Network File Copying

I use XP Home on my i8200 (which uses simple file sharing). I selected a few folders to be shared on my network so I can handle the backups from my computer (My Documents, etc.). The shared folders do show up in Network Places and I can access them. I want to be able to copy the My Documents folder and all it's sub folders and files to my back up hard drive but when I do, it just copies the shortcut to the actual folder on the remote computer. If I select a subfolder of the shared folder, it will copy it and it's subs. How do I copy starting with the main shared folder?

Also, I tried to share the entire root drive so I wouldn't have to individually select different folders (not a high security issue here) but when I try to copy some folders, I get a not accessible or not authorized message. Is there a tip for sharing the root drive with full access?

Thanks for any help,
Jamie

 

Sharing the entire root drive on an ntfs system is possible, but it's a royal pain in the ass, since MS seems to believe nobody would ever want to do this. I've just given up doing this and use the admin shares myself. Each drive in XP is automaticly given an admin share. You can't see them, but you can type them in directly.

Admin shares are simply the drive letters followed by the cash sign. So in other words if you have a computer named bob, you could access its c drive from any computer on the network if you typed "//bob/c$" into the address bar, all you'll need is a username and password for an account with admin privledges on that computer. No extra setup is required for this to work.

As for the copying issue, simply open the folder itself, press ctrl-a(select all), then ctrl-c(copy) and go to the other drive and press ctrl-v (paste). The reason copying the main shared folder doesn't work is because it's a link itself and not the actual folder, so you're making a copy of a link. Although it's really not to hard to just open it and then copy and paste everything (including sub folders) with those hotkeys.

 

Coco-
Thanks for your reply!
You said sharing the root drive is a pain in the ass. Is that why when I select the C drive to be shared, I can't access a lot of the folders (I get the "folder not accessible, you might not have permission" message)? However if I select that folder specifically, I can access it. Any way to make every folder accessible when the root drive is shared?

Thanks again

 

Also, thanks for the hot key tips. I just made a folder called My Documents in the back-up drive and copied them there. It makes sence now knowing I was trying to copy a link.

 

Like I said, just use the admin shares. Admin shares are the root folders, fully shared and fully avaliable to any computer on the network. It's just the drive letter followed by the cash sign.

Otherwise getting the permissions to work is just very hard and annoying, and it's really not worth the effort since it's already done for you. You can even map an admin share if you like. There really isn't any downside to just using an admin share. It's exactly what you want.