My finger slipped -- I don't know how and it must have been twice!! --
and I saw a box flash on the screen for a second. Ten minues later I
came across box-sized window that says I'm copying 303,818 items from
the D: drive to the Downloads directory on the C: drive.

And I'm 28% done!!!!!!!!!!!!

But looking at the C:\downloads, it only has 135 objects, 586 mb.

It's paused now. If I just cancel the copy, will everything be as it
was????

If I had a power failure now, would there be 75,000 files in a temp
directory somewhere?

On 11/26/23 05:22 PM, this is what micky wrote:
> My finger slipped -- I don't know how and it must have been twice!! --
> and I saw a box flash on the screen for a second. Ten minues later I
> came across box-sized window that says I'm copying 303,818 items from
> the D: drive to the Downloads directory on the C: drive.
>
> And I'm 28% done!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
> But looking at the C:\downloads, it only has 135 objects, 586 mb.
>
> It's paused now. If I just cancel the copy, will everything be as it
> was????
>
> If I had a power failure now, would there be 75,000 files in a temp
> directory somewhere?
If it's a copy, then the original files should not be touched. I'd stop it if you have that square dot to stop or just
hit the "X".
And no, it won't be as it was! You'll have files in Downloads to deal with.
IMHO
--
Linux Mint 21.2 Cinnamon
Al

On 11/26/2023 5:34 PM, Big Al wrote:
> On 11/26/23 05:22 PM, this is what micky wrote:
>> My finger slipped -- I don't know how and it must have been twice!! --
>> and I saw a box flash on the screen for a second.  Ten minues later I
>> came across box-sized window that says I'm copying 303,818 items from
>> the D: drive to the Downloads directory on the C: drive.
>>
>> And I'm 28% done!!!!!!!!!!!!
>>
>> But looking at the C:\downloads, it only has 135 objects, 586 mb.
>>
>> It's paused now.  If I just cancel the copy, will everything be as it
>> was????
>>
>> If I had a power failure now, would there be 75,000 files in a temp
>> directory somewhere?
> If it's a copy, then the original files should not be touched. 
> I'd stop it if you have that square dot to stop or just hit the "X".
> And no, it won't be as it was!  You'll have files in Downloads to deal with.
> IMHO

And of course, System Restore cannot undo an accident like that now.
The files handled by SR have changed over the years, and it is
"more user friendly" now.

The dates should be preserved when copying, so that won't tell you
what is what.

And the $MFT has holes in it, and the newly copies files can receive
low value filenum. So you cannot use nfi.exe and rely on the filenum
always being high numbers, as an indication of "what is new".

So yes, this is going to require auxiliary forensic techniques
(hashdeep the two trees, look for matches, or dig up a recent
backup and whitelist all the files which match in the backup).

In Macrium, a backup can be mounted as a drive letter. I can,
for example (a convention), mount my C: drive backup as K: , and
then compare K: to C: for differences.

Paul

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Sun, 26 Nov 2023 17:34:43 -0500, Big Al
<Bears@invalid.com> wrote:

>On 11/26/23 05:22 PM, this is what micky wrote:
>> My finger slipped -- I don't know how and it must have been twice!! --
>> and I saw a box flash on the screen for a second. Ten minues later I
>> came across box-sized window that says I'm copying 303,818 items from
>> the D: drive to the Downloads directory on the C: drive.
>>
>> And I'm 28% done!!!!!!!!!!!!
>>
>> But looking at the C:\downloads, it only has 135 objects, 586 mb.
>>
>> It's paused now. If I just cancel the copy, will everything be as it
>> was????
>>
>> If I had a power failure now, would there be 75,000 files in a temp
>> directory somewhere?
>If it's a copy, then the original files should not be touched. I'd stop it if you have that square dot to stop or just
>hit the "X".
>And no, it won't be as it was! You'll have files in Downloads to deal with.
>IMHO

I did stop it -- what else could I really do**? -- and it turnned out
the number of objects (all of them files) was still 135! It's a good
thing it was copying the whole hard drive. If it had only tried to copy
75,000 files it would have been finished before I noticed it was doing
it.

**But I felt the need for reassurance.

On 11/27/2023 12:31 AM, micky wrote:
> In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Sun, 26 Nov 2023 17:34:43 -0500, Big Al
> <Bears@invalid.com> wrote:
>
>> On 11/26/23 05:22 PM, this is what micky wrote:
>>> My finger slipped -- I don't know how and it must have been twice!! --
>>> and I saw a box flash on the screen for a second. Ten minues later I
>>> came across box-sized window that says I'm copying 303,818 items from
>>> the D: drive to the Downloads directory on the C: drive.
>>>
>>> And I'm 28% done!!!!!!!!!!!!
>>>
>>> But looking at the C:\downloads, it only has 135 objects, 586 mb.
>>>
>>> It's paused now. If I just cancel the copy, will everything be as it
>>> was????
>>>
>>> If I had a power failure now, would there be 75,000 files in a temp
>>> directory somewhere?
>> If it's a copy, then the original files should not be touched. I'd stop it if you have that square dot to stop or just
>> hit the "X".
>> And no, it won't be as it was! You'll have files in Downloads to deal with.
>> IMHO
>
> I did stop it -- what else could I really do**? -- and it turnned out
> the number of objects (all of them files) was still 135! It's a good
> thing it was copying the whole hard drive. If it had only tried to copy
> 75,000 files it would have been finished before I noticed it was doing
> it.
>
> **But I felt the need for reassurance.
>

It does not use a Temp directory for the copy.

A copy operation is tortured enough as it is.

It does some sort of size check, before starting
the copy phase. But once it starts, the data should
be headed towards the destination.

*******

If you are a hobby programmer, writing a file copy
program "copy.exe" is the second program you write,
after doing "HelloWorld" :-) It's less than a page
of code, to copy a file. In your case, I think
we would be adding a "Do you REALLY want to do this?"
prompt to the code :-) "Do you REALLY REALLY want to do this?"
You get the idea.

Paul