will copying files here and there cause corruption? how can i ensure it doesn't?

No. Only if your HDD is dying.

or your disk controller, bad drivers, cheap memory without error correction (or worse) 'error correction' that is actually error ignoring.

There are also some recently fixed XP/Vista bugs that were in the disk drivers and NTFS fliesystem.

Why do you ask? You question could easily be reworded as "if I do typical/normal tasks with my system will that corrupt data?"

Answer: Not unless there is something seriously wrong with the system.

Edited August 21, 200719 yr by newsposter

may also matter where you are coping the files to. For example if you were coping they to floppies. Then it depends how old the disks are. After a while the floppies get worn out and they will end up getting corrupted. The same probably applies to CD/RW disks.

you can always run sfc /scannow, but that only replaces files missing, i believe, i dont believe it checks all files for corruption.

-gosh

thanks

i just don't want to corrupt my data as i am transferring large amounts of data from 1 HDD to another for backup.