Copy in-use files from the command line #

hobocopy (open source) - "Uses the Volume Shadow Service (VSS) to 'snapshot' the disk before copying. It then copies from the snapshot rather than the 'live' disk." Several issues raised in these comments, including problems with incremental mode and attributes/ACL. The author has deprecated it in favor of:
ShadowSpawn (open source) - "Works by making a shadow copy of your disk, making it available at a drive letter, then launching (spawning) another program that you specify. Probably the most common way to use ShadowSpawn is to use Robocopy make a copy of files that are currently in use."
ShadowCopy (freeware) - Copies locked and open files via Volume Shadow Services.
Backup of locked files using vshadow.exe and robocopy.exe (PDF) - Instructions from the University of Arkansas for backing up with VShadow and Robocopy.
VShadow is a command-line tool from Microsoft that lets you create and manage volume shadow copies. Generally available only as part of the enormous Software Development Kit (SDK), a kind developer has cached several versions of vshadow.exe.
Volume Shadow Copy Simple Client (VSCSC) is "a modified version of VSHADOW.EXE that features a -exec option which is much nicer than the original."
VSS BackupHelper "exposes a volume shadow copy (VSS) snapshot as a drive in Windows XP or Windows 2003 Server. Allows you to use rsync, robocopy etc on files normally locked by Windows."

/windows | Mar 24, 2013