Using Backup to copy unreadable files

Here is another way of locating and copying an flv file once it is downloaded. This method finds the file in a different place but has to use a more complicated procedure for copying it.

Internet Explorer or Firefox on Windows XP: Look in C:\Documents and Settings\Your Name\Local Settings\Temp and you should find it. You can also get to this Temp location by typing %TEMP% in the Windows Explorer location box, and hit enter. But now we get to the silly part : you can't copy it! Try it, you will get a message saying "Cannot copy <file>: It is being used by another person or program". So you close your browser down... and the file vanishes. Very annoying. Here is a ridiculously complicated solution which I have found to work on XP.

1) Use Backup to back up your Temp folder. Backup apparently has some magical way of reading files which are in use by another progam.
- Start - All Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Backup
- Switch to "Advanced Mode" if you aren't already (as opposed to "Wizard Mode").
- Click the "Backup" tab.
- In the left-hand pane, navigate to the Temp folder already mentioned.
- In the left-hand pane, check the box by the Temp folder.
- You should see the video file listed in the right-hand pane but the box alongside it is not checked. That's ok, the checkboxes seem to apply to folders not files.
- Click the Browse button at the lower left to select a location for the backup file.
- Click "Start Backup", then in the Backup Job Information box click "Start Backup" again.

Now you should see the .bkf backup file in your selected location. You can close your browser now if you like.

2) Use Backup again to restore the backed-up file to a new location.
- Click the "Restore and Manage Media" tab.
- In the left-hand pane navigate to the Temp folder and you should see the video file listed in the right-hand pane. Click its checkbox so it is the only one whose checkbox is selected.
- At the lower left select "Restore files to: Alternate location" and browse to a suitable folder.
- If you are happy that you've selected a good destination location (not a system folder, use an empty folder you've created in somewhere in your "My Documents" probably) then click "Start Restore".
- This will create a new heirarchy of folders in your selected destination folder. Look inside and you will find the video file.
- Copy the video file to a more suitable location and rename so the name ends with ".flv".

Internet Explorer or Firefox on Windows Vista: I have heard that locked files can be copied on Vista using the "Volume Shadow Copy" service, and there are tools called Copysharp and Hobocopy which may be useful for this. However I don't actually know where to find the flv file on a Vista system. If you know where it can be found, please let me know.

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