How to Copy The Files Blocked by a program

While working with windows you tried to copy a file but unfortunately windows won’t allow you to copy that file and also display a message that the file is being blocked by a program. Moreover you might be in very need of that file. There is a way to copy the blocked files. You can copy any file that is blocked by a program. By default Windows will never allow you to copy a program/file that is currently being used by windows. Most probably you will face this situation when you try to copy video files that has just been played in your browser it may be Internet Explorer in most cases. I used to do this before and ” i can’t copy a file that is being used” . There are certain sites that block files this way. So i tried to find a solution (to copy any files that are blocked by a program) for this.


HoboCopy is a small utility that can do the job of copying a file that is being used by a program. It is actually works like a backup utility that needs to be run from the command line i.e. the command prompt utility in Windows. It can t be run by double clicking the program’s exe file. Thats why it needs to be run in command line.

How HoboCopy could copy the files used by a program?

HoboCopy uses the VSS (Volume Shadow Service) to “snapshot” the disk before copying. The File is then copied from the snapshot instead of copying from the “live” disk directly.

Download Hobocopy