Partition Logic is a free hard disk partitioning and data management tool. It can create, delete, format, defragment, resize, and move partitions and modify their attributes. It can copy entire hard disks from one to another.
Partition Logic is free software, based on the Visopsys operating system. It boots from a CD or floppy disk and runs as a standalone system, independent of your regular operating system. It is intended to become a free alternative to such commercial programs as Partition Magic, Drive Image, and Norton Ghost... (read more)
I haven't used it myself. Caveat Emptor, YMMV, IANAL, Void Where Prohibited, etc., etc.
That would be useful for a one-time copy. It sounds like you want something else.
What worries me, though, is your initial statement: Whenever I try to copy a harddrive or large folder, it often *stops* the whole copy when it encounters a security-related issue, such as "access denied".
If it's stopping on a folder (that presumably doesn't have locked System files present), then something seems amiss. I would find such a folder and try to figure out what's going on.
Were you ever a fan of Norton Commander? If so, you might look at [link|http://silk.apana.org.au/fc.html|File Commander] (the latest beta is [link|http://silk.apana.org.au/pub/fcw/fcw230-dev.zip|here] - get the official version for the help files, etc.). F5 copies marked files/directories/etc. and it will show progress. It'll tell you which file gives an Access Denied. FC is shareware, but it has very little nagging (I'm just a customer).
HTH a bit.
Cheers,
Scott.