I've got a g3 ibook - still on OS 9 - that I was backing up to a g4 via Firewire target disk mode.

If you drag the disk to another disk - it does the alias thing.

If you drag the contents - it copies them - but does not copy the desktop folder contents.

I had 1.5 gigs of stuff it didn't copy - so I rebooted, put everything but the trash and hard drive into a folder called "desktopstuff", then moved it to the root - rebooted it in Firewire target mode and then recopied.

I know people that would lose stuff copying disks in OS 9 - because they would open up the hard drive and select the contents - again you won't get the desktop folder.

I suppose I should be better about keeping everything in folders on the root of the drive and only use aliases on the desktop.