I'm trying to back up a Windows Favorites folder. My first attempt was using cp with the -pR options. Some of the favorites were copied, but a number of others generated errors. The problem appears to be special characters in the file names: the most common special character was the question mark. I then tried to use tar. The archive was generated successfully, with all the special characters appearing when I listed the archive. However, extraction of the archive gave errors on the same files as before.

Is there a better utility to use which will not have this problem?

I'm wondering why you are not using windows to backup your windows folder which you will probably put on another windows partition? Have you broken your windows system? Not knowing what special characters you are referring to other than the ? mark and what the errors you got are I seriously doubt you will be able to get much help.