copying all contents of folder to another folder using batch file?

Question

I have a folder: C:\Folder1

I want to copy all the contents of Folder1 to another location, D:\Folder2

How do I do this using a batch file?

Teraterai

Answer 1

xcopy.exe is the solution here. It's built into Windows.

xcopy /s c:\Folder1 d:\Folder2

You can find more options at http://www.computerhope.com/xcopyhlp.htm

Bumpy

Hello Hussain, I have tried xcopy /s c:\Folder1 d:\Folder2 command in batch file, but it does't work for me. can you please guide me more. – Teraterai

Hi, Might be you don't having that xcopy on your machine.. However you can download batch file from here brothersoft.com/xcopy-177904.html – Bumpy

If you want to copy also empty subdirectories you should use /s /e flags. – Maintopmast

Doesn't /e automatically include /s? – Medeah

xcopy is deprecated and fires an 'Insufficient memory' error when file name is longer than 254 characters. Use robocopy instead: robocopy C:\Folder1 D:\Folder2 /COPYALL /E en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robocopy – Decentralize

If that copies the contents of Folder1, what do you do if you want to copy the folder itself? – Funnyman

relative path is also applicable ex ../some-folder – Brochu

I just ran this (01/13/2020 on Windows 10) and it worked exactly as required on the original questions and my whole command was 295 characters long. – Malamud

Answer 2

If you have robocopy,

robocopy C:\Folder1 D:\Folder2 /COPYALL /E

otherwise,

xcopy /e /v C:\Folder1 D:\Folder2

Medeah

If that copies the contents of Folder1, what do you do if you want to copy the folder itself? – Funnyman

@KyleDelaney include the source folder name in the destination, e.g. "xcopy /e /v C:\Folder1 D:\Folder2\Folder1\" – Medeah

Note that RoboCopy uses \ as an escape character (CMD does not), if you try and pass in a quoted path with a space and an ending slash like "C:\My Folder\" you may get a nasty surprise. I recommend reading that SS64 page very carefully. For a full trip down the "what is an escape character in CMD" rabbit hole, see Escaping Double Quotes in Batch Script. – Ostyak

Answer 3

I see a lot of answers suggesting the use of xcopy. But this is unnecessary. As the question clearly mentions that the author wants the content in the folder not the folder itself to be copied in this case we can do

copy "C:\Folder1\*.*"  "D:\Folder2"

Thats all xcopy can be used for if any subdirectory exists in C:\Folder1

Phelan

This does not work if the folder you are copying to does not yet exist (I believe) so you might want to add md D:\Folder2 – Mattland

My copy command (Windows 10 command prompt) tells me that the syntax is incorrect. The following would be the correct syntax: copy "C:\Folder1\*.*" "D:\Folder2" – Tomas

Answer 4

if you want remove the message that tells if the destination is a file or folder you just add a slash:

xcopy /s c:\Folder1 d:\Folder2\

Sarabia

minor addition: in DOS, to copy from the root of one drive to another, the escape slashes should not be present. For example xcopy /s C: D: – Corned

@Corned What are the escape slashes? – Hellas

Answer 5

RoboCopy did not work for me, and there are some good solutions here, but none explained the XCopy switches and what they do. Also you need quotes in case your path has spaces in it.

xcopy /i /e "C:\temp\folder 1" "C:\temp\folder 2"

Here is the documentation from Microsoft:

XCopy MS Documentation

/s: Specifies to include subdirectories. Excludes empty subdirectories
/e: Copies all subdirectories, even if they are empty
/i: specifies the destination is a folder (Otherwise it prompts you)

Hawsepipe

xcopy ms doc might be the second most important information on this page :) , thanks – Newfangled

Answer 6

Here's a solution with robocopy which copies the content of Folder1 into Folder2 going trough all subdirectories and automatically overwriting the files with the same name:

robocopy C:\Folder1 C:\Folder2 /COPYALL /E /IS /IT

Here:

/COPYALL copies all file information
/E copies subdirectories including empty directories
/IS includes the same files
/IT includes modified files with the same name

For more parameters see the official documentation: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/robocopy

Note: it can be necessary to run the command as administrator, because of the argument /COPYALL. If you can't: just get rid of it.

Cocksure

Answer 7

@echo off
::Ask
echo Your Source Path:
set INPUT1=
set /P INPUT1=Type input: %=%

echo Your Destination Path:
set INPUT2=
set /P INPUT2=Type input: %=%

xcopy %INPUT1% %INPUT2% /y /s

Tenedos

Answer 8

On my PC, xcopy and robocopy need also the path to them, i.e. C:\Windows\System32\xcopy.exe

That's why I use simply "copy": copy /y ....\Folder1\File.txt ....\Folder2\

Englishman

Answer 9

@echo off
xcopy /s C:\yourfile C:\anotherfile\

This is how it is done! Simple, right?

Intrusion

Answer 10

Use the below command to copy

robocopy /E robocopy C:\Folder1 D:\Folder2 /E

Flags: /E:- If you want to include an empty sub-folder

/S:- If you want to exclude an empty sub-folders

/XD:- If you want to exclude some sub-folder then use this flag and after that, you can mention the name of the sub-folder, which will not get copied.

/COPYALL:- Copies all file information For more information, you can visit Microsoft Robocopy Link

Yeung

Answer 11

FYI...if you use TortoiseSVN and you want to create a simple batch file to xcopy (or directory mirror) entire repositories into a "safe" location on a periodic basis, then this is the specific code that you might want to use. It copies over the hidden directories/files, maintains read-only attributes, and all subdirectories and best of all, doesn't prompt for input. Just make sure that you assign folder1 (safe repo) and folder2 (usable repo) correctly.

@echo off
echo "Setting variables..."
set folder1="Z:\Path\To\Backup\Repo\Directory"
set folder2="\\Path\To\Usable\Repo\Directory"
echo "Removing sandbox version..."
IF EXIST %folder1% (
    rmdir %folder1% /s /q
)
echo "Copying official repository into backup location..."
xcopy /e /i /v /h /k %folder2% %folder1%

And, that's it folks!

Add to your scheduled tasks and never look back.

Compromise

Answer 12

I have written a .bat file to copy and paste file to a temporary folder and make it zip and transfer into a smb mount point, Hope this would help,

    @echo off
    if not exist "C:\Temp Backup\" mkdir "C:\Temp Backup_%date:~-4,4%%date:~-10,2%%date:~-7,2%"
    if not exist "C:\Temp Backup_%date:~-4,4%%date:~-10,2%%date:~-7,2%\ZIP" mkdir "C:\Temp Backup_%date:~-4,4%%date:~-10,2%%date:~-7,2%\ZIP"
    if not exist "C:\Temp Backup_%date:~-4,4%%date:~-10,2%%date:~-7,2%\Logs" mkdir "C:\Temp Backup_%date:~-4,4%%date:~-10,2%%date:~-7,2%\Logs"
    xcopy /s/e/q "C:\Source" "C:\Temp Backup_%date:~-4,4%%date:~-10,2%%date:~-7,2%"
   Backup_%date:~-4,4%%date:~-10,2%%date:~-7,2%\Logs"
    "C:\Program Files (x86)\WinRAR\WinRAR.exe" a  "C:\Temp Backup_%date:~-4,4%%date:~-10,2%%date:~-7,2%\ZIP\ZIP_Backup_%date:~-4,4%_%date:~-10,2%_%date:~-7,2%.rar" "C:\Temp Backup_%date:~-4,4%%date:~-10,2%%date:~-7,2%\TELIUM"
    "C:\Program Files (x86)\WinRAR\WinRAR.exe" a  "C:\Temp Backup_%date:~-4,4%%date:~-10,2%%date:~-7,2%\ZIP\ZIP_Backup_Log_%date:~-4,4%_%date:~-10,2%_%date:~-7,2%.rar" "C:\Temp Backup_%date:~-4,4%%date:~-10,2%%date:~-7,2%\Logs"
    NET USE \\IP\IPC$ /u:IP\username password
    ROBOCOPY "C:\Temp Backup_%date:~-4,4%%date:~-10,2%%date:~-7,2%\ZIP"  "\\IP\Backup Folder" /z /MIR /unilog+:"C:\backup_log_%date:~-4,4%%date:~-10,2%%date:~-7,2%.log"
    NET USE \\172.20.10.103\IPC$ /D
    RMDIR /S /Q "C:\Temp Backup_%date:~-4,4%%date:~-10,2%%date:~-7,2%"

Garibull

Answer 13

@echo off
:: variables
echo Backing up file
set /P source=Enter source folder:
set /P destination=Enter Destination folder:
set xcopy=xcopy /S/E/V/Q/F/H/I/N
%xcopy% %source% %destination%
echo files will be copy press enter to proceed
pause

Vimen

An explanation of your code will benefit not only the asker of this question but future people who stumble across this in search of a solution to the same problem. – Germanium

You have several flags that directly contradict other flags. /S copies directories and subdirectories except for empty ones, while /E copied directories and subdirectories including empty ones. /Q does not display the files names while copying, while /F displays the full source and destination file names while copying. – Scallop