Folder Names with Spaces in XCOPY doesn't work?

Question

Working on a batch script that backs up various important folders on my PC, I have ran into a problem. I can't seem to copy folders that have a space in their name. If there is a sub-folder that has a space and it's parent doesn't, It works perfectly fine. I also seem to be having a problem where I have FULL permission to 'My Documents' folder, but XCOPY won't copy saying 'Access Denied'. Any help is very much appreciated.

Santasantacruz

Answer 1

Surround your source specification with quotation marks, as in

xcopy "c:\my documents\some folder\*.*" ...

Scammony

Thanks for the response. I tried that.. well, a little like this: xcopy "%USERPROFILE%\My Documents" "F:\New Folder" /S /E /I and it says 'Is this a file or directory'? You answer directory and it errors.. – Santasantacruz

Echo that string, and see if it corresponds to an actual folder on the computer. XCopy requires a filespec for the source, not just a folder spec, as in xcopy "%USERPROFILE%\My Documents" "F:\New Folder\*.*" if you want to copy all files from that folder. Notice the *.*. – Scammony

You would think that would be the case... but when I use the . it says 'File Not Found'. :- – Santasantacruz

Did you Echo the string? Is the resulting path point to an actual folder on the machine? – Scammony

'echo' simply means 'Write to console', it doesn't verify anything. It simply writes what you tell it to. So it's going to write it if it's a true path or not.. I think. – Santasantacruz

It will output the content of the %USERPROFILE% variable with the rest of the path. You're overlooking something really obvious; how 'bout doing some basic troubleshooting? – Scammony

oh.. it outputs C:\Users\Sean Webber\My Documents – Santasantacruz

Answer 2

You seem to be using Windows 7 (or Vista). On those systems My Documents is a symbolic link that only exists for backwards compatibility and cannot be accessed by users. The actual location of your documents folder is C:\Users\Sean Webber\Documents. Change your script to

xcopy "%USERPROFILE%\Documents" "F:\New Folder" /s /e /i

Butterfat

Thank You! That did fix my problem! I don't know my Windows would be designed like that, but it works perfectly now :) – Santasantacruz

While this solves the OPs problem, it doesn't answer the question of how do you xcopy directories (in batch variables) with spaces. – Sacrosanct

@Sacrosanct You did notice the double quotes around both path specs, didn't you? – Butterfat