How to copy files from folder tree dropping all the folders with Robocopy?

Question

I have the following folder structure:

FolderA
--Folder1
--Folder2
--Folder3
...
--Folder99

Folders 1 through 99 have files in them.

All I want to do is to copy ALL THE FILES into ONE FOLDER, basically do a FolderA copy, and wipe out Folders 1-99 keeping all the files.

I'd like to do it with Robocopy from cmd.exe if possible (Windows Server 2008)

Sizeable

This doesn't seem like a programming question. – Hers

you guys can move it to SU or SF, i don't want to delete it and waste a useful answer – Sizeable

batch programming is still programming – Twopiece

Answer 1

Why use robocopy? It's a good tool for a specific task but this is not the one.

You can simply use what cmd already gives you:

for /r %f in (*) do @copy "%f" target

This will essentially "flatten" your directory hierarchy. for /r will walk a directory tree recursively, looking for file names matching the given pattern. You can also specify the directory to start in:

for /r FolderA %f in (*) do @copy "%f" target

Within the loop it's just a simply copy of the file into a specified folder.

Bevel

There are 2 solutions here if you have files that don't have unique names. – Lyrebird

Which option can be used when there are duplicates with the same name? – Thumbprint

@Martin: See help copy. It's /y. – Bevel

Answer 2

Robocopy is a great tool... when you have a job it can handle. Why not use xcopy?

If you have two drives you can just use xcopy:

XCOPY  C:\*.*  D:\NewFolder\   /S

Or use XXCOPY for one drive:

XXCOPY C:\*.*  C:\NewFolder\   /S /CCY

XXCOPY

Disinfect

user /SGF attribute to copy into one folder – Federalist

xcopy duplicates the directory structure. I think the question is about flattening the directory structure. – Sunfast

Answer 3

Get-ChildItem -Path source -Recurse -File | Move-Item -Destination dest

Crosspatch