COMPUTER INFO

I’m not a DOS guy. I do abundant added acceptable with a graphical user interface (GUI). However, afresh I came beyond an affair area the XCOPY command came in handy.

On my Windows XP apparatus had a binder that independent over 500 sub-directories. I bare to archetype the agenda anatomy afterwards artful the files independent in these directories. Afterwards a acceptable bit of analytic on my own, I angry to my acceptable acquaintance Jared who acicular me to the XCOPY command.

XCOPY is abbreviate for Extended Archetype and is the big brother to the archetype command begin in MS-DOS. It provides abounding added options for artful assorted files and directories from one drive to addition or beyond a network. Adding assertive characters will acquiesce you adapt your archetype command.

How to archetype agenda anatomy afterwards artful files

Go to Start and accept Run

In the Run chat box, type: cmd

In the command window, use the afterward syntax.

XCOPY "C:\Existing Folder" "D:\New Copy" /t /e

Upon acute Enter, I accept the message: “Does C:\Existing Binder specify a book name or agenda name on the ambition (F=file, D=directory)?”

In my instance, I hit D for directory. (If you’re aggravating to archetype file(s) to a file, again you would accept F here). Because of the cardinal of sub-directories, it took a few moments for the action to complete, again I was accustomed a fresh command band area I typed avenue to abutting the command window.

Below are a few attributes you can adjoin to your XCOPY command to clothing your artful needs. For a abounding ambit of attributes, analysis out the Microsoft TechNet site.

/t Copies agenda anatomy afterwards artful files. Excludes abandoned directories. Include /e to archetype emtpy directories.

/e Copies agenda structure, including abandoned ones. Same as /s /e. Can be acclimated to adapt /t.

/d :mm-dd-yyyy Copies files afflicted on or afterwards date provided. If you don’t specify a date, alone files from your Antecedent agenda that are newer than your Destination agenda will be copied, acceptance you to amend alone the files that accept been changed.

/exclude: filename1 [+filename2] [+filename3] Specifies which files to exclude depending on the cord you enter. You can additionally specify a agenda name (\zip\) or book blazon (.zip) to exclude files in that agenda or of that book type.

/f Displays filenames of antecedent and destination while copying.

/h Copies hidden files and arrangement files which XCOPY does not do by default.

/u Copies alone the files from antecedent that already abide in destination.