Mar 12, 2020 Here, the xcopy command is used to copy all the files, subfolders, and files contained in the subfolders /s from source of C:Videos to the destination folder Media Backup located on a computer on the network by the name of SERVER.We're copying some really large video files, so buffering should be disabled to improve the copy process /j, and since we're copying over the network, we want. Robocopy - Invalid parameter This is similar to the spaces-in-file-names problem previously reported with robocopy. I use robocopy to back up data from our private e-mail app to a DVD+RW, except that in the directory of one of the other users is a bunch of JPEG files, some with spaces in their names, that he (apparently) put there to make it. Oct 01, 2010 - In the same time you can use all the Robocopy parameters. I show how to copy C:windowssystem32config while the system is on-line and actively using the files - something robocopy can't do. Nov 08, 2019 When this occurs, Robocopy will retry the copy to see if the lock is no longer on the file. By default (if you don’t specify this parameter), Robocopy will retry the copy 1 million times. Knowing that we are going to try to copy this file again during the next scheduled run one day away, I am more than content with trying five retries, and if. RoboCopy (Robust File Copy) is a command-line file copying tool in Windows. It is designed for reliable copying or mirroring of directories anywhere the computer has access, including local drives, removable drives, Local Area Network, remote servers, and in the process ensures that all file properties and permissions stays intact.
Robocopy or Robust File and Folder Copy application is very popular amongst Windows system administrators. Robocopy will copy the local or given file to the remote or destination location.
robocopy Features
The command robocopy provides very useful features for files copying over network. Below we will list some of them. The witcher 3 steam.
Resume Interrupted Copy
when the network or remote host is down during a copy the copy operation can resume where it left.Preserve File Attributes and timestamp
of the copied file where owner and audit information is also preserved.Ability To Update Copied File Attributes and Timestamps
of the copied files and folders which will set to the latest date and time.Administrator Owned File Copy
is supported with the option /B
.Mirror Mode
is provided to sync or mirror given files and folder or directory updated files will be updated and deleted files will be deleted on the target.Skip Allready Existing Files
by checking size and timestamp information and comparing it to the source and target.Progress Bar
will shown current copy operation graphically.Multi-threaded copying
which will allow copy, mirror multiple files and directories at the same time which will decrease the complete copy operation time.robocopy Command Syntax
The general syntax of
robocopy
command is like below.How To Copy Locked Files With Robocopy
- SOURCE is the source file or directory we want to copy
- DESTINATION is the destination file or directory we want to copy
- OPTIONS are different features or behaviors we want to use like recursive, verbose, extension filter, etc.
Copy Specified Folder
The most basic operation with
robocopy
is copying sources folders to the destination. In this example, we will copy the directory named mytest
to the destination folder yourtest
After copy operation, some statistics are provided by
robocopy
Start
shows start time of copy operationSource
shows source directoryDest
shows destination directoryFiles
shows file filterOptions
shows given optionsTotal
shows total files and folders countCopied
shows copied files and folders countSkipped
shows not copied files and folders
Copy From Local System To Remote System
We can also copy a file and folders to the remote system. We will provide a remote system hostname or IP address before the destination path. We can use BACKUPSERVER or 10.5.2.30 to specify the remote system.
In this example, we will copy the source directory named
mytest
to the remote system with IP address 192.168.122.46
under the path Usersismail
with the named yourtest
.Copy Only Given File Types or Extensions
robocopy
provides some filtering features while copying files. We can specify the filenames and extensions we want to copy. This will skip other file names and extensions. We will provide the file name or extension after the destination folder.In this example, we only want to copy
*.txt
extension files.We can see from the output that only one file is copied but there was more than one file. Copied file name and byte count is also printed.
Copy SubFolders
By default, only first level directories are copied to the destination. If we need to copy all level and subdirectories folders we should enable
/S
. The very best of prince zippyshare files.List Files
There is a very useful feature for robocopy where source files are not copied and just listed. This feature can be useful if we want to check existing files and folders. We can use
/L
option to print the list of files and directories.As we can see from the output that all files and folders are skipped and not copied.
List Files Recursively
While robocopy is mainly used to copy files from remote to local or local to remove we can use
/L
and /S
options in order to list remote files. We can merge two options list and recursive to list all level files and folders.Copy Files Lower Than Given Size
While copying files we can specify the size of files we want to copy. In this example we will copy files those sizes are lower than
1K
. We will use the /MAX
option for this.As we can see from the results some of the files are copied but some of them are not copied because of the size restriction.
Copy Files Higher Than Given Size
The reverse of the previous option is
/MIN
option . This will only copy files higher than the given size. In this example, we will copy files higher than 1K which is 1000 kilobytes.Move Files
The default behavior of
robocopy
is copying files. Sometimes we may need to move files. This can be done with robocopy
too. We will provide /MOV
option in order to move files and folders.Logging Operations
While doing copy and move operations we can also need some logs, especially in bulk data operations. We can write a log about specified operations with
/LOG
option. We can also specify the log file name y adding at the end of /LOG
option. In this example, we will write robocopy
operation log to log file named backup.log
. This will prevent regular output![Copy Locked Files With Robocopy Using B Parameter Copy Locked Files With Robocopy Using B Parameter](https://www.pdffiller.com/preview/5/744/5744868.png)
The log file can be listed with
type
command in MS-DOS command line like below.Copy Given File Properties
Files and folders may have different properties. These properties can be used for different purposes like the listing owner, audit information, timestamps, etc. We can copy these attributes too with the robocopy command. Here are the attributes we can specify for the copy. We will also use
/copy:
option by adding the property we want to copy.D
is used to copy data propertiesA
used for attributesT
for time stampsS
is used for NTFS access control list simply ACLO
is used for the owner informationU
is used for Auditing information
In this example, we will copy time stamp attributes or properties with the following command.
Copy All Attributes with /copyall
We can also copy files with all properties of attributes with the
/copyall
parameter like below. This is equal to the /copy:DATSOU
.Delete or Remove Destination Files and Directories That No Longer Exist In The Source
If we are trying to make an identical copy of the local files and directories to the remote we need to purge or remove remote files and directories that no longer exist in the source. We can use
-->/purge
option for this.Copies file data from one location to another.
Syntax
For example, to copy a file named yearly-report.mov from c:reports to a file share marketingvideos while enabling multi-threading for higher performance (with the /mt parameter) and the ability to restart the transfer in case it's interrupted (with the /z parameter), type:
Parameters
Parameter | Description |
---|---|
<source> | Specifies the path to the source directory. |
<destination> | Specifies the path to the destination directory. |
<file> | Specifies the file or files to be copied. Wildcard characters (* or ?) are supported. If you don't specify this parameter, *. is used as the default value. |
<options> | Specifies the options to use with the robocopy command, including copy, file, retry, logging, and job options. |
Copy options
Option | Description |
---|---|
/s | Copies subdirectories. This option automatically excludes empty directories. |
/e | Copies subdirectories. This option automatically includes empty directories. |
/lev:<n> | Copies only the top n levels of the source directory tree. |
/z | Copies files in restartable mode. |
/b | Copies files in Backup mode. |
/zb | Uses restartable mode. If access is denied, this option uses Backup mode. |
/efsraw | Copies all encrypted files in EFS RAW mode. |
/copy:<copyflags> | Specifies which file properties to copy. The valid values for this option are:
|
/dcopy:<copyflags> | Specifies what to copy in directories. The valid values for this option are:
|
/sec | Copies files with security (equivalent to /copy:DATS). |
/copyall | Copies all file information (equivalent to /copy:DATSOU). |
/nocopy | Copies no file information (useful with /purge). |
/secfix | Fixes file security on all files, even skipped ones. |
/timfix | Fixes file times on all files, even skipped ones. |
/purge | Deletes destination files and directories that no longer exist in the source. Using this option with the /e option and a destination directory, allows the destination directory security settings to not be overwritten. |
/mir | Mirrors a directory tree (equivalent to /e plus /purge). Using this option with the /e option and a destination directory, overwrites the destination directory security settings. |
/mov | Moves files, and deletes them from the source after they are copied. |
/move | Moves files and directories, and deletes them from the source after they are copied. |
/a+:[RASHCNET] | Adds the specified attributes to copied files. The valid values for this option are:
|
/a-:[RASHCNET] | Removes the specified attributes from copied files. The valid values for this option are:
|
/create | Creates a directory tree and zero-length files only. |
/fat | Creates destination files by using 8.3 character-length FAT file names only. |
/256 | Turns off support for paths longer than 256 characters. |
/mon:<n> | Monitors the source, and runs again when more than n changes are detected. |
/mot:<m> | Monitors the source, and runs again in m minutes, if changes are detected. |
/MT[:n] | Creates multi-threaded copies with n threads. n must be an integer between 1 and 128. The default value for n is 8. For better performance, redirect your output using /log option. The /mt parameter can't be used with the /ipg and /efsraw parameters. |
/rh:hhmm-hhmm | Specifies run times when new copies may be started. |
/pf | Checks run times on a per-file (not per-pass) basis. |
/ipg:n | Specifies the inter-packet gap to free bandwidth on slow lines. |
/sl | Don't follow symbolic links and instead create a copy of the link. |
Important
Robocopy File Only
When using the /secfix copy option, specify the type of security information you want to copy, using one of these additional copy options:
- /copyall
- /copy:o
- /copy:s
- /copy:u
- /sec
File selection options
Option | Description |
---|---|
/a | Copies only files for which the Archive attribute is set. |
/m | Copies only files for which the Archive attribute is set, and resets the Archive attribute. |
/ia:[RASHCNETO] | Includes only files for which any of the specified attributes are set. The valid values for this option are:
|
/xa:[RASHCNETO] | Excludes files for which any of the specified attributes are set. The valid values for this option are:
|
/xf <filename>[ ..] | Excludes files that match the specified names or paths. Wildcard characters (* and ?) are supported. |
/xd <directory>[ ..] | Excludes directories that match the specified names and paths. |
/xc | Excludes changed files. |
/xn | Excludes newer files. |
/xo | Excludes older files. |
/xx | Excludes extra files and directories. |
/xl | Excludes 'lonely' files and directories. |
/is | Includes the same files. |
/it | Includes modified files. |
/max:<n> | Specifies the maximum file size (to exclude files bigger than n bytes). |
/min:<n> | Specifies the minimum file size (to exclude files smaller than n bytes). |
/maxage:<n> | Specifies the maximum file age (to exclude files older than n days or date). |
/minage:<n> | Specifies the minimum file age (exclude files newer than n days or date). |
/maxlad:<n> | Specifies the maximum last access date (excludes files unused since n). |
/minlad:<n> | Specifies the minimum last access date (excludes files used since n) If n is less than 1900, n specifies the number of days. Otherwise, n specifies a date in the format YYYYMMDD. |
/xj | Excludes junction points, which are normally included by default. |
/fft | Assumes FAT file times (two-second precision). |
/dst | Compensates for one-hour DST time differences. |
/xjd | Excludes junction points for directories. |
/xjf | Excludes junction points for files. |
Retry options
Option | Description |
---|---|
/r:<n> | Specifies the number of retries on failed copies. The default value of n is 1,000,000 (one million retries). |
/w:<n> | Specifies the wait time between retries, in seconds. The default value of n is 30 (wait time 30 seconds). |
/reg | Saves the values specified in the /r and /w options as default settings in the registry. |
/tbd | Specifies that the system will wait for share names to be defined (retry error 67). |
Logging options
Option | Description |
---|---|
/l | Specifies that files are to be listed only (and not copied, deleted, or time stamped). |
/x | Reports all extra files, not just those that are selected. |
/v | Produces verbose output, and shows all skipped files. |
/ts | Includes source file time stamps in the output. |
/fp | Includes the full path names of the files in the output. |
/bytes | Prints sizes, as bytes. |
/ns | Specifies that file sizes are not to be logged. |
/nc | Specifies that file classes are not to be logged. |
/nfl | Specifies that file names are not to be logged. |
/ndl | Specifies that directory names are not to be logged. |
/np | Specifies that the progress of the copying operation (the number of files or directories copied so far) will not be displayed. |
/eta | Shows the estimated time of arrival (ETA) of the copied files. |
/log:<logfile> | Writes the status output to the log file (overwrites the existing log file). |
/log+:<logfile> | Writes the status output to the log file (appends the output to the existing log file). |
/unicode | Displays the status output as Unicode text. |
/unilog:<logfile> | Writes the status output to the log file as Unicode text (overwrites the existing log file). |
/unilog+:<logfile> | Writes the status output to the log file as Unicode text (appends the output to the existing log file). |
/tee | Writes the status output to the console window, as well as to the log file. |
/njh | Specifies that there is no job header. |
/njs | Specifies that there is no job summary. |
Job options
Option | Description |
---|---|
/job:<jobname> | Specifies that parameters are to be derived from the named job file. |
/save:<jobname> | Specifies that parameters are to be saved to the named job file. |
/quit | Quits after processing command line (to view parameters). |
/nosd | Indicates that no source directory is specified. |
/nodd | Indicates that no destination directory is specified. |
/if | Includes the specified files. |
Exit (return) codes
Value | Description |
---|---|
0 | No files were copied. No failure was encountered. No files were mismatched. The files already exist in the destination directory; therefore, the copy operation was skipped. |
1 | All files were copied successfully. |
2 | There are some additional files in the destination directory that are not present in the source directory. No files were copied. |
3 | Some files were copied. Additional files were present. No failure was encountered. |
5 | Some files were copied. Some files were mismatched. No failure was encountered. |
6 | Additional files and mismatched files exist. No files were copied and no failures were encountered. This means that the files already exist in the destination directory. |
7 | Files were copied, a file mismatch was present, and additional files were present. |
8 | Several files did not copy. |
Copy Locked Files With Robocopy Using B Parameters
Note
Copy Locked Files With Robocopy
Any value greater than 8 indicates that there was at least one failure during the copy operation.