Robocopy, short for “Robust File Copy”, is a powerful command-line utility in Windows that allows you to copy or move files from one location to another. It offers a plethora of useful features and switches, making it a favorite among IT professionals.
Syntax
ROBOCOPY source_folder destination_folder [file(s)_to_copy] [options]
Key
file(s)_to_copy : A list of files or a wildcard.
(defaults to copying *.*)
Source options
/S : Copy Subfolders
/E : Copy Subfolders, including Empty Subfolders.
/COPY:copyflag[s] : What to COPY (default is /COPY:DAT).
(copyflags : D=Data, A=Attributes, T=Timestamps).
(S=Security=NTFS ACLs, O=Owner info, U=aUditing info).
/COPYALL : Copy ALL file info (equivalent to /COPY:DATSOU).
/NOCOPY : Copy NO file info (useful with /PURGE).
/A : Copy only files with the Archive attribute set.
/M : like /A, but remove Archive attribute from source files.
/LEV:n : only copy the top n LEVels of the source tree.
/MAXAGE:n : MAXimum file AGE - exclude files older than n days/date.
/MINAGE:n : MINimum file AGE - exclude files newer than n days/date.
(If n < 1900 then n = no of days, else n = YYYYMMDD date).
/FFT : assume FAT File Times (2-second granularity).
/256 : turn off very long path (> 256 characters) support.
Copy options
/L : List only - don''t copy, timestamp or delete any files.
/MOV : MOVe files (delete from source after copying).
/MOVE : Move files and dirs (delete from source after copying).
/Z : copy files in restartable mode (survive network glitch).
/B : copy files in Backup mode.
/ZB : use restartable mode; if access denied use Backup mode.
/IPG:n : Inter-Packet Gap (ms), to free bandwidth on slow lines.
/R:n : number of Retries on failed copies - default is 1 million.
/W:n : Wait time between retries - default is 30 seconds.
/REG : Save /R:n and /W:n in the Registry as default settings.
/TBD : wait for sharenames To Be Defined (retry error 67).
Destination options
/A+:[R][A][S][H] : set file Attributes on destination files - add.
/A-:[R][A][S][H] : set file Attributes on destination files - remove.
/FAT : create destination files using 8.3 FAT file names only.
/CREATE : CREATE directory tree structure + zero-length files only.
/PURGE : delete dest files/folders that no longer exist in source.
/MIR : MIRror a directory tree - equivalent to /PURGE plus all subfolders (/E)
Logging options
/L : List only - don''t copy, timestamp or delete any files.
/NP : No Progress - don''t display % copied.
/LOG:file : output status to LOG file (overwrite existing log).
/LOG+:file : output status to LOG file (append to existing log).
/TS : include source file Time Stamps in the output.
/FP : include Full Pathname of files in the output.
/NS : No Size - don''t log file sizes.
/NC : No Class - don''t log file classes.
/NFL : No File List - don''t log file names.
/NDL : No Directory List - don''t log directory names.
/TEE : output to console window, as well as the log file.
/NJH : No Job Header.
/NJS : No Job Summary.
Repeated Copy Options
/MON:n : MONitor source; run again when more than n changes seen.
/MOT:m : MOnitor source; run again in m minutes Time, if changed.
/RH:hhmm-hhmm : Run Hours - times when new copies may be started.
/PF : check run hours on a Per File (not per pass) basis.
Job Options
/JOB:jobname : take parameters from the named JOB file.
/SAVE:jobname : SAVE parameters to the named job file
/QUIT : QUIT after processing command line (to view parameters).
/NOSD : NO Source Directory is specified.
/NODD : NO Destination Directory is specified.
/IF : Include the following Files.
Advanced options you''ll probably never use
/XO : eXclude Older - if destination file exists and is the same date
or newer than the source - don''t bother to overwrite it.
/XC | /XN : eXclude Changed | Newer files
/XX | /XL : eXclude eXtra | Lonely files and dirs.
An "extra" file is present in destination but not source,
excluding extras will delete from destination.
A "lonely" file is present in source but not destination
excluding lonely will prevent any new files being added to the destination.
/IS : Overwrite files even if they are already the same.
/XF file [file]... : eXclude Files matching given names/paths/wildcards.
/XD dirs [dirs]... : eXclude Directories matching given names/paths.
XF and XD can be used in combination e.g.
ROBOCOPY c:\source d:\dest /XF *.doc *.xls /XD c:\unwanted /S
/MAX:n : MAXimum file size - exclude files bigger than n bytes.
/MIN:n : MINimum file size - exclude files smaller than n bytes.
/IT : Include Tweaked files.
/XJ : eXclude Junction points. (normally included by default).
/MAXLAD:n : MAXimum Last Access Date - exclude files unused since n.
/MINLAD:n : MINimum Last Access Date - exclude files used since n.
(If n < 1900 then n = n days, else n = YYYYMMDD date).
/XA:[R][A][S][H] : eXclude files with any of the given Attributes
/IA:[R][A][S][H] : Include files with any of the given Attributes
/X : report all eXtra files, not just those selected & copied.
/V : produce Verbose output log, showing skipped files.
/ETA : show Estimated Time of Arrival of copied files.
Syntax on this page is for the XP and .Net Version of Robocopy (XP010)
The NT 4 and Windows 2000 resource kits include Robocopy 1.95 but I recommend you download the XP version which fixes a number of bugs – it runs fine on NT/2K.
Robocopy does not run on Windows 95, or NT 3.5. (RoboCopy is a Unicode application).
ROBOCOPY will accept UNC pathnames.
To run ROBOCOPY under a non-administrator account will require backup files privilege, to copy security information auditing privilege is also required, plus of course you need at least read access to the files and folders.
Examples:
:: Copy files from one server to another
ROBOCOPY \\Server1\reports \\Server2\backup *.doc /S /NP
:: List all files over 32 MBytes in size
ROBOCOPY C:\work /MAX:33554432 /L
:: Move files over 14 days old
ROBOCOPY C:\work C:\destination /move /minage:14
:: Note the MOVE option will fail if any files are open and locked.
:: The script below copies data from FileServ1 to FileServ2, the destination holds a full mirror (all files), when run regularly to synchronize the source and destination, robocopy will only copy those files that have changed (changed meaning different time stamp or different size.)
@ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL
SET _source=\\FileServ1\e$\users
SET _dest=\\FileServ2\e$\BackupUsers
SET _what=/COPYALL /B /SEC /MIR
:: /COPYALL :: COPY ALL file info
:: /B :: copy files in Backup mode.
:: /SEC :: copy files with SECurity
:: /MIR :: MIRror a directory tree
SET _options=/R:0 /W:0 /LOG:MyLogfile.txt /NFL /NDL
:: /R:n :: number of Retries
:: /W:n :: Wait time between retries
:: /LOG :: Output log file
:: /NFL :: No file logging
:: /NDL :: No dir logging
ROBOCOPY %_source% %_dest% %_what% %_options%
If either the source or desination are a “quoted long foldername” do not include a trailing backslash.
In Windows Vista Robocopy is set to become a standard built-in command.
By copying only the files that have changed, robocopy can be used to backup very large volumes.
To limit the network bandwidth used by robocopy, specify the Inter-Packet Gap parameter /IPG:n
This will send packets of 64 KB each followed by a delay of n Milliseconds.