Copy all files and folders from one HDD to another HDD using Robocopy?

[riahc3]

In my curious ways :p Im wondering how to make a exact copy of all files and folders from one drive to another.

Ive found (S:/ is Source and D:/ is Destination)

robocopy S:/ D:/ /MIR

But there are sys files it doesn't copy over.

How can I make a "dd" out of robocopy?

[Radium]

  On 16/04/2014 at 18:32, riahc3 said:

In my curious ways :p Im wondering how to make a exact copy of all files and folders from one drive to another.

Ive found (S:/ is Source and D:/ is Destination)

robocopy S:/ D:/ /MIR

But there are sys files it doesn't copy over.

How can I make a "dd" out of robocopy?

 

 

Have you tried XCOPY that ships with all versions of Windows?

[Top Qat]

Maybe it's not copying files marked as hidden or system. Try adding /IA:HRSA

 

What do you mean by 'dd'?

[riahc3]

  On 16/04/2014 at 18:35, Radium said:

Have you tried XCOPY that ships with all versions of Windows?

Whats the difference between it and robocopy?

[Top Qat]

Are you trying to make an exact copy? You need to clone disk-disk if that's what you need.

[Radium]

  On 16/04/2014 at 18:45, riahc3 said:

Whats the difference between it and robocopy?

XCOPY is a core EXE of the OS and it can copy anything that you're allowed to read. All you need to do is run the command prompt as administrator.

 

Using XCOPY and then manually reconstruct a boot environment is better than to rely on some random 3rd part app.

XCOPY is good for anything that you want to copy.

[sc302 Veteran]

system files won't copy over even with the copy command.  Mir = /e + /purge

/E :: copy subdirectories, including Empty ones.

/PURGE :: delete dest files/dirs that no longer exist in source.
/MIR :: MIRror a directory tree (equivalent to /E plus /PURGE).

 

robocopy /?

will give you all of the commands.

 

I would do this

robocopy s: d: /E /MT:20 /V /ETA /LOG:c:\users\userid\desktop\robocopy.txt

 

This way it will do a multithreaded copy (copying 20 files at a time vs 1 at a time), and give you a log of what it misses or errors on, if you want to purge the files that are no longer on the source then by all means do the MIR.  After you have found the files with the system attribute in the log you can create a batch file rather quickly to remove the system attribute on those files and run the copy again.  Note that if a file is in use you cannot copy it in this method, usually system files are in use like the explorer.exe.  Keep in mind that hidden files/folders also will not be copied.

[+Eternal Tempest MVC]

xcopy /v /e /h /r (Source) (Target)

 

xcopy /v /e /h /r c:\*.* d:\*.*  - for example would copy the entire c drive to a d drive.

 

/v - verification

/e - folder's including empty one's

/h - hidden / system files

/r - read only files

 

More Information on switches

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc771254.aspx

[+BudMan MVC]

What system files are you trying to copy? Are you trying to copy a OS drive/dir or data dir? What exactly are you trying to accomplish, robocopy is great for doing a mirror of data structure - but not sure I would use it as a means of trying to copy over or backup a OS directory structure like windows or program files, etc.

[riahc3]

  On 16/04/2014 at 19:39, sc302 said:

system files won't copy over even with the copy command.  Mir = /e + /purge

/E :: copy subdirectories, including Empty ones.

/PURGE :: delete dest files/dirs that no longer exist in source.

/MIR :: MIRror a directory tree (equivalent to /E plus /PURGE).

 

robocopy /?

will give you all of the commands.

 

I would do this

robocopy s: d: /E /MT:20 /V /ETA /LOG:c:\users\userid\desktop\robocopy.txt

 

This way it will do a multithreaded copy (copying 20 files at a time vs 1 at a time), and give you a log of what it misses or errors on, if you want to purge the files that are no longer on the source then by all means do the MIR.  After you have found the files with the system attribute in the log you can create a batch file rather quickly to remove the system attribute on those files and run the copy again.  Note that if a file is in use you cannot copy it in this method, usually system files are in use like the explorer.exe.  Keep in mind that hidden files/folders also will not be copied.

Sadly I went ahead and did it with mir but missed the multithreaded switch.

[riahc3]

  On 16/04/2014 at 19:39, sc302 said:

system files won't copy over even with the copy command.  Mir = /e + /purge

/E :: copy subdirectories, including Empty ones.

/PURGE :: delete dest files/dirs that no longer exist in source.

/MIR :: MIRror a directory tree (equivalent to /E plus /PURGE).

 

robocopy /?

will give you all of the commands.

 

I would do this

robocopy s: d: /E /MT:20 /V /ETA /LOG:c:\users\userid\desktop\robocopy.txt

 

This way it will do a multithreaded copy (copying 20 files at a time vs 1 at a time), and give you a log of what it misses or errors on, if you want to purge the files that are no longer on the source then by all means do the MIR.  After you have found the files with the system attribute in the log you can create a batch file rather quickly to remove the system attribute on those files and run the copy again.  Note that if a file is in use you cannot copy it in this method, usually system files are in use like the explorer.exe.  Keep in mind that hidden files/folders also will not be copied.

BTW, this gives no visual output; Just says:

"Log File : C:\robocopy.txt"

% and times would be nice IMO.

[+BudMan MVC]

What do you think /ETA is? But your putting it in the log, if you want log and console use

 

/TEE :: output to console window, as well as the log file.

 

I personally would not put /ETA in the log - its makes it hard to read..  lots of this

 

 0%  
  3%  
 25%  
 28%  
 35%  
 42%  
 50%  
 53%  
 57%  
 64%  
 71%  
 75%  
 89%  
 92%  
100%  
100%

 

But if you want log and console /TEE is what you want - just add it at the end of the command

[sc302 Veteran]

Open the log file as it is copying. You will have to close and open to refresh.

[sc302 Veteran]

Another option is richcopy. Downloadable from technet. It is rather old but it was the gui answer to robocopy.

[+BudMan MVC]

  On 21/04/2014 at 13:04, sc302 said:

Open the log file as it is copying. You will have to close and open to refresh.

Or just use tail, here is windows version

http://tailforwin32.sourceforge.net/

[riahc3]

Is it me or is robocopy WAY slower when doing a drive to network mapped drive copy?

[sc302 Veteran]

Usually when I use the mt switch my copies are very fast seeing the network card at near 100% utilization in task manager