What’s this robocopy stuff?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robocopy

Robocopy, or “Robust File Copy” as it calls itself, is a command-line file copying tool introduced as a standard feature of Windows Vista, but which beforehand has always been available with the Windows Resource Kit, free to licensed users of Windows. Robocopy is designed for reliable copy or mirroring of entire folders of any size ensuring all NTFS attributes and properties are copied (except security-related ones unless specifically requested), particularly over network connections that are subject to disruption or outages. Robocopy’s default settings are geared for this purpose, whereas other built-in utilities such as XCOPY require numerous command line switches in order to get this behavior. Copying of security information is supported, but isn’t default and requires an explicit /COPYALL switch.

Robocopy is an excellent tool for making sure that the files you want copied are copied as requested, for logging the copy, for copying security permissions. It’s basically the way to copy files between windows servers/desktops, and doesn’t require a lot of experience/expertise.

• Robocopy c:\temp d:

Copies the C:\temp folder to your D drive, there are options which you can set, they are both on the wikipedia url above or if you do robocopy/? in dos

Why would you do this?

• To copy data to a new volume
• Data consolidation
• Data cleansing/anti virus/defragmentation - robocopy to temporary area format the drive, and robocopy data back
• Sync data between locations
• Move data between locations