Robocopy

[Bob the Unbeliever]

So. Today, I needed to move a large number of big files (mp3s) from one laptop to another-- and silly me, I plugged a simple USBC cable between the two, as I would have with a phone or android... as Bugs Bunny quipped? "What a maroon. What an ignoranimus".... for a second there, I thought that would work... totally forgot the CARDINAL RULE:
NO PC MAY SPEAK WITH ANOTHER PC EXCEPT THROUGH A THIRD PARTY.

*sigh*

So, dig through my kit, find a suitable USB thumb drive... and it hit me... I already had most of the files on that particular drive already. I only needed the ones I'd modified, and added... "new or missing".

Drag and drop wasn't gonna cut it. I looked at the venerable XCOPY which has been baked into Windows since DOS 7 (and before). Nope. No "new or missing" switch. Off to the interwebs!

I checked to see if I had "XXCOPY", a utility, but alas, it doesn't work like it used to, without paying... no joy.

A search for XCOPY replacements? Reminded me that ROBOCOPY was built in to Windows since 7 (and possibly before). Some research and I remembered this was just what I needed...

Here's what I wrote elsewhere:

Robocopy. Built in to Win10. Better than xcopy-- no, really. A bit snippy on the switches, though. Put a space between each switch. You specify the source (in double-quotes) a space, the destination (also in double quotes) another space, the type of files (i.e. *.* -- can be in double quotes of there are spaces in the file spec), another space, your first switch (i.e. /MIR for mirror-- a better sync than sync) another space, your second switch, etc.

But. Robust File Copy (robocopy) is a better alternative to xcopy for only copying the newer files-- in fact, it's the only way to ensure just the newer files get copied over the older ones, if the names are identical. Drag and drop often fails at that task. Using Mirror? You also delete in the destination, any files that you had deleted in the source-- very useful for collections (i.e. music). Not useful, if you like to keep the old, discarded documents/photos. Other switches let you keep the old files.

In a command prompt (or an elevated command prompt):

robocopy /?

For a list of all the stuff. Or go:

robocopy /? >robocopy.txt

This will generate a "robocopy.txt" file with all the switches that you can open with NOTEPAD (or whatever) for printing, slapping up on your #2 screen, etc.

Try it out. It'll do anything XCOPY can do, only more robustly.

 

[Polymath257]

Damn, I'm glad I have Linux.... rsync

 

[sun rise]

robocopy is the way to go. I've used these switches

robocopy "source" "destination" /s /TS /V /256 /NP /LOG:robocopy.txt

 

[ChristineM]

So. Today, I needed to move a large number of big files (mp3s) from one laptop to another-- and silly me, I plugged a simple USBC cable between the two, as I would have with a phone or android... as Bugs Bunny quipped? "What a maroon. What an ignoranimus".... for a second there, I thought that would work... totally forgot the CARDINAL RULE:
NO PC MAY SPEAK WITH ANOTHER PC EXCEPT THROUGH A THIRD PARTY.

*sigh*

So, dig through my kit, find a suitable USB thumb drive... and it hit me... I already had most of the files on that particular drive already. I only needed the ones I'd modified, and added... "new or missing".

Drag and drop wasn't gonna cut it. I looked at the venerable XCOPY which has been baked into Windows since DOS 7 (and before). Nope. No "new or missing" switch. Off to the interwebs!

I checked to see if I had "XXCOPY", a utility, but alas, it doesn't work like it used to, without paying... no joy.

A search for XCOPY replacements? Reminded me that ROBOCOPY was built in to Windows since 7 (and possibly before). Some research and I remembered this was just what I needed...

Here's what I wrote elsewhere:

Robocopy. Built in to Win10. Better than xcopy-- no, really. A bit snippy on the switches, though. Put a space between each switch. You specify the source (in double-quotes) a space, the destination (also in double quotes) another space, the type of files (i.e. *.* -- can be in double quotes of there are spaces in the file spec), another space, your first switch (i.e. /MIR for mirror-- a better sync than sync) another space, your second switch, etc.

But. Robust File Copy (robocopy) is a better alternative to xcopy for only copying the newer files-- in fact, it's the only way to ensure just the newer files get copied over the older ones, if the names are identical. Drag and drop often fails at that task. Using Mirror? You also delete in the destination, any files that you had deleted in the source-- very useful for collections (i.e. music). Not useful, if you like to keep the old, discarded documents/photos. Other switches let you keep the old files.

In a command prompt (or an elevated command prompt):

robocopy /?

For a list of all the stuff. Or go:

robocopy /? >robocopy.txt

This will generate a "robocopy.txt" file with all the switches that you can open with NOTEPAD (or whatever) for printing, slapping up on your #2 screen, etc.

Try it out. It'll do anything XCOPY can do, only more robustly.

I use a xcopy batch file that runs at startup, it scans the C drive and compares the files to the files on the backup drive and copies any new and changed files/folders creating or overwritting the backup.

Ill send it to you tomorrow (in bed now) so you can look at the switches.

Takes about 10 minutes to run in the background and we have a fresh backup every day.

We used a similar but more elaborate version of the system at work that ran all the time using several backup drives some off site.

Never let us down.

 

[Polymath257]

"What a maroon. What an ignoranimus".... for a second there, I thought that would work... totally forgot the CARDINAL RULE:
NO PC MAY SPEAK WITH ANOTHER PC EXCEPT THROUGH A THIRD PARTY.

Cross-over cable, private subnet, rsync.

 

[Bob the Unbeliever]

Cross-over cable, private subnet, rsync.

Not in Windoze. But yeah.... I want to like Linux. Alas, I'm in my 60s now, and the learning curve is too steep... if only there were a manual? No? Yeah... I get it... elites like that mystique, and I'm too stubborn anyway.

I've forgotten more DOS commands than most folk today would even recognize as belonging to computers.

Had complex CONFIG.SYS files with menus (and timed defaults-- sometimes? You just want your 'normal' settings, so you put in the correct floppy, or you'd just power it on, go get coffee, and it's up and running when you get back...)

I don't miss those days of 8 or 10 different CONFIG.SYS settings, depending on what I needed to do, and an even more complex AUTOEXEC.BAT file to go with-- I eventually learned to branch out the .BAT files-- autoexec points to MAINMNU.BAT, running it, and go from there-- branching out to whichever .BAT file is next. Avoids recursive memory errors that way. Launching a new .BAT file starts a new memory process. Trying to keep the whole thing in one file? Can lead to corruption errors, or recursive memory issue(s).

Aaaaah.... DOS. Disk Operating System. A direct rip off of CPM....

No... I don't miss those days. Not even a little. It was *not* better...