Copying Data from External Drive F to Drive E

ozdennisb · May 25, 2024

Will the following cmd successfully copy all Folders, subfolders and data files from an external drive F: into an external drive E:? The files are within Office Pro 2021 on a PC using Win11. The files include word documents, music, pics, some jpeg and some pdf files, etc., There are no movies or large complex files. I am unsure if there should be any space between E:\ and the first switch /copy all. The comment is:

ROBOCOPY F:\DATAPOST4FEB24 E:\ /COPYALL /E: /ZB /R:5 /W:5 E:\ROBOCOPY_LOG.TXT

If not then what corrections would be needed.

Being a bit of a dummy, I will be most grateful for any help given

Dennis B’

Toorak

Melbourne

Australia

antspants · May 25, 2024

ozdennisb said:
Toorak, Melbourne, Australia

Sorry for off-topic. I can’t answer that. But wanted to mention, I am an old Toorak lad. Had a house in Grange Rd in the 80’s when I was wild and playing/composing music. I miss it much.

Berton · May 25, 2024

I don't use the command line for it, just Select then drag and drop choosing Copy or Move from one USB drive to another but there is a caveat about an issue that many folders will have a desktop.ini file and it may not move automatically, always have to agree to a prompt as to what to do with the file/s. I do use the Registry tweak to give Copy to and Move to choices on the right-click menu.

Bree · May 25, 2024

ozdennisb said:
I am unsure if there should be any space between E:\ and the first switch /copy all....

ROBOCOPY F:\DATAPOST4FEB24 E:\ /COPYALL /E: /ZB /R:5 /W:5 E:\ROBOCOPY_LOG.TXT

I use RoboCopy quite often.

Yes, there should be a space. The first two parameters are the source and destination folders, next can be the file(s) to copy (if not present it defaults to *.* and will copy all) then there should be a space before any switches. Your /COPYALL switch does not mean 'copy all the files', it means copy all the file info for each file being copied.

If there are files in folders within your F:\DATAPOST4FEB24 and you want to copy those too then you would need to add the /S switch.
If you want a log to be sent to E:\ROBOCOPY_LOG.TXT then you need to use the /LOG switch: /LOG:E:\ROBOCOPY_LOG.TXT

Type ROBOCOPY /? for a full list and description of all the options.

cereberus · May 25, 2024

Just cut and paste everything using file explorer?

Bree · May 25, 2024

cereberus said:
Just cut and paste everything using file explorer?

One nice thing about using RoboCopy from the command line is that it gives a running 'percentage completed' for each file as it copies them. Also, the OP wouldn't be able to get a log of the files copied with cut-and-paste.

cereberus · May 25, 2024

Bree said:
One nice thing about using RoboCopy from the command line is that it gives a running 'percentage completed' for each file as it copies them.

Sure - I actually have a robocopy gui that runs robocopy - not logged into pc to remember its name but dead easy to use and no need to remember all the command line syntax. I will dig it out later.

Also, robocopy is usually much faster with the MT (multithread) parameter specified.

TBH when copying complete drives, I find cloning with an imaging tool is about as fast as I ever meet with robocopy. Imaging uses sector copying rather than file copying which is usually more efficient.

Scott · May 25, 2024

cereberus said:
I actually have a robocopy gui that runs robocopy

ChoEazyCopy?

Release v2.0.0.1 · Cinchoo/ChoEazyCopy

ENCH: /MT:0 Should be Default otherwise Robocopy.exe Logging fails #45 Required: .NET Framework 4.7.2

github.com

Bree · May 25, 2024

cereberus said:
- I actually have a robocopy gui that runs robocopy ... . I will dig it out later.

Scott said:
ChoEazyCopy?

I think cereberus may be referring to Microsoft Robocopy GUI, a free tool from Microsoft that has long since removed it from theirs servers. But it can still be downloaded from this TechNet article archived in the Wayback Machine.

web.archive.org | Utility Spotlight: Robocopy GUI -- TechNet Magazine, November 2006

It requires .NET 2.0, so you'll need to enable that in Windows Features...

... then it will install and run in Windows 11.

ozdennisb · May 27, 2024

THANKYOU Bree,, AntsPants, Cerberus, Scott & Berton
An array of opinions always helps. For the record, if anyone else has this Question, I respond. The need is to copy from one external Drive to another. i.e ,not merely to copy between USB sticks.. The folder arrangement must be spot one.
As far as I understand it, a cmd is a rudimentary command within the Windows environment and should be less prone to error than an instruction through an app, whether GUI or not. It also seems to me that once having successfully executed the robocopy command it can be copied and then used again without the need to rethink or rewrite it. I hope that I have got that right!
I shall write a further comment when I have copied folders, folders etc. to advise the success rate . This hopefully will be 100% due to advice from some kind IT geniuses.
Ps allow one last word. Since the learned AntsPants once lived in the next Toorak street from my petit mansion, he should have no problem finding his way here next time in Melbourne ... come anytime and bring friends Coffee is on the house.
DennisB

antspants · May 27, 2024

ozdennisb said:
come anytime and bring friends Coffee is on the house.

All my Melbourne friends (especially Toorak friends) are Bohemians. They may never leave.

Winuser · May 27, 2024

cereberus said:
Just cut and paste everything using file explorer?

Copy and paste is much safer then cut and paste. If something goes wrong with the transfer the original files are still there.

Winuser · May 27, 2024

Bree said:
I think cereberus may be referring to Microsoft Robocopy GUI, a free tool from Microsoft that has long since removed it from theirs servers. But it can still be downloaded from this TechNet article archived in the Wayback Machine.

web.archive.org | Utility Spotlight: Robocopy GUI -- TechNet Magazine, November 2006

The Link isn't working. I keep getting a 503 Service Unavailable error

Bree · May 27, 2024

Winuser said:
The Link isn't working. I keep getting a 503 Service Unavailable error

It worked when I posted it. Looks like the whole of the Wayback Machine is down for now.....

Internet Archive down? Check here and read user reports. - DownFor

Internet Archive won't load? Or getting an error? Check the real-time status and see what other Internet Archive users are reporting.

downforeveryoneorjustme.com

archfoto · May 27, 2024

I guess I'll add my 2-cent's worth. I have swapped out a number of drives for drives with more capacity. I just recently swapped out a 6TB Seagate drive to a 14TB drive Seagate drive. I first made sure that the new drive was reformatted to NTFS using Quick Format. I once made the mistake of copying to a new drive that had the Seagate original formatting to work with both a Mac and a PC. One day, my PC stopped recognizing that drive. I tried formatting this HD to NTFS. It has been running ever since.
Then I just copied and pasted from the old drive to the new one via USB and File Explorer. It took many hours, but I retired the 6TB drive, and am now using the 14TB drive!
I agree with Winuser, copy and paste is safer!

Bree · May 27, 2024

ozdennisb said:
The need is to copy from one external Drive to another. i.e ,not merely to copy between USB sticks.. The folder arrangement must be spot one.

Yes, that's exactly what I use RoboCopy for.

Every Patch Tuesday I make Macrium Reflect system images of all my machines. I have three external usb HDD's to store these images (lets call them A, B, and C) with a folder for each machine. When imaging I save to whichever drive is available, but I want to end up with all images on all drives.

To ensure they all have a complete set of images I RoboCopy with all possible permutations of 'from' and 'to': A>B, A>C, B>A, B>C, C>A, and C>B. I have the commands saved, so I can just recall them and run them each month.

cereberus · May 27, 2024

Bree said:
I think cereberus may be referring to Microsoft Robocopy GUI, a free tool from Microsoft that has long since removed it from theirs servers. But it can still be downloaded from this TechNet article archived in the Wayback Machine.

web.archive.org | Utility Spotlight: Robocopy GUI -- TechNet Magazine, November 2006

It requires .NET 2.0, so you'll need to enable that in Windows Features...

View attachment 97306

... then it will install and run in Windows 11.

View attachment 97307

Actually choeazycopy.

cereberus · May 27, 2024

antspants said:
All my Melbourne friends (especially Toorak friends) are Bohemians. They may never leave.

Hotel California?

Winuser · May 27, 2024

Bree said:
It worked when I posted it. Looks like the whole of the Wayback Machine is down for now.....

The site is working again. I just finished downloading Robocopy GUI.

Berton · May 27, 2024

archfoto said:
I guess I'll add my 2-cent's worth. I have swapped out a number of drives for drives with more capacity. I just recently swapped out a 6TB Seagate drive to a 14TB drive Seagate drive. I first made sure that the new drive was reformatted to NTFS using Quick Format. I once made the mistake of copying to a new drive that had the Seagate original formatting to work with both a Mac and a PC. One day, my PC stopped recognizing that drive. I tried formatting this HD to NTFS. It has been running ever since.
Then I just copied and pasted from the old drive to the new one via USB and File Explorer. It took many hours, but I retired the 6TB drive, and am now using the 14TB drive!
I agree with Winuser, copy and paste is safer!

I did the same formatting change with 2 x 4TB WD USB drives where the package was marked for PC and Mac, originally were exFAT. I no longer have a Mac OS X so didn't need exFAT and Mac could usually read but not write NTFS without an added program, don't know about the newer macOS version.