Robocopy FAQ

I used Robocopy to copy some data to an area, then used Robocopy to copy data from an older area to fill in the gaps in the folder structure. A number of earlier files overwrote their later versions with the same filename. What happened?

By default, Robocopy lets an earlier file overwrite its later version. Be sure to use the /XO (excludes older files) option if you want to prevent later files from being overwritten.

Our management team wants me to divide a folder structure and move it to 50 servers and folder locations. Do I need to write a separate script for each of these 50 moves?

Writing a separate script for each folder would not only be time-consuming but would probably result in typos or other path errors that could cause a copy operation to fail or destroy some data. The RobocopyFromList.bat script that Listing 1 shows lets you use a comma-separated value (CSV) input file that contains the source and destination paths. Just copy or enter the source and destination locations into the file with one source and destination per line. Separate the source and destination with a comma, and put a comma after the destination. Figure 1 shows a sample input file.

Is there any way that Robocopy could destroy data? . . .