Robocopy XP010 FAQ

Robocopy is one of my favorite and most frequently used Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit tools. The new version of the utility—Robocopy XP010—has added several features that I've recently been exploring. Based on reader questions that I've received about this new version, I've put together a list of FAQs that might serve as valuable instruction about Robocopy. Let's start with one that addresses migration concerns you might have about moving data onto Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices.

I'm migrating a large amount of data from a Windows 2000 Server system to a new NAS environment. I'm using Robocopy with switches I've used in the past for Windows-to-Windows migrations. However, my copy times don't seem to be improving with subsequent incremental copies. What am I doing wrong?

Typically, after you perform an initial Robocopy copy run of data, you should see copy times drop because you're copying only the changes that happened since the previous copy run. The amount of data turnover, including newly changed or deleted files and folders, will vary depending on your environment. . . .