Robocopy
Robocopy, or "Robust File Copy", is a command-line directory replication command. It has been available as part of the Windows Resource Kit starting with Windo...
What is Robocopy?
Robocopy, or "Robust File Copy", is a command-line directory replication command. It has been available as part of the Windows Resource Kit starting with Windows NT 4.0, and was introduced as a standard feature of Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008.
Robocopy is notable for capabilities above and beyond the built-in Windows copy and xcopy commands, including the following: • Ability to tolerate network interruptions and resume copying. • Ability to copy file data and attributes correctly, and to preserve original timestamps, as well as NTFS ACLs, owner information, and audit information using command line switches. • Ability to assert the Windows NT "backup right" so an administrator may copy an entire directory, including files denied readability to the administrator. • Persistence by default, with a programmable number of automatic retries if a file cannot be opened. • A "mirror" mode, which keeps trees in sync by optionally deleting files out of the destination that are no longer present in the source. • Ability to skip files that already appear in the destination folder with identical size and timestamp. • A continuously-updated command-line progress indicator. • Ability to copy file and folder names exceeding 256 characters without errors. • Multithreaded copying (Windows 7 only). • Return code on program termination for batch file usage.
Robocopy Screenshots
Robocopy Features
Robocopy information
Supported Languages
- English
Comments and Reviews
Tags
- File Copy
- Backup
- command-line-start
List containing Robocopy
Backup - Manage filesRecent user activities on Robocopy
Danilo_Venom added Robocopy as alternative(s) to Checksum Compare
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olfek liked Robocopy
We were using Robocopy for quite sometime. But it has many bugs such as it doesn't copy open/locked files. So we started using GS Rich Copy and have been quite happy so far
It actually is intended behavior not to copy open or locked files. Check this out what locking implies on a Windows system: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_locking - If the copy function (in this case part of a backup process) respects the status assigned to such files by the operating system itself, it would acknowledge that ignoring this may lead to many issues, as described in the Wiki document. It is a protection system, and when you override it, you should know what you are doing. I hope the other software takes that into account. But frankly spoken, the copy function never knows how the source files are being used, so I'm not sure how that software would. Their site says : " there always seems to be files in use". Well, that is because some are in use. As stated: if you know what you are doing ...
Reply written ago
use robocopy it is a best file copying softwere
How to fix “Cannot copy file. The Parameter Is Incorrect” error
Had a head-scratcher today whilst migrating some data from a 500GB External USB HDD to a new 1TB External USB HDD, both attached to a client server. Some of the data refused to copy across, throwing up a “Cannot copy file. The Parameter Is Incorrect Error” each time. Same error when the copy was attempted in DOS, RoboCopy or XCOPY. Upon investigation, each of the problematic files were 10GB+ in size – and suddenly the realization dawned – that the new external HDD was formatted as FAT32 and not NTFS, and thus suffered from FAT32’s 4GB file limit. A quick format to NTFS on the drive, and I was able to copy those large files across without issue. Obviously, I have become so used to working with large files nowadays that sometimes I forget things weren’t always this way!
As a choice on Windows, FAT32 has lost its reason to exist mainly because of file size limitations (as specified) but also because it can no longer format big mechanical drives, and in a few years it will also be unable to format big SSD's as well. That is, without limiting their intended storage volume. Technically, FAT32 is "safe" only on volumes up to 4G, which excludes any modern mechanical drive or SSD, and most of the USB sticks as they have 8 or 16 Gigs easily, these days. The only reason left to use FAT32 is because NTFS lacks compatibility with Linux and Apple.
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