XCOPY

Copy files and/or directory trees to another folder. XCOPY is similar to the COPY
command except that it has additional switches to specify both the source and
destination in detail.

Xcopy has been deprecated under Vista and Windows 2008, this means that while
still available now it might disappear in a future OS release. To ensure your scripts
are 'future proof' use other tools (such as Robocopy) instead of xcopy.

XCOPY is particularly useful when copying files from CDROM to a hard drive, as it
will automatically remove the read-only attribute.

Syntax
XCOPY source [destination] [options]

Key
source : Pathname for the file(s) to be copied
(accepts wildcards).

destination : Pathname for the new file(s).

[options] can be any combination of the following:

Source Options

/A Copy files with the archive attribute set (default=Y)

/M Copy files with the archive attribute set and

turn off the archive attribute, use this option
when making regular Backups (default=Y)

/H Copy hidden and system files and folders (default=N)

/D:mm-dd-yyyy
Copy files changed on or after the specified date.
If no date is given, copy only files whose
source date/time is newer than the destination time.

/U Copy only files that already exist in destination.

/S Copy folders and subfolders

/E Copy folders and subfolders, including Empty folders.

can be used to modify /T.

/EXCLUDE:file1[+file2][+file3]...
 The files can each contain one or more full or
partial pathnames to be excluded.
When any of these match any part of the absolute path
of a SOURCE file, then
that file will be excluded.
For example, specifying a string like \obj\ or .obj
will exclude
all files underneath the directory obj or all files
with the
.obj extension respectively.

Copy Options

/W Prompt you to press a key before starting to copy.

/P Prompt before creating each file.

/Y Suppress prompt to confirm overwriting a file.

can be preset in the COPYCMD env variable.
/-Y Prompt to confirm overwriting a file.

/V Verify that the new files were written correctly.

/C Continue copying even if an error occurs.

/I If in doubt always assume the destination is a folder

e.g. when the destination does not exist.

/B Copy the Symbolic link itself, not the target of the

file.

/G Allow the copying of encrypted files to a destination

that does not support encryption.

/J Copy using unbuffered I/O. Recommended for very large

files.

/Q Do not display file names while copying.

/F Display full source and destination file names while
copying.
/L List only - Display files that would be copied.

/Z Copy files in restartable mode. If the copy is

interrupted part way through,
it will restart if possible. (use on slow networks)

Destination Options

/R Overwrite read-only files.

/T Create folder structure, but do not copy files.

 Do not include empty folders or subfolders.
/T /E will include empty folders and subfolders.

/K Copy attributes. XCOPY will otherwise reset read-only

attributes.

/N If at all possible, use only a short filename (8.3)

when creating
a destination file. This can be necessary when
copying between disks
that are formatted differently e.g NTFS and VFAT, or
when archiving
data to an ISO9660 CDROM.

/O Copy file Ownership and ACL information.

/X Copy file audit settings (implies /O).

XCOPY will accept UNC pathnames.

To always overwrite destination files use the COPYCMD environment variable: SET
COPYCMD=/Y

When comparing Dates/Times the granularity (the finest increment of the timestamp)
is 2 seconds for a FAT volume and 0.1 microsecond for an NTFS volume.

Copy a single file

In most cases copying a single file is best done with the COPY command. When
copying a single file with XCOPY, there is no option to indicate if the destination is a
filename or a directory (with the filename defaulting to that of the source file).
In such cases XCOPY will prompt with a (locale specific) message like:
Does example.txt specify a file name
or directory name on the target
(F = file, D = directory)?

Insufficient Memory error

Attempting to XCOPY a source file that has a pathname longer than the Windows
maximum path length (254 characters) will result in a rather misleading 'Insufficient
Memory' error, the operation will then halt. This bug which has been around for over
10 years makes XCOPY a poor choice for any kind of backup script,
use ROBOCOPY instead.
Examples:

Copy a file:

echo F| XCOPY C:\utils\MyFile.txt D:\Backup\CopyFile.txt

Copy a folder:

XCOPY C:\utils D:\Backup\utils /i

Copy a folder including all subfolders.

XCOPY C:\utils\* D:\Backup\utils /s /i