Writing a Batch File?

Money_Saver

My knowledge is limited but wanted to ask:

Am I correct in thinking that you can write a batch file to copy all my docs from my docs to an external hard drive with just a click of a shortcut on my desktop? I am running windows 7.

If so, how do I go about doing this...and It would be great if the command would request to overwrite and previous filess with the same name.

Many many thanks for your help.

asc99c

You just need to use xcopy, something like the following:

xcopy c:\documents and settings\username e:\backup /s/e/v/c/i/y

Just stick this line into a text file and call it backup.bat or similar.

I think on some versions of windows, Microsoft has now replaced xcopy with robocopy, so if xcopy doesn't work, try using robocopy instead. The flags at the end do the following;

/s = copy subdirectories
/e = copy empty subdirectories
/v = verify copied files
/c = continue on error
/i = assume destination is a directory
/y = suppress prompting for overwriting existing file

victor2

It can be done with a batch file if you have some sort of understanding of good old DOS. You'd have to be pre-windows days for that.;)
Basically you would use the xcopy command, something like:
xcopy source destination /S/Y

The /S switch tells it to include subdirectories and /Y tells it not to ask if overwriting existing files on the destination.
Your source and destination would be the main parent directory you are copying from or to.
You'd put that command into a text file with a .bat extension on your local drive and then create a shortcut to it on your desktop.

In all probability you'd want to be a lot more sophisticated than just that command alone offers, but it would be a start.

Col7777

I have an external drive and I just drag whatever from the C: hardrive over to the external.

fwor

Col7777 wrote: »

I have an external drive and I just drag whatever from the C: hardrive over to the external.

What happens when it encounters an existing file with the same name on the external drive?

Col7777

Change the name, it gives you that option.

Lokolo

Col7777 wrote: »

Change the name, it gives you that option.

Yes but that requires user interaction. Whereas in a batch file you can ignore any errors and it will continue. So if you had 500GB of files, which would require a number of hours. You could run the batch file and go make dinner

debitcardmayhem

Or you could use Microsoft Sync Toy .

Col7777

You could make a folder on the external drive with the date then drag all that days files over to it, then the next time do another folder this may also make it easier to find a file plus you know when you did it for future reference.

GeoffX

You might like to have a look at AutoIt. It's free and allows you to create scripts that have a far greater range of functionality than Windows' own scripting.

Money_Saver

asc99c wrote: »

You just need to use xcopy, something like the following:

xcopy c:\documents and settings\username e:\backup /s/e/v/c/i/y

Just stick this line into a text file and call it backup.bat or similar.

I think on some versions of windows, Microsoft has now replaced xcopy with robocopy, so if xcopy doesn't work, try using robocopy instead. The flags at the end do the following;

/s = copy subdirectories
/e = copy empty subdirectories
/v = verify copied files
/c = continue on error
/i = assume destination is a directory
/y = suppress prompting for overwriting existing file

YAY!!! It worked! thanks so much!