How to Use RoboCopy to Copy Files on Windows 11

The copy of the bulky files has always been problematic on my Windows 11 PC. Fortunately, I now use another integrated copy function called Robocopy for many file transfer tasks. Here’s how to use this robust copy tool on your computer.

What is Robocopy?

Robocopy is an integrated Windows 11 tool that allows you to copy files from one place to another. This is a command line tool, which means that you issue commands from tools such as the command prompt or PowerShell to transfer your files.

Robocopy offers much more features than the default copy function. With this tool, you can resume broken transfers, use multithread copy and even plan copying tasks.

How to use Robocopy to copy files

To use Robocopy, you can use the command prompt or PowerShell. I will show you how to use the first.

Access Windows Search (press Windows + S), type Command promptAnd launch the tool. In the CMD window, you will use the following syntax to copy files using Robocopy. Here, you will respectively replace the source and destination variables with the source and destination folder.

robocopy “Source” “Destination”

For example, if you wish to copy all files in folder D: \ Documents in folder E: \ Backups, you will use the following command:

robocopy “D:\Documents” “E:\Backups”

This is the basic way to copy files using Robocopy.

You can use several settings (options) with Robocopy

When copying files with Robocopy, you can use various settings to modify the operation of the tool. Here are some of the current settings you can use in your file copy tasks:

• / E: Copy all sub-folders, even gaps
• / Z: Active the reddemarable mode
• / MT: Activates multi-thread copy (faster file transfers)
• / Mir: Reflects the source directory, which means that it deletes the files from the destination folder that are not present in the source directory
• / XD: Exclude specified files
• / XF: Exclude specified files

Interesting examples of file transfers with Robocopy

You can use Robocopy in different ways to copy files from one place to another on your Windows 11 PC. As for me, I find that the following is very good examples of how you can use this tool on your computer.

When I want to save my documents, including empty sub-directories, I use the following command:

robocopy “D:\Documents” “E:\Backup\Documents” /E

When I want to copy photos from one file to another and delete all the photos of the destination file that are not in the source folder, I execute the following order. This ensures that the destination file has only the content of my source file.

robocopy “D:\Photos” “F:\Photos” /MIR

Sometimes I don’t want all the source directory files to be included in the copy task. I specify the file to be excluded as follows:

robocopy “D:\Work” “E:\Backup\Work” /E /XD “D:\Work\Temp”

Facilitate copy files with batch files

There are co-coffre commands that I do too often, and to open the command prompt and type these orders each time is a problem. I actually created several batch files that run my predefined robocopy commands with a double click.

If you want to do the same, launch the Windows search (press Windows + S), type NotepadAnd open the application. In a new document, type or stick your Robocopy order. Then, from the notebook menu bar, select File> Save as.

In the Save window in the form of the window, choose the folder to save your batch file (select Desktop for easy access). Click on the “save” type “drop-down menu and choose” all files “. Select the” file name “field and type a name for your file. Make sure the name ends with .bat, so it’s a batch file. Then click” Save “.

From now on, each time you want to run your Robocopy command, simply double-click on the batch file you have created.

Plan Robocopy’s copy tasks with batch files and a task planner

I execute a certain Robocopy command to save certain files to a certain calendar. I do it by planning my Robocopy lots files with the task planner.

If you want to do so, first create the batch file that contains the command you want to execute on a calendar. Then open the Windows search (press Windows + S), type Task plannerAnd launch the utility. In the right pane, click on “Create a task”.

In the general tab, select the “Name” field and type a name for your task. Access the “Triggers” tab and click “New”. In the open window, choose when and how often you want your Robocopy order to run. Then click on “OK”.

Access the “Actions” tab and click “New”. Select the “Browse” button and choose your batch file. Then click on “OK” and select “OK” again.

The task planner will now run your batch file on the specified date and time, automatically copying your files.

And that’s how I use this robust tool to copy files to my PC. More difficulties with the default copy function in Windows 11!