Mark Rogers

I hadn’t been tasked with Windows PC file clean ups in a while. It is not a job that I typically love. But a reintroduction to the glories of xcopy made it so much more bearable.

Need to copy some files from one directory to another, including subdirectories?

xcopy <source directory> <target directory> /s

Want to copy only files created or modified after a certain date?

xcopy <source directory> <target directory> /s /d /d:mm-dd-yyyy

Actually, <target directory> is optional in this command. The current directory will be used as the target directory if one is not specified.

You may want to see what files will be copied before performing the copy operation. To do that, just add a /l switch.

xcopy <source directory> <target directory> /s /d /d:mm-dd-yyyy /l

Very handy, and particularly useful for the faint of heart.

These commands could also be used to perform rudimentary file system backups. No extra software required. Just plug in your external drive and xcopy away. There are even switches available to handle encrypted file systems.

The process can be automated through the use of batch files and the built-in Task Scheduler (taskschd.msc) software in Windows. Again, no extra software required.

Target Audience: Windows 7 Users