Copying Populated Folders Only

rkaczano · 06 Nov 2011

I want to copy a bunch of folders. Some are populated with subfolders, some are not. I cannot find a folder property that tells me whether the folder itself is populated without right clicking and going to properties and looking at the "Contains" property.

I want to be able to eyeball the folders that have subfolders and the ones that don't and then only copy the populated ones.

Is there a property that will tell me this?

P.S. I know I can then go to Folder Options and "Use checkboxes" to highlight the ones I want.

Thanks

Britton30 · 06 Nov 2011

Welcome to Seven forums.
There is no built-in folder option to see in a folder without opening it. You can get an idea though by hovering your cursor on folder. If this is what you mean?

Copying Populated Folders Only-props.png

click to enlarge

MilesAhead · 06 Nov 2011

According to the docs
xcopy /s only copies subdirectories that are not empty.
You'll have to try it to see how "empty" is defined. I believe it may copy if the directory contains another directory even if neither has any files. But you'd have to try and see.

at a command prompt enter

xcopy /?

to get all the switches. Also there are some Guis around to make using XCopy easier such as "the xcopy tool" xxcopy etc..

rkaczano · 06 Nov 2011

I should have been clearer. I actually want to CUT the populated folders not COPY them. I want to leave behind the empty ones.

Thanks

logicearth · 07 Nov 2011

robocopy...

Code:

> robocopy source_directory dest_directory /S /MOVE