Solved How to copy folders using wildcards

[dsikirica]

i need to copy folders from one network drive to another drive each night. The structure of the folders are


10a
10b
10c
11a
11b
11c
12a
12b
12c

i only want to copy the folders starting with 12, there will be a random amount of folders created starting with 12 by the end of the year it could be up to 20 folders all starting with 12, i need to use a wildcard so i don't miss any of them. i would like to put the correct process in a batch file if possible but if not i can run each night manually

i can't seem to get this to work with copy , xcopy or robocopy

copy p:\client\12*. z:\clientbak\12*. /s this is an example of what i would like to do with whatever

copy program and with the correct syntax the above doesn't work with xcopy , copy or robocopy

 

[richnrockville]

Welcome Dsikirica to the windows 7 forum.
I suggest xcopy with the wildcard xcopy p:\client\12*.* z:\clientbak /s/i/m should copy the files you need
to the clientbak directory, creating the new directories if you wish.

Rich

 

[dsikirica]

thanks for replying: it said 0 files copied, it doesn't copy anything, i put a new file in one of the 12 folders to test it

 

[richnrockville]

Dsikirica, you are running the command prompt with administrators privs aren't you?

Rich

 

[dsikirica]

I know i had tried that, but it didn't seem to make a difference, so i tried it again making sure i was running it as administrator, it didn't work but it said invalid drive specification this time before 0 files copied

if i use dir instead of xcopy on the source it shows the folders just fine
if i use dir on the destination directory it shows that just fine also

not sure if that is a good test or not, but i didn't get an invalid drive specification

 

[richnrockville]

Dsikirica, copy and paste your exact batch command into a message, an invalid drive specification error might be because of misformed batch command.

Rich

 

[dsikirica]

xcopy p:\client\12*.* z:\clientbak\ /s /i /m

 

[Thorsen]

It might be because you are using a mapped drive. I would suggest trying on your c: drive to make sure the syntax works ok. copy from one location on C to another location on C, then try from P: to C: and then C: to Z:

You might see where the issue is occuring.

 

[dsikirica]

this is so frustrating, thanks for your help so far i really appreciate it

i copied the whole structure down to my c drive and tried to xcopy it to another local drvie G:

0 files copied

dir works with both ends of the xcopy command

maybe it's a windows 7 problem, i will try on an xp machine and let you know how that works, not sure that matters but worth a try

 

[SlashNetwork]

xcopy p:\client\12*.* z:\clientbak\ /e /i /m

 

[dsikirica]

that was close it copied the directory structure but it didn't copy any of the files inside the folders

 

[richnrockville]

dsikirica try

xcopy p:\client\12*.* z:\clientbak\ /e /i /s

The /m works only once until you reset the archive bit. Happens all the time when it fails the first
time. The archive bit gets set and the /m tells it that it already has been archived.

Rich

 

[dsikirica]

it copied all of the folders in the whole client directory, not just the ones that start with 12, it only copied 2 files under those folders, and they weren't the files in the 12*.* folders., is there anything you can think of that i need to do on my end different these are mapped drives and if it matters the folders are on two different servers, clients is on server x and clientbak is on server y

 

[strollin]

This is the closest I could get, try this in a batch file:

for /d %%a in (\client\12*) do xcopy "%%a" "z:\clientbak\%%a" /E /I

Use %a instead of %%a to run it from the command line.

This copies only the 12 folders & files BUT it copies them to clientbak\client. I wasn't able to get around that.

 

[dsikirica]

thanks so much, this works perfectly