1

Hi,

I am trying to use robocopy to clean up some old file shares. The problem is that some of the data is already present on the destination.

When I run robocopy.exe . /MOVE /E it moves and deletes new files OK. But if there are files that already exist in the destionation it skips them, and leaves them on the source.

I could force it to move all files, but that would mean copying files that already exist, and is a waste of bandwidth and time.

Does anyone know of any switches I can use to make sure that all files are removed from the source when robocopy if finished, without copying everything again?

Best regards,

Muttley

4 Spice ups
2

If the files that are skipped are ONLY skipped because they are present in the destination why can’t you just delete the directory (or delete all the contents) after running the robocopy command?

Also . is the default and is unnecessary to type out in the command. You can just do the following:

robocopy.exe <source> <destination> /MOVE /E
2 Spice ups
3

Synctoy would work better here. Use the sync option and it will do it for you

4

You could also take a look at SyncBack Free . Also look into the other freeware items listed toward the bottom of the page.

5

Hi,

Thanks for tips. In the end I just ran the robocopy command and monitored the exit code.

If it completed with no errors, then I delete the folder.

I looked at FreeFileSync, but it only copies data, and doesn’t move it. I’ll have a look at SyncBack next time.

Muttley

6

"You can use the /IS and /IT Options on Robocopy to make sure it moved all files, not just the ones which are changed.

Also, you should always use * for your file copies, as there is always a chance you may have files without a file extension you need to copy.

Also, most time you want Directories to keep their time, as Files already keep their time, the default file copy is DAT so I suggest doing the same for directories using /DCopy:DAT

robocopy.exe "<source>" "<destination>" * /MOVE /E /IS /IT /DCopy:DAT
7

I tried /MOVE /IS /IT and /MOV /IS /IT - does not work - files are neither moved to the destination folder nor deleted in the source folder …