Robocopy

I use Robocopy sometimes, but not reguarly. So i have to look up the syntax everytime.
Below there are some examples (for now just one :D)

robocopy G:\ F:\ /mir /r:1 /w:1 /tee /log:D:\backup151115.txt

Robocopy Reference

The content below is a cleaned up copy from a MSDN article¹ for my notebook

Robocopy Syntax

ROBOCOPY <source> <destination> [file…] [options]

<source> Source Directory (local or network path)

<destination> Destination Directory (local or network path) and 

[file…] Specifies the file or files to be copied. You can use wildcard characters (* or ?), if you want. If the File parameter is not specified, *.* is used as the default value.

 **Skip to the end of this document for more information on Robocopy
Options and Switches .

Examples of Microsoft's Robocopy Syntax

Simple copy

To copy contents of C:\UserFolder to C:\FolderBackup:

Robocopy C:\UserFolder C:\FolderBackup

This is the simplest usage for Robocopy

Copy all content including empty directory

To copy all contents including empty directories of SourceFolder to
DestinationFolder:

Robocopy C:\SourceDir C:\DestDir /E

List only

List only files larger than 32 MBytes(33553332 bytes) in size.

Robocopy.exe c:\sourceFolder d:\targetfolder /min:33553332 /l

Note: /l - will list files matching the criteria. if /l is omitted,
files matching the criteria will be copied to the taget location

Move files over 14 days old

Move files over 14 days old (note the MOVE option will fail if any files
are open and locked).

ROBOCOPY C:\\SourceFoldern D:\\DestinationFolder /move /minage:14

Similarly you could use the below switches

• /maxage: <N> Specifies the maximum file age (to exclude files
  older than N days or date).
• /minage: <N>  Specifies the minimum file age (exclude files
  newer than N days or date).
• /maxlad: <N> Specifies the maximum last access date (excludes
  files unused since N).
• /minlad: <N> Specifies the minimum last access date (excludes
  files used since N) If N is less than 1900, N specifies the number
  of days. Otherwise, N specifies a date in the format YYYYMMDD

Mirror a directory with subfolders incl. empty directories

/MIR is an option to ROBOCOPY where you mirror a directory tree with all
the subfolders including the empty directories and you purge files and folders on the destination server that no longer exists in source.

ROBOCOPY \\sourceserver\share \\destinationserver\share /MIR

Or

ROBOCOPY source-drive:\DIR destination-drive:\DIR /MIR

Mirror directories

The following command will mirror the directories using Robocopy:

Robocopy \\SourceServer\Share \\DestinationServer\Share /MIR /FFT /Z /XA:H /W:5

Explanation of the switches used:

• /MIR specifies that Robocopy should mirror the source directory and
  the destination directory. Note that this will delete files at the
  destination if they were deleted at the source.
• /FFT uses fat file timing instead of NTFS. This means the
  granularity is a bit less precise. For across-network share
  operations this seems to be much more reliable - just don't rely on
  the file timings to be completely precise to the second.
• /Z ensures Robocopy can resume the transfer of a large file in
  mid-file instead of restarting.
• /XA:H makes Robocopy ignore hidden files, usually these will be
  system files that we're not interested in.
• /W:5 reduces the wait time between failures to 5 seconds instead of
  the 30 second default.

Copy all changes

Use Robocopy to copy all changes to files in a directory called c:\data
to a directory that contains the date, like data_20091124.  Create a
batch file as follows.

@echo off
set day=%date:~0,2%
set month=%date:~3,2%
set year=%date:~6,4%
Robocopy "c:\data" "c:\backup\data\%day%-%month%-%year%\" /MAXAGE:1

Mirror directory excl. deletion

To mirror the directory "C:\directory" to "\\server2\directory"
excluding \\server2\directory\dir2" from being deleted (since it
isn't present in C:\directory) use the following command:

Robocopy "C:\Folder" "\\Machine2\Folder" /MIR /XD  \\server2\ directory\dir2"

Robocopy can be setup as a simply Scheduled Task that runs daily,
hourly, weekly etc. Note that Robocopy also contains a switch that will
make Robocopy monitor the source for changes and invoke synchronization
each time a configurable number of changes has been made. This may work
in your scenario, but be aware that Robocopy will not just copy the changes, it will scan the complete
directory structure just like a normal mirroring procedure. If there are
a lot of files & directories, this may hamper performance.

Copy permissions only

You have copied the contents from source to destination but now you made
changes to the Security permissions at source. You wanted to copy only
the permission changes and not data.

ROBOCOPY <Source> <Target> /E /Copy:S /IS /IT 

Copy option have the following flags to use:

• D Data
• A Attributes
• T Time stamps
• S NTFS access control list (ACL)
• O Owner information
• U Auditing information

The default value for CopyFlags is DAT (data, attributes, and time
stamps).

• /IS - Includes the same files.
• /IT - Includes "tweaked" files.

Sidenote: ROBOCOPY c:\sourcefolder d:\targetfolder /zb /sec /e
/nocopy may give you similar results but useful ONLY when more
permissions are added. it will not consider or update the target for
permissions removed at the source.

See How to Copy Files Multi-Threaded with Robocopy in Windows 7²

Robocopy, short for Robust File Copy, is a command-line directory
replication and file copy command utility that was first made available
as feature in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, although it has
been available as part of Windows Resources Kit. In Windows 7 and
Windows Server 2008, Robocopy utility is further enhanced with ability
to multi-threaded copy operation feature.

Multi-threaded support allows Robocopy to open multiple threads
simultaneously, allowing many files to be copied in parallel. With
multi-threaded copying, total time required to complete the operation
will be drastically reduced and cut, when comparing with with typical
copying one file at time in serial sequential order.

As Robocopy is generally a command-line only utility (although a GUI
add-on is available for Robocopy), the new multi-threaded operation
capability has to be called via a new switch supported by Robocopy. The
new multi-threaded copy feature can be enabled and turned on with the
following parameter:

/MT[:n]

Where n will instruct Robocopy to do multi-threaded copies with n
threads (default 8). The value of n must be at least 1 and not greater
than 128 (between 1 to 128), with 1 as single thread. In fact, Robocopy
will copy files and folders in multi-threaded operation by default, with
8 threads in one go. Note that /MT[:n] switch is not compatible with
the /IPG and /EFSRAW operations.

For example,

Robocopy C:\Folder1 C:\Folder2 /MT:32

Copy directory tree with timestamps

To copy a directory tree along with the source timestamps for folders

Robocopy C:\Folder1 C:\Folder2 /MIR /dcopy:T

Copy with bandwidth limitation

To copy a directory using /IPG to limit bandwidth usage. General rule of
thumb /IPG:750 will use roughly 1Mbps.

Robocopy /ipg:750 /z /r:3 /w:3 /tee /LOG+:c:\robolog.txt //server1/share //server2/share

Copy without bandwidth limitation

To copy a directory without bandwidth limitation and logging with bytes
level and ETA.

Robocopy /J /tee /LOG+:c:\robolog.txt /ETA /BYTES //server1/share //server2/share

More Information

TechNet

Robocopy Options and Switches³

Robocopy Copy Options

/copy:<CopyFlags>

Specifies the file properties to be copied.

• D Data
• A Attributes
• T Time stamps
• S NTFS access control list (ACL)
• O Owner information
• U Auditing information.
• The default value for CopyFlags is DAT (data, attributes, and time stamps).

Important
When using the /SECFIX copy option, specify the type of security information you want to copy by also using one of these additional copy options:

• /COPYALL
• /COPY:O
• /COPY:S
• /COPY:U
• /SEC

File Selection Options

Retry Options 

Logging Options

Job Options