Copy files with filter (XP)

Question

I have a huge folder (over 6GB) with multiple sub-folders that I want to copy onto an external hard drive, however I do not want it to copy any PDF, EXE or ZIP files across to save space.

Is there any software that will help me achieve this? I have looked at TeraCopy but this doesn't seem to have any filter mechanism on it.

I am using Windows XP (* sigh *).

*edit: found the xcopy command, will this do it? Can anyone help me with the syntax?

Answer 1

I think, xcopy can solve your problem. If you want to obtain information about some command using, try to run it with one of following command line key: /?, -h, --help, -help, -?. Xcopy is migrated to Windows from DOS world and knows about only '/?' switch.

See xcopy /?.

Piece of documentation:

 /EXCLUDE:file1[+file2][+file3]...
              Specifies a list of files containing strings.  Each string
              should be in a separate line in the files.  When any of the
              strings match any part of the absolute path of the file to be
              copied, that file will be excluded from being copied.  For
              example, specifying a string like \obj\ or .obj will exclude
              all files underneath the directory obj or all files with the
              .obj extension respectively.

Just put exclude patterns to some file and specify this file in command line. xcopy /I /E /EXCLUDE:c:\tmp\1.txt src_dir target_dir

In your case file c:\tmp\1.txt should contain these lines:

  .PDF
  .EXE
  .ZIP

Answer 2

Yes, you can exclude files with the built-in xcopy command. Type xcopy /? for usage information.

Another alternative is the free xxcopy utility.