XCOPY only files from a parent folder and from all its subforlders to a new folder in Windows?

Question

I was searching a lot of times how to copy all the files of different extensions from a folder and all its subfolders to a new folder without copying the folders itself using Batch File. I mean ONLY FILES.

I have a very massive(nested) directory structure I mean folder inside folders. I tried Robocopy but it didn't work. Then I found a code having XCOPY. I also tried C# but it takes too much time to complete.

If you have any other suggestion please recommend here.

Answer 1

I would go with PowerShell if you're on anything resembling a modern Windows sytem. The simplest version of what you're asking:

$source = 'C:\Users\source'
$dest   = 'C:\Users\destination'
$filter = '*.txt'

Get-ChildItem $Source $filter -recurse | Copy-Item -Destination $dest

To filter items by date, you pipe the results of Get-ChildItem to Where-Object (aliases: Whereor?) before piping to Copy-Item.

$Cutoff = [DateTime]'3/1/20'
Get-ChildItem $Source $filter -recurse |
   Where CreationTime -gt $CutOff |
      Copy-Item -Destination $dest

The date-related properties of an IO.FileSystem object are:

• CreationTime
• LastAccessTime
• LastWriteTime

You can use any of the Comparison Operators.

For a recurring operation, you'll probably want to calculate the cutoff from the current date:

• Since Midnight: (Get-Date).Date
• Last 24 hours: (Get-Date).AddDays(-1)
• Midnight, day before (Get-Date).AddDays(-1).Date

Answer 2

Then I found a solution, and I think its very easy and fast then any other method.

@ECHO OFF

SET "source=C:\Users\source"
SET "dest=C:\Users\destination"
SET "FileList=*.txt"

SET "dupCnt=1"

FOR /R "%source%" %%A IN (%FileList%) DO (
    IF NOT EXIST "%dest%\%%~NXA" (
        XCOPY /F /Y "%%~FA" "%dest%\" && IF EXIST "%%~FA" /Q /F "%%~FA"
    ) ELSE (
        CALL :DupeRoutine "%%~FA" "%%~NA" "%%~XA"
        )
    )
GOTO :EOF

:DupeRoutine
IF EXIST "%dest%\%~2_(%dupCnt%)%~3" (
    SET /A dupCnt=%dupCnt%+1
    CALL :DupeRoutine "%~1" "%~2" "%~3"
) ELSE (
    IF NOT EXIST "%dest%\%~2_(%dupCnt%)%~3" ECHO F | XCOPY /Y /F "%~1" "%dest%\%~2_(%dupCnt%)%~3" /Q /F "%~1"
    SET "dupCnt=1" 
    )
GOTO :EOF

Here is another thing, if you want to copy files after a certain date then put date inside this query like this:

On line 11

XCOPY /D /D:06-05-2020 /F /Y "%%~FA" "%dest%\" && IF EXIST "%%~FA" /Q /F "%%~FA"

On line 23

IF NOT EXIST "%dest%\%~2_(%dupCnt%)%~3" ECHO F | XCOPY /D /D:06-05-2020 /Y /F "%~1" "%dest%\%~2_(%dupCnt%)%~3" /Q /F "%~1"

The date is in this format MM-DD-YYYY, also you can add other files extensions in FileList=