Batch File Copy and Move Without Overwriting in Windows

batchwindows

I'm trying to create a batch file (to run in the background) that will copy a single file without overwriting any file in the destination with the same name, and then move the file, again not overwriting if there is a file in the destination with the same name?

I'm using this at the moment, but it is overwriting.

copy %1 dest
move %1 dest

Best Answer

Please try this. It works for a single file.

echo N | copy /-Y file1 file2

echo N | move /-Y file1 file2

Interestingly, it seems to work with wildcards as well. I tested that on x64 Windows 7.

Related Solutions

Windows – Batch file to copy folder structure

Try:

XCopy "src" "dest" /T

Just make sure it's not cyclical.

To include empty directories, add /E:

XCopy "src" "dest" /T /E

Windows – copy file to multiple folders via batch script

You can use the advanced version of the for command available from Windows NT 4 onwards:

You need something like this in a batch file:

for /D %%f in ("%1\*") do copy "%2" "%%f\"

The batch file works as follows:

The first argument is the destination directory
The second argument is the file to be copied

The for command with the /D switch iterates over all directories in a given path (here: %1) and invokes a command on each iteration. Said command is the copy operation which copies the file into every directory.

Of course, since the batch file is only a single line you can also execute it directly on the command line. Just note that the variable for for has only a single %, then.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Windows – Batch file to copy folder structure

Windows – copy file to multiple folders via batch script

Related Question