Robocopy backup won't work

[KingNeil]

I tried to use the built-in Windows program called Robocopy to back up my files using the following command on the command line:

robocopy Documents J:\robocopy /e

This command works fine on my laptop

But it would not work on my desktop computer for some reason

It just shows the very command that I typed over and over again repeating the command over and over on a new line each time, and it doesn't copy the files. There is no explanation for why.

On the other hand, using Windows Backup / File History works just fine, but I don't want to use Windows Backup because I don't like the format that the files are saved in.

Why isn't Robocopy working? How do I solve this?

 

[Regedit32]

Hi KingNeil,

Welcome to the Forum.

Is the command you using throwing any error codes with wording stating unable to find file or directory?

A basic format for your command [ assuming you are attempting to copy files inside your Documents folder and any sub-folders within that would be something like:

robocopy %userprofile%\Documents E:\ /e

This if typed in full would be:

robocopy c:\users\regedit32\documents E:\ /e

Where you would replace regedit32 with your own Username.


Another thing you'll need to watch out for using your /e flag is that if any sub-folders that are empty will also be copied, and this will include junction folders like Cookies or Local Settings which being a junction folder are empty as they simply point to the true location of the files you'd expect to find in them. To avoid wasting time and disk space copying empty directories include the /x flag; for example:

robocopy %userprofile%\Documents E: /xe

Regards,

Regedit32