Change Directory in Windows Batch Script
Change to Drive Letter
To change to a specific drive letter while the command prompt directory is using a different drive letter than the one you need to change to, simply use the /D
parameter with the CD command (e.g. CD /D <DriveLetter>:
) to change to a different drive letter before running proceeding commands.
Delims
You should omit using the delims="
in the FOR loop as that tells it that space is not a delimiter which is not what you want to prevent that cr/cr/lf
issue as per the LotPings comment.
-
FOR /?
delims=xxx - specifies a delimiter set. This replaces the default delimiter set of space and tab.
Since it states the default delimiter set of space and tab when you put delims="
just like that with the ending double quote after the equal sign ="
, that tells it there are no delimiters now.
Compact
Since Compact runs against files in the directory without specifying the path in an argument, if applicable, you can first CD /D <Letter>:
and then run Compact /C
to compact all files in a directory, or Compact /C /S
to compact all files and folders recursively in the directory.
Batch Script
for /f "skip=1" %%x in ('wmic logicaldisk get caption') do (
CD /D %%x
Compact /C /S
<Next or other command>
)
Note: The drive letter is listed in a
<letter>:
format e.g.H:
. SoCD /D H:
works just fine. You will obviously add the\
to the end of the iterated%%x
i.e.%%x\
if you need to append a path to use a full path (%%x\folder\path
) as a command argument e.g.dir %%x\folder\path
.
Further Resources
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Key /D : change the current DRIVE in addition to changing folder.
-
Key /C Compress the specified files. Directories will be marked so that files added afterward will be compressed. /S Perform the specified operation on files in the given directory and all subdirectories. Default "dir" is the current directory.
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Admin
Updated on September 18, 2022Comments
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Admin over 1 year
Based on some other answers I found, I can loop through available drive labels. However, I can't seem to change to that drive:
for /f "skip=1 delims=" %%x in ('wmic logicaldisk get caption') do ( %%x dir )
Which gives me:
PS C:\> .\something.bat C:\>for /F "skip=1 delims=" %x in ('wmic logicaldisk get caption') do ( %x dir ) C:\>( : dir ) The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect. Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is 9CE0-91A0 Directory of C:\ 07/14/2018 09:54 AM 1,586 compact-all.bat 06/25/2018 01:03 PM <JUNCTION> Documents and Settings [C:\Users] 07/14/2018 08:03 AM <DIR> Fraps 06/25/2018 01:07 PM <DIR> Intel 06/25/2018 02:18 PM <DIR> NVIDIA 04/11/2018 05:38 PM <DIR> PerfLogs 07/13/2018 08:32 AM <DIR> Program Files 07/13/2018 04:56 PM <DIR> Program Files (x86) 06/25/2018 02:12 PM <DIR> Python27 07/14/2018 12:26 PM 7,404 result.txt 07/14/2018 12:26 PM 83 something.bat 06/25/2018 01:08 PM <DIR> Users 06/30/2018 02:19 PM <DIR> Windows 3 File(s) 9,073 bytes 10 Dir(s) 84,364,111,872 bytes free C:\>( : dir ) The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect. Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is 9CE0-91A0 Directory of C:\ 07/14/2018 09:54 AM 1,586 compact-all.bat 06/25/2018 01:03 PM <JUNCTION> Documents and Settings [C:\Users] 07/14/2018 08:03 AM <DIR> Fraps 06/25/2018 01:07 PM <DIR> Intel 06/25/2018 02:18 PM <DIR> NVIDIA 04/11/2018 05:38 PM <DIR> PerfLogs 07/13/2018 08:32 AM <DIR> Program Files 07/13/2018 04:56 PM <DIR> Program Files (x86) 06/25/2018 02:12 PM <DIR> Python27 07/14/2018 12:26 PM 7,404 result.txt 07/14/2018 12:26 PM 83 something.bat 06/25/2018 01:08 PM <DIR> Users 06/30/2018 02:19 PM <DIR> Windows 3 File(s) 9,073 bytes 10 Dir(s) 84,364,111,872 bytes free C:\>( : dir ) The device is not ready. Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is 9CE0-91A0 Directory of C:\ 07/14/2018 09:54 AM 1,586 compact-all.bat 06/25/2018 01:03 PM <JUNCTION> Documents and Settings [C:\Users] 07/14/2018 08:03 AM <DIR> Fraps 06/25/2018 01:07 PM <DIR> Intel 06/25/2018 02:18 PM <DIR> NVIDIA 04/11/2018 05:38 PM <DIR> PerfLogs 07/13/2018 08:32 AM <DIR> Program Files 07/13/2018 04:56 PM <DIR> Program Files (x86) 06/25/2018 02:12 PM <DIR> Python27 07/14/2018 12:26 PM 7,404 result.txt 07/14/2018 12:26 PM 83 something.bat 06/25/2018 01:08 PM <DIR> Users 06/30/2018 02:19 PM <DIR> Windows 3 File(s) 9,073 bytes 10 Dir(s) 84,364,111,872 bytes free C:\>( dir ) Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is 9CE0-91A0 Directory of C:\ 07/14/2018 09:54 AM 1,586 compact-all.bat 06/25/2018 01:03 PM <JUNCTION> Documents and Settings [C:\Users] 07/14/2018 08:03 AM <DIR> Fraps 06/25/2018 01:07 PM <DIR> Intel 06/25/2018 02:18 PM <DIR> NVIDIA 04/11/2018 05:38 PM <DIR> PerfLogs 07/13/2018 08:32 AM <DIR> Program Files 07/13/2018 04:56 PM <DIR> Program Files (x86) 06/25/2018 02:12 PM <DIR> Python27 07/14/2018 12:26 PM 7,404 result.txt 07/14/2018 12:26 PM 83 something.bat 06/25/2018 01:08 PM <DIR> Users 06/30/2018 02:19 PM <DIR> Windows 3 File(s) 9,073 bytes 10 Dir(s) 84,364,111,872 bytes free PS C:\>
But what I want is it to go to drive c:, d:, etc. and run a command.
I know normally I could do something like
dir %%x
but I'm making a script to compress (compact) the contents of every drive, but it doesn't seem to take the parameter correctly as it doesn't go through all the files when I do:
compact d:
which only affect the root of d:
versus
d: compact
which affects every file and directory on d:
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LotPings almost 6 yearsFirst wmic output to console has a flaw supplying line endings cr/cr/lf instead of the usual cr/lf. This can be accounted for. 2nd compact without arguments shows the compression ratio of the current dir and it's files - and does nothing else. See
compact /?
or view ss64.com/nt/compact.html -
Admin over 5 yearsAll the "compact" statements (especially the 2nd one) are shortened for brevity. I do have a set of parameters to append to them.
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