run robocopy bat to copy entire drive to another drive

Question

I'm trying to run a simple backup (mirror) of one entire drive (d:) to another drive (k:). I've created a .bat file ('backup.bat') defining the source (d:) and destination (k:) and placed this batch file within a folder on the d drive (d:\temp). When I double-click on the batch file it defines the source as d:\temp, instead of what I've defined it as in the batch file; d:.

Here is the text in the .bat file:

@echo off
echo To begin backing up data:
pause
robocopy "D:" "K:" /L /v                 
echo.
pause
exit

And this is what shows up when I double-click on the backup.bat

As you can see, source is defined as d:\temp. This is where the batch file is located, but in the batch file I defined it as D:. For some reason, the destination is defined correctly.

Any ideas?

-al

EDIT: If I add the '/' to the source and destination location, see code below, I see even more odd behavior (see screenshot). The source is now both the defined source and destination combined, w/ no destination.

@echo off

echo To begin backing up data:
pause

robocopy "D:\" "K:\" /L /v


echo.            
pause
exit

And, if I remove the "" from the source and destination....IT WORKs!

@echo off

echo To begin backing up data:
pause

robocopy D:\ K:\ /L /v
echo.            
pause
exit

Solution 1

with "D:" you are not specifying the root directory of the D drive (D:\) but the current directory of D instead, (D:\temp in your example).

To solve this problem, just add \ to the source spec (and while there, to the dest spec as well)

robocopy d:\ k:\ /L /v                 

Solution 2

Use the /E Option. Also check other necessary/useful params like /copyall /ZB or /DCOPY:DAT via /?.

Solution 3

/L options make a dry run, nothing actually copied.

From MS website: /l Specifies that files are to be listed only (and not copied, deleted, or time stamped).

here is sample of my test dry run before copying and entire disk:

      Total    Copied   Skipped  Mismatch    FAILED    Extras                                                                                                                                                                                                             Dirs :     63346     63346         2         0         0         0                                                                                                                                                                                                            Files :    719564    719564         0         0         0         0                                                                                                                                                                                                            Bytes :   4.039 t   4.039 t         0         0         0         0                                                                                                                                                                                                            Times :   0:27:58   0:00:00                       0:00:00   0:27:57                                                                                                                                                                                                            Ended : Monday, September 6, 2021 9:25:35 AM  

and here is my Notepad for making my command, (notice I simply remove the /L to actually copy):

for testing (dry run): robocopy Q: G: /L /E /COPYALL /R:20 /W:15 /MT /NP /A-:SH /Z /V /TEE /LOG+:VMRobCp.log

Real run: robocopy Q: G: /E /COPYALL /R:20 /W:15 /MT /NP /A-:SH /Z /V /TEE /LOG+:VMRobCp.log

Comments

[cherrytree]

I've tried that and it produces something even more odd. See my edits above.

[cherrytree]

@ PA. was correct, I not only needed to add the \, I also needed to remove the quotes. Thanks for the help.

[thenobes]

Fwiw, I recalled the reason for using a space following an ending slash, when within a quote. It seems that if you leave out the space, robocopy doesn’t see that there is a path that ends in a slash, and so assumes that you entered a file name.

[Patrick Burwell]

Why not just use the /MIR?