How to copy files from folder tree dropping all the folders with Robocopy?

Question

I have the following folder structure:

FolderA
--Folder1
--Folder2
--Folder3
...
--Folder99

Folders 1 through 99 have files in them.

All I want to do is to copy ALL THE FILES into ONE FOLDER, basically do a FolderA copy, and wipe out Folders 1-99 keeping all the files.

I'd like to do it with Robocopy from cmd.exe if possible (Windows Server 2008)

you guys can move it to SU or SF, i don't want to delete it and waste a useful answer — roman m, Oct 01 '09 at 06:36

score 51 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 01 '09 at 06:21

51

Why use robocopy? It's a good tool for a specific task but this is not the one.

You can simply use what cmd already gives you:

for /r %f in (*) do @copy "%f" target

This will essentially "flatten" your directory hierarchy. for /r will walk a directory tree recursively, looking for file names matching the given pattern. You can also specify the directory to start in:

for /r FolderA %f in (*) do @copy "%f" target

Within the loop it's just a simply copy of the file into a specified folder.

answered Oct 01 '09 at 06:21

Joey

344,408
85
689
683

There are 2 solutions [here](http://mlichtenberg.wordpress.com/2011/01/25/command-line-fun-how-to-flatten-a-folder-hierarchy/) if you have files that don't have unique names. – Ehtesh Choudhury Sep 28 '12 at 21:54
Which option can be used when there are duplicates with the same name? – MostlyHarmless Jun 25 '14 at 12:36
1

@Martin: See `help copy`. It's `/y`. – Joey Jun 25 '14 at 22:15

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 01 '09 at 06:30

3

Robocopy is a great tool... when you have a job it can handle. Why not use xcopy?

If you have two drives you can just use xcopy:

XCOPY  C:\*.*  D:\NewFolder\   /S

Or use XXCOPY for one drive:

XXCOPY C:\*.*  C:\NewFolder\   /S /CCY

XXCOPY

edited Oct 01 '09 at 06:30

edosoft

17,121
25
77
111

answered Oct 01 '09 at 06:28

NitroxDM

5,039
10
44
56

user /SGF attribute to copy into one folder – Tony_Henrich Feb 11 '17 at 08:40
xcopy duplicates the directory structure. I think the question is about flattening the directory structure. – steve Mar 07 '19 at 15:24

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 05 '17 at 08:30

3

Get-ChildItem -Path source -Recurse -File | Move-Item -Destination dest

answered Oct 05 '17 at 08:30

Sid

4,905
1
17
17

How to copy files from folder tree dropping all the folders with Robocopy?

3 Answers3

Linked