DOS Copy

DOS Copy

An internal command for making duplicate disk files. The DOS Copy command is widely used in Windows by programmers and power users. The command format is:

               COPY  FROM  TO

COPY TO/FROM FLOPPIES

  copy a:*.* b:     all A files to B
  copy b:*.* a:     all B files to A
  copy b:sales a:   SALES file in B to A

COPY FROM FLOPPY TO CURRENT HARD DISK DIRECTORY

  copy a:sales      SALES file on A
  copy a:*.*        all A files

COPY FROM CURRENT HARD DISK DIRECTORY TO FLOPPY

  copy sales b:     SALES file to B
  copy *.* b:       all files to B
  copy . b:         shortcut of above

COPY FROM CURRENT DIRECTORY TO ANOTHER DIRECTORY

  copy filex \text copy FILEX to TEXT directory

  copy *.* \text   all files to TEXT directory
  copy . \text     shortcut of above

COPY FROM ANOTHER DIRECTORY INTO CURRENT DIRECTORY

  copy \abc\x.bat   X.BAT from ABC directory

  copy \abc\*.*     all files from ABC
  copy \abc         shortcut of above

COPY AND RENAME AT THE SAME TIME
The following example duplicates and renames a PC Paintbrush file within the same directory:

      copy logo.pcx logo2.pcx

YOU CAN VERIFY YOUR COPY
To be extra sure that the copy is correct, add the /v switch to compare the new file with the old file; for example:

      copy *.* a: /v

Remember!
There's less typing if you're in the directory you want to copy to. For example, from any directory, you could issue:

   D:\ANYWHERE>copy a:*.* c:\budgets\1992

But, if you're already in C:\BUDGETS\1992, the TO is implicit:

        C:\BUDGETS\1992>copy a:*.*

LOOK UP THESE COPY COMMANDS
COPY only copies files, but XCOPY copies both files and subdirectories and creates the directory names on the target disk.

DISKCOPY makes exact copies of floppy disks and formats them at the same time.

REPLACE is great for backup and copies only files that have been changed.