XXCopy: Best Recursive Command Line File Copier [File Copy]

Let’s be flat. Windows FIle Copy command may be good for small works, but when you want to copy files in bulk, say hundreds and thousands of files in one go, then it is very irritating to say the least.

Don’t ever try to copy an entire hard disk with Windows File Copy command. You will get frustrated.There are lots of alternative File Copy programs. In this series we are looking at some of the best in the industry.

In this post, we are looking at a command line file copy utility, which is ideal for recursive copying. Recursive copying means copying all the files and folders and sub-folders within a given directory. This means copying entire directory system, including all sub-directories and the files contained within.

If you are a command line junky, like many other system administrators, then you will say that Microsoft has already provided a command with the name “xcopy”.

True. But “xxcopy” is much more than that. It was developed as an attempt to cover the limitations of “xcopy” command, but now it has more than 200 switches and options, which make it huge, and epic for the command line experts.

For instance, you migrt be knowing that “xcopy” has a restriction that you cannot proceed ifyour path name increases to have more than 255 characters. “xxcopy” can easily surpass this limitation. It supersedes Microsoft’s RoboCopy command by a huge margin and the author is so confident about it that you have a separate section on the website about it.

Features of XXCopy

Take a look at the features of this useful tool.

1. A Win95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista/2003/2008 utility which runs in command line mode.
2. Comes with a 16-bit version (XXCOPY16).
3. XXCOPY16.EXE copies files using the short (8.3 format) name only.
4. Duplicates the entire system drive which can boot Win9x.
5. Keeps the same short name (8.3) in the destination as in the source.
6. The source specifier accepts wildcards in directory names also.
7. Backs up directory incrementally without the use of archive bit.Synchronizes directories.
8. Controls file attributes (keeps the source, destination attributes or none).
9. Excludes directories or files from copying by wild cards.
10. Handles a Cyclic Copy case much better than XCOPY.
11. Qualifies files by file date/time (Before, On, or After).
12. Deletes files or directories using the same powerful selection mechanism.
13. Copies hidden/system files, and overwrites Read-only files.
14. Flattens a directory tree into files in one directory.
15. Copies security information for NTFS volume archiving.

[Download XXCopy]