Copying files

MIkew365 · 30 Apr 2017

I have a flash drive with many mp3's on it, however they are split up into various folders. How can I copy all mp3's to my fixed disc without the directories, ie just copy the mp3's without having to access each individual directory. TIA, Mike

Cliff S · 30 Apr 2017

Use the wild card option, an example:

copy C:\UserName\music\*.* D:\backup

3 Ways to Copy Files in Command Prompt - wikiHow

Barman58 · 30 Apr 2017

I think you may be better using this slightly modified command if you do not need to move the folders *.mp3 will only copy the MP3 files Whereas *.* will also copy the folders

Code:

copy C:\UserName\music\*.mp3 D:\backup

cereberus · 30 Apr 2017

Barman58 said:

I think you may be better using this slightly modified command if you do not need to move the folders *.mp3 will only copy the MP3 files Whereas *.* will also copy the folders

Code:

copy C:\UserName\music\*.mp3 D:\backup

This is not what OP is asking - OP has mp3 files in many directories and wants to put them all in one directory.

Barman58 · 30 Apr 2017

If this does not work you may need to use robocopy ...

file - ROBOCOPY - Copy folders content to a single folder - Stack Overflow

cereberus · 30 Apr 2017

The way I would do it is open a command prompt and type (say usb was d drive)

d:

cd \

dir /s /b *.mp3 > mp3.bat

Then open mp3.bat in notepad and

1) replace all "d:" with "copy d:"

2) replace all ".mp3" with ".mp3 d:\mp3files\*.* (can change drive and path of destination - folder must exist)

3) save and run batch file

Just tested above (with pdf files in my case and it worked perfectly.

Cliff S · 30 Apr 2017

cereberus said:

The way I would do it is open a command prompt and type (say usb was d drive)

d:

cd \

dir /s /b *.mp3 > mp3.bat

Then open mp3.bat in notepad and

1) replace all "d:" with "copy d:"

2) replace all ".mp3" with ".mp3 d:\mp3files\*.* (can change drive and path of destination - folder must exist)

3) save and run batch file

Just tested above (with pdf files in my case and it worked perfectly.

Easiest is just to copy the path in file explorer and paste it in.

Pyprohly · 30 Apr 2017

Barman58 said:

If this does not work you may need to use robocopy

There’s no switch to stop robocopy from preserving the directory structure. The way to do this in batch is to loop off the results of dir, which can be done directly like so.

Code:

for /f "delims=" %%I in (' dir /a:-d /b /s "C:\source\*.mp3" ') do (
    copy "%%~I" "C:\destination\%%~nxI"
)

But allow me to advocate for the PowerShell way:

Code:

Get-ChildItem 'C:\source' -Include '*.mp3' -Recurse | Copy-Item -Destination 'C:\destination'

cereberus · 30 Apr 2017

Pyprohly said:

But allow me to advocate for the PowerShell way:

Code:

Get-ChildItem 'C:\source' -Include '*.mp3' -Recurse | Copy-Item -Destination 'C:\destination'

Just tried it - failed with all sorts of error messages about permissions when using C drive.

Pyprohly · 30 Apr 2017

Try changing the paths and the -Include argument, preferably to something that exists.