The problem is that when the hard drive has issues reading and writing, data corruption, or other physical problems, using Windows’ cut and paste may not be the best solution, as it could take hours and even days to skip files with errors, or it may not even work at all. This is when Robocopy can help out. Robocopy, short for “Robust File Copy”, is a command-line copy utility within Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 7, and Windows Vista, more powerful than the “cut and paste” functionality we’re used to and even more than many other utilities you may find on the internet. Robocopy can be your best shot to recover files from the dying hard drive because it’s easy to use, it can be easily configured to quickly skip unrecoverable files with errors, it’s more efficient, it copies absolutely everything withing a drive, it can resume from a lost connections if you’re moving files to a shared folder in the network, and just because the utility works better.
How to use Robocopy
If you’re trying to recover files from a failing hard drive, get a replacement, then reconnect the bad drive, launch the command prompt in Windows as administrator, and use the following command-line: Explanation: robocopy [source] [destination] [options] As you can see with a very simple command we are making sure to copy files from the source drive (bad) to the new one, but we’re also using the /MIR switch that makes the copy a mirror copy, keeping the file structure between source and destination. Then we use /R:0 to limit retries to none and the /W:0 to no wait any time while copying. These switches will make sure corrupted or files with errors are skipped quickly, therefore making the recovery faster. If you’re trying to copy a folder, which has a name with space (e.g., Summer Pictures), you’ll get an “Invalid parameter” error. To avoid errors with file name with spaces refer to the following command-line: Also you may also find a problem, if you’re trying to copy the built-in Windows 7 folders (My Documents, My Music, My Videos, and My Pictures). This is because the real names are simply Documents, Music, Videos, and Pictures, like you see now in Windows 8. So simply use this command as a reference: Robocopy’s best feature is that preserves all NTFS attributes found in files and folders, and it also has the ability to mirror the data structure across different locations. For example, from a dying hard drive to a new one. The Robust File Copy can also resume from interruptions like network outages to complete the task. All content on this site is provided with no warranties, express or implied. Use any information at your own risk. Always backup of your device and files before making any changes. Privacy policy info.
