Difference between xcopy and robocopy

tourist picture tourist · Jun 9, 2014 · Viewed 125.7k times · Source

I'm kind of new to batch scripting. As a newbie I find both both of them useful while scripting What are the key differences between xcopy and robocopy?

Answer

Nicolas Tyler picture Nicolas Tyler · Jun 9, 2014

Robocopy replaces XCopy in the newer versions of windows

  1. Uses Mirroring, XCopy does not
  2. Has a /RH option to allow a set time for the copy to run
  3. Has a /MON:n option to check differences in files
  4. Copies over more file attributes than XCopy

Yes i agree with Mark Setchell, They are both crap. (brought to you by Microsoft)


UPDATE:

XCopy return codes:

0 - Files were copied without error.
1 - No files were found to copy.
2 - The user pressed CTRL+C to terminate xcopy. enough memory or disk space, or you entered an invalid drive name or invalid syntax on the command line.
5 - Disk write error occurred.

Robocopy returns codes:

0 - No errors occurred, and no copying was done. The source and destination directory trees are completely synchronized.
1 - One or more files were copied successfully (that is, new files have arrived).
2 - Some Extra files or directories were detected. No files were copied Examine the output log for details. 
3 - (2+1) Some files were copied. Additional files were present. No failure was encountered.
4 - Some Mismatched files or directories were detected. Examine the output log. Some housekeeping may be needed.
5 - (4+1) Some files were copied. Some files were mismatched. No failure was encountered.
6 - (4+2) Additional files and mismatched files exist. No files were copied and no failures were encountered. This means that the files already exist in the destination directory
7 - (4+1+2) Files were copied, a file mismatch was present, and additional files were present.
8 - Some files or directories could not be copied (copy errors occurred and the retry limit was exceeded). Check these errors further.
16 - Serious error. Robocopy did not copy any files. Either a usage error or an error due to insufficient access privileges on the source or destination directories.

There is more details on Robocopy return values here: http://ss64.com/nt/robocopy-exit.html