How to use robocopy for taking regular backups on Windows

Having switched from linux to windows recently, I was looking for an rsync alternative. rsync is a popular tool in the linux world used for taking routine backups and also general file transfer. But since I use it mostly for backups and I'm a command line dude, I was determined to find a windows equivalent which can do the same. That's when I found robocopy.

Despite its trivial sounding name, robocopy.exe is a versatile tool found in almost all windows installations at C:\windows\system32 and does a great job of taking incremental file backups. The best way to configure a robocopy backup is to create a simple batch file such as the one below:

This example assumes that you have a source code directory located at c:\source and you want to backup the entire directory to a USB pen-drive at e:\source. If you have more directories to backup, you can add them before the :halt statement:

robocopy c:\docs e:\docs /E /PURGE /ndl /Z robocopy c:\music e:\music /E /PURGE /ndl /Z

Now, let’s look at what those parameters to robocopy command do. The source and destination folders are obvious, here is what follows:

/E Copy subdirectories (similar to --recursive option in rsync) 
/PURGE Delete destination files that no longer exist in source (--delete rsync option)
/ndl Don't log directory names while copying /Z Copy files in restartable mode

You can run robocopy /? to see a full list of options available in this tool. If you want to schedule backups (like once a week or month), simply go to Task Scheduler from Control Panel -> Administrative Tools and schedule the above script to run accordingly.

Enjoy, your DIY backup solution for Windows is ready!

Originally published at prahladyeri.github.io on July 8, 2020.