How to copy one directory to another with window command prompt?

Question

I read alot of guides about to copy directories. On SO also read the posts

1. Commmand line command to copy entire directory (including directory folder) to another directory
2. copying all contents of folder to another folder using batch file?

but nothing is working for me. I am using Window 10 Pro 64bit version. My directory looks like

myfolder
   |
    ---folder1
    ---folder2
         |
         ---sample.txt

The expected output is

myfolder
   |
    ---folder1
         |
         ---folder2
             |
             ---sample.txt
    ---folder2
         |
         ---sample.txt

At command prompt, my present working directoy is

C:Users\MyName\Desktop\myfolder>

When I tried with belows

robocopy folder2 folder1 /COPYALL /E
xcopy folder2 folder1 /s /i

only sample.txt was copied to folder1. What's I am wrong ?

Answer 1

Only sample.txt was copied to folder1

You need to properly specify the target directory name.

Use one of the following commands:

robocopy folder2 folder1\folder2 /COPYALL /E

Or:

xcopy folder2 folder1\folder1 /s

---

Further Reading

• An A-Z Index of the Windows CMD command line
• A categorized list of Windows CMD commands
• robocopy - Robust File and Folder Copy.
• xcopy - Copy files and/or directory trees to another folder.

Answer 2

xcopy copies only content of folder2 to folder1. You should try this, as now you are under myfolder:

cd folder1 xcopy ..\folder2 folder2 /S /I

Answer 3

Either of the above would work. My preference is to user wildcards, where appropriate.

xcopy /s folder2\* folder1\