Use Robocopy as a Backup Solution

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Use Robocopy as a Backup Solution

Thanks to the robocopy command, you don't need to use Window's backup software or install a third party program to manage your backups.

Just execute robocopy c:\users\ellen\documents f:\mybackup\documents /copyall /e /r:0 /dcopy:t /mir, obviously replacing the source and destination folders with whatever you'd like to backup and where it should go. The robocopy command with these options functions identically to an incremental backup software tool, keeping both locations in sync.

You don't have the robocopy command if you're using Windows XP or earlier. However, you do have the xcopy command, which can be used to do something very similar: xcopy c:\users\ellen\documents f:\mybackup\documents /c /d /e /h /i /k /q /r /s /x /y.

No matter which command you choose to use, just create a script file containing the command and schedule it to run in Task Scheduler, and you'll have your own custom made backup solution.

I use a cloud backup service at my home, and recommend that you do too, but there were years where I chose to use the robocopy command as my only local backup solution because I liked the level of control it gave me. Hopefully you take that as a vote of confidence in this incredibly useful Command Prompt trick.