Definition: copy

(1) To make a duplicate of the original. See Save As, shallow copy, Win Copy between windows, Win Copy/Move files/folders and XCopy.

(2) An internal DOS/Windows command for creating duplicate disk files. The Copy command, which uses a straightforward COPY-FROM-TO format, is widely used by programmers and power users. Following are several examples:

 COPY TO/FROM USB DRIVE E:

 copy *.* e:     all files to E drive

 copy e:\*.*     all files from E drive


 COPY FILES IN CURRENT FOLDER
 TO A DIFFERENT FOLDER

 copy *.gif \backup

 copy sales.doc \sales


 COPY FILES IN ANOTHER FOLDER
 TO THIS FOLDER

 copy \images\*.gif

 copy \sales\sales.doc


 COPY AND RENAME

 copy logo.png logo2.png


 COPY AND VERIFY

 copy *.gif \backup /v

Remember!

There is less to type if you are already in the folder you want to copy to. For example, if you want to copy into \budgets\2012, you can perform the operation from any command prompt, but if you change to the destination folder, there is less to type, as follows:

  C:\ABC>copy \xyz\*.*  \budgets\2012
  C:\ABC>copy \jkl\*.*  \budgets\2012
  C:\ABC>copy \mno\*.*  \budgets\2012

  C:\ABC>cd \budgets\2012
  C:\BUDGETS\2012>copy \xyz\*.* 
  C:\BUDGETS\2012>copy \jkl\*.* 
  C:\BUDGETS\2012>copy \mno\*.* 

Xcopy for More Options

The Copy command is very useful, but the Xcopy command can copy both files and folders and create new folders on the destination disk. See Xcopy.