[SOLVED] robocopy long path names and symlinks

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LovelySandriana

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Jan 19, 2020
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we need to copy huge amount of data from windows 10 to NAS via SMB , my company manger ask me to find a solution to solve the issue of long path names and copying Symlinks as my friends in another company informed me that they faced problems like that with Robocopy , how can we solve this problem with robocopy or recommend me a simple SW that can easily do the job?
 
Solution
I know that my solution will take much time but It may be the only solution and hopefully would knock some senses... I wish I had a better solution. and if you need to switch to GUI program , I recommend you the program that mentioned by other users which called gs richcopy 360 as per advice from an expert friend before to me .
D

Deleted member 14196

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RoboCopy he has no issues whatsoever. Whoever told you that is terribly misinformed. Have you done any testing yourself? I have no problems with long path names
 

TideMozer

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Jan 18, 2020
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oh you said 310 c !
for the path names, you said that it separated ,try to make sure your target is set to be one level down , Then schedule them as separate batch files and you'll definitely cut the time down , however, if they're all over the place, creating 100+ separate jobs would be counterproductive. If they are within the same tree structure, create a batch that starts further down into the subdir, then you can exclude that in the batch file that copies the rest of the structure, if that makes sense. The switch to exclude a folder is /XD dir (so, it would look like /XD \\server\share\sub1\sub2\sub3) which I think it will definitely shorten your path names.
 
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seanwebster

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Aug 30, 2018
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I’d give free file sync a shot too. I like it over robocopy. Plus it is constantly being updated. I just don’t know if it has issues with long file path names. But for just doing bulk file transfers and managing things, it makes it a breeze.
 
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Dec 30, 2019
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try to use Copy-Item in powershell, I have an experience with this stuff . You'll need to have .net framework 4.5 or higher and Windows Management Framework 5.1 or higher to support longer path names.If it's just for backups you could also just try zipping all the files and for sw recommendations that can solve this problem easily , I recommend you 2 programs that we use in my company , the programs are securecopy quest and gs richcopy360 .
 
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TideMozer

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Jan 18, 2020
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I know that my solution will take much time but It may be the only solution and hopefully would knock some senses... I wish I had a better solution. and if you need to switch to GUI program , I recommend you the program that mentioned by other users which called gs richcopy 360 as per advice from an expert friend before to me .
 
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Reactions: LovelySandriana
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LovelySandriana

Commendable
Jan 19, 2020
20
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1,515
Mandark
do you think that the below comment can help me with 310C path name or higher ? !!
"Robocopy supports path names > 256 by default, and even provides a flag that lets you turn OFF support for long path names (flag: /256).
Example usage of Robocopy:
robocopy /E C:/path/with/very/long/names/in/it C:/new/path
"
I need to know how it can be solved be robocopy to learn
can you try it by your self and show me the results ?
 
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Deleted member 14196

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You try it in a test environment. Do your own work else you won’t learn
 
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manually copy some data in long paths to a test area on you local drive. Then run robust copy on command line is the best
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/robocopy

only way to learn is to do. don't ask others to write it for you, we don't have your test data for one thing.

  1. you specify a source path (if your path has spaces in it, you just enclose the entire path in quotes)
  2. you specify a destination path (if your path has spaces in it, you just enclose the entire path in quotes)
  3. you can now specify which file(s) you want using wildcards and such (like .pdf or *.xml or *. for everything)
  4. you can also specify options, you will use /E
the statement syntax is listed below:
robocopy <Source> <Destination> [<File>[ ...]] [<Options>]

in the above link you will find the Options and what they all do, I think /E should do the trick for you.

Here are some samples you can examine and study and test out in your local drive test area


there is NO BETTER copy utility in the world, bar none including gui "free" utils. Plus, it's built into Windows and maintained. I've used it in production for years with no issues. But you must learn what not to do, don't ever do mirroring unless you know what you are doing, else you could wipe out a network drive or other critical data. Just don't do it unless necessary and TEST TEST TEST it in you LOCAL test data area
 
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Dec 30, 2019
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I am happy that your problem solved and if you have any issue with robocopy or any other GUI alternatives like teracopy , gs richcopy 360 , securecopy , peersync or allwaysync , just inform me.
 
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