Question Which is the best way to copy a lot of files and folders from external drive to laptop with dates preserved?

[modeonoff]

Hi, while copying some files from an external backup drive to a Windows laptop, I noticed that the dates of file creation were all changed to the date when I did the copying. I want to keep the original creation date of each file and folder. I read that there is a command line way to do it but given the large amount of files/folders and I might copy files selective, I would like to be able to do drag and drop while preserving the original dates. Is there a way to do it? What software do you recommend? Thanks.

 

[Grobe]

Can you explain why you want to preserve creation time of the files?

The file creation time is working as intended in your case. When you copy a file from one source to another, that is the time when the copy are created.

However - I beleive you're in fact looking for the file modification time, that timestamp will be preserved when the file are copied.