Create folder with batch but only if it doesn't already exist

Question

Can anybody tell me how to do the following in in a Windows batch script? (*.bat):

• Create a folder only if it doesn't already exist

In more detail, I want to create a folder named VTS on the C:\ drive, but only if that folder doesn't already exist. I don't want to overwrite the contents of the folder if it already exists and the batch is executed.

Answer 1

You just use this: if not exist "C:\VTS\" mkdir C:\VTS it wll create a directory only if the folder does not exist.

Note that this existence test will return true only if VTS exists and is a directory. If it is not there, or is there as a file, the mkdir command will run, and should cause an error. You might want to check for whether VTS exists as a file as well.

Answer 2

if exist C:\VTS\NUL echo "Folder already exists"  if not exist C:\VTS\NUL echo "Folder does not exist" 

See also https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/65994

(Update March 7, 2018; Microsoft article is down, archive on https://web.archive.org/web/20150609092521/https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/65994 )