How can I move the contents of one directory tree into another?

Question

I have a directory which contains files and a number of levels of subdirectories:

C:\Source

I would like to move the contents of C:\Source into:

C:\Destination

Requirements:

• All files and all subdirectories within C:\SourceData must be moved
• I will be running the command in a batch file
• I can't use Powershell or any other scripting languages

Attempt 0

XCOPY /E "C:\Source" "C:\Destination"

This works perfectly, but it copies instead of moves. I can't copy then delete the source as I'm moving a very large set of files and there isn't enough disk space to have two copies of them at a time.

Attempt 1

MOVE "C:\Source" "C:\Destination"

This moves the entire C:\Source directory into C:\Destination so I end up with:

C:\Destination\Source

Attempt 2

With some help from this question and accepted answer I came up with:

for /r "C:\Source" %%x in (*) do move "%%x" "C:\Destination"

This moves the files within C:\Source but not the subdirectories or their contents. Note that I used %%x instead of %x as I'm using it in a batch file.

Using FOR seems promising but I'm not sure I've used the right syntax? Have I missed something?

Attempt 3

As suggested by Nick D, I tried rename:

RENAME "C:\Source" Destination

For the example scenario I gave this works fine. Unfortunately my real Destination directory is at a different level to the Source directory and this doesn't seem to be supported:

C:\>REN /?
Renames a file or files.

RENAME [drive:][path]filename1 filename2.
REN [drive:][path]filename1 filename2.

Note that you cannot specify a new drive or path for your destination file.

I get "The syntax of the command is incorrect." errors if I try to specify a more complex destination path, for example:

RENAME "C:\Source" "C:\MyOtherDirectory\Destination"
RENAME "C:\Source" "MyOtherDirectory\Destination"

Answer 1

Undoubtedly use robocopy. It is a simple but brilliantly useful tool.

robocopy /move /e sourcedir destdir 

This will move all the files and folders, including empty ones, deleting each original file after it has moved it.

If you don't have robocopy installed you can download it by itself or as part of a Microsoft resource kit.

Answer 2

Update:

Adjusted code to a. check whether folders already exist at the destination, in which case move files in that folder over (and continue traversing the source directory structure), otherwise move the folder wholesale.

At the end of the script the source folder is removed altogether to eliminate these folders which have had their files moved over to an already existent folder at the destination (meaning these folders have been emptied but not deleted at the source).

Additionally we check whether a folder is both empty and already exists at the destination in which case we do nothing (and leave the source folder to be deleted to the last line of the script). Not doing this results in "The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect." errors.

Phew! Please let me know how you get on with this! I have tested this and it seems to be working well.

for /d /r "c:\source" %%i in (*) do if exist "c:\destination\%%~ni" (dir "%%i" | find "0 File(s)" > NUL & if errorlevel 1 move /y "%%i\*.*" "c:\destination\%%~ni") else (move /y "%%i" "c:\destination") move /y c:\source\*.* c:\destination rd /s /q c:\source   

Answer 3

In response to ufukgun's answer:

xcopy C:\Source\* C:\Destination\* /s /e /i /Y

/s - Copies directories and subdirectories except empty ones.
/e - Copies directories and subdirectories, including empty ones. Same as /S /E. May be used to modify /T.
/i - If destination does not exist and copying more than one file, assumes that destination must be a directory.
/y - Suppresses prompting to confirm you want to overwrite an existing destination file.

As stated in another answer, using xcopy may be not as efficient as it would be a native move command that only changes pointers in the filesystem.

Answer 4

Since XCOPY works, you could use XCOPY and DELETE, it's a workaround, but should work?