How to use xcopy to add the date in the destination file?

Question

This is my current code

xcopy "C:\Users\Asus\Desktop\Test\Test.MDB" "C:\Users\Asus\Google Drive\" /Y /H /E /F /I
exit

I need the code to do something like:

xcopy "C:\Users\Asus\Desktop\Test\Test.MDB" "C:\Users\Asus\Google Drive\Test (4-21-18).MDB" /Y /H /E /F /I
exit

I need to back up the files every 2 weeks in the task scheduler and I need the script to automatically add the date of the back-up. Also, I have looked at the list of commands (e.g. /Y /H /E) and I cannot find one that describes non-overwriting in the destination folder. I need the back-ups to pile up and not get deleted every time the code runs.

Answer 1

You can do this. Maybe exist better solutions but it will be working and Additionally, this is an approach for more than one file.

XCOPY /Y /H /E /F /I C:\Users\Asus\Desktop\Test\*.MDB

rem get date, make if file name friendly
FOR /F "tokens=1-4 delims=/ " %%i in ('date/t') do set d=%%i-%%j-%%k-%%l

set MDB=*.%d%.MDB
ren *.MDB %mdb%
move C:\Users\Asus\Desktop\Test\*.MDB C:\Users\Asus\Google Drive\Test\

Hope this help.

Answer 2

You can create a bat file, get the current date in a variable and have this variable as part of the file name.

This bat file works:

for /f "skip=1" %%x in ('wmic os get localdatetime') do if not defined MyDate
set MyDate=%%x
set today=%MyDate:~4,2%-%MyDate:~6,2%-%MyDate:~2,2%

mkdir "C:\Users\Asus\Google Drive\Test (%today%).MDB"

xcopy "C:\Users\Asus\Desktop\Test\Test.MDB" "C:\Users\Asus\Google Drive\Test (%today%).MDB" /Y /H /E /F /I
exit

This code first saves the current date in "MyDate" variable. Then the desired date format is saved in "today" variable. Finally the content of the "today" variable is used as part of the file name that is passed in "xcopy" as an argument.

Mkdir makes sure that the directory is first created before xcopy is used. This prevents the xcopy question <F = file, D= directory>? that pops out. If a path refers to a file or directory that does not exist, xcopy considers it reasonable to first ask you what it is. Alternatively you could add a '\' in the end of the directory path to indicate that it is a directory.

Answer 3

You can add %date%

If you want to create folders with the date and put the file in it, use like this to join the date to a foldername (D:\myFolder15-04-2020):

xcopy /y /q /s "c:\myFolder\*" "D:\myFolder"%date%"\"

or a folder name with just the date: (D:\15-05-2020)

xcopy /y /q /s "c:\myFolder\*" "D:\"%date%"\"

If you want to put the files in the same folder and change the file name use:

xcopy /y /q /s "c:\myFolder\*" "D:\myFolder\"%date%".MDB*"

The trick is:

"\" at the end of the command means a folder name
"*" at the end of the command means a file name