Copy entire folder structure in Powershell without re-creating root folder

Question

I have a source folder like this:

source_folder -|
               |-> sub_folder1
               |-> sub_folder2
               |-> sub_folder3

where sub_folder1, sub_folder2 and sub_folder3 have themselves got sub-folders and files. I also have an existing empty folder dest_folder and I want to end up with:

dest_folder -|
             |-> sub_folder1
             |-> sub_folder2
             |-> sub_folder3

where the sub-folders are copies of the first lot. I tried Copy-Item source_folder dest_folder -Recurse but that left me with:

dest_folder -|
             |-> source_folder -|
                                |-> sub_folder1
                                |-> sub_folder2
                                |-> sub_folder3

It seems like this should be possible with a simple Copy-Item if only I could find the right combination of wildcards and switches!

dustinmoris · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-11 12:11:58Z

7

Copy-Item C:\source\* C:\dest -Recurse

Works for me

answered Mar 11, 2015 at 12:11

dustinmoris

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3 Comments

aucuparia Over a year ago

(changed my mind - this might help someone as the docs are not clear on this point). I thought I'd tried this but obviously mistyped/did something stupid! Anyhow this works fine.

AndreiM Over a year ago

this doesn't work with -filter option if you have subfolders

MakotoE Over a year ago

@AndreiM Remove the \* from the source path, and delete the destination first. rm -r -ErrorAction:SilentlyContinue C:\dest; Copy-Item C:\source C:\dest -Recurse -Filter "*.txt". stackoverflow.com/a/29082938/438664

brechtvhb · Accepted Answer · 2018-07-02 09:59:11Z

0

I had the same issue because i used this command without the * you get the result as you had.

Copy-Item C:\source C:\dest -Recurse

answered Jul 2, 2018 at 9:59

brechtvhb

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1 Comment

Kappacake Over a year ago

did you mean C:\source* ?

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