Backing up folder using Powershell Copy-Item cmdlet

Question

I want to backup all files on a volume that have changed in the past 24 hours. I want the backup folder to keep the folder structure of the original. I find that when I test my current script, the folders are all placed in root.

$today = Get-Date -UFormat "%Y-%m-%d"

$storage="D:\"
$backups="E:\"
$thisbackup = $backups+$today

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path $thisbackup
foreach ($f in Get-ChildItem $storage -recurse)
{
    if ($f.LastWriteTime -lt ($(Get-Date).AddDays(-1)))
    {
        Copy-Item $f.FullName -Destination $thisbackup -Recurse
    }
}
Write-Host "The backup is complete"

It also seems to be copying ALL files in these folders.

Can I get some assistance on this?

Paul · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-10 17:01:45Z

2

if ($f.LastWriteTime -lt ($(Get-Date).AddDays(-1)))

should be

if ($f.LastWriteTime -gt ($(Get-Date).AddDays(-1)))

Your folders are all placed in the root because you are getting all items recursively via Get-Childitem.

The following should work:

#copy folder structure
robocopy $storage $thisbackup /e /xf *.*

foreach ($f in Get-ChildItem $storage -recurse -file)
{
    if ($f.LastWriteTime -gt ($(Get-Date).AddDays(-1)))
    {
    Copy-Item $f.FullName -Destination $thisbackup$($f.Fullname.Substring($storage.length))
    }
}

edited May 10, 2015 at 17:01

answered May 7, 2015 at 0:06

Paul

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3 Comments

Chrayfish Over a year ago

I had thought of separately creating the folder structure but I did not know how.Thanks for your help.

Chrayfish Over a year ago

It's telling me there's a problem with the second path in: Copy-Item $storage -destination $thisbackup -recurse -container It says that $thisbackup cannot be a unc path or drive but it's actually a folder in the backup drive.

Chrayfish Over a year ago

Hi Paul, will try next time I can. I had difficulty with robocopy before because it wasn't preserving the folder structure. This should work quite well. thanks for the assistance.

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