Using XCOPY when directory has a space in name

[Gavisht]

Hello people, I want your help in solving a small query of mine. I have been experimenting with xcopy command in command prompt and am stuck at one particular situation. I want to know how to copy the directories which have space in their names. Therefore if anybody knows the steps of Using XCOPY when directory has a space in name, then please suggest some. Thanks in advance.

[Rasdasa]

I dont think it is possible to use xcopy command when the name of the directory contains a space in it. Ms DOS does not support directories having space in their name as it is considered as a Junk character in DOS. You can rename the directory and remove the space from the name of the directory. Once the space from the name is removed, you can use the xcopy command to copy the directory from one location to the other location without any problems.

[Gavisht]

Thanks for replying to the post really fast. As suggested I renamed the directory which I wanted to copy from one location to other and removed the unnecessary space from the name. I used the xcopy command and then copied the folder from one drive to other, it worked but the sub folders of the main folder were not copied to the new destination folder. Is there any special command to be entered to copy the subfolders?

[Rasdasa]

Yes the basic xcopy command when used will only copy the contains of the parent folder and will not copy the sub folders of the parent folder. That is the reason why the sub folders are not copied to the destination folder. You will have to modify the command to copy the subfolders to the destination folder. In the command prompt type the following command to copy the sub folders of the parent folder "Xcopy /s Source Destination" and then hit enter. /s helps in copying all the subfolders of the parent folder to the destination folder.

[SergioSantos]

There is another way in which the xcopy command can be used to copy the directories which have space in their names. Put the source and the destination in quotes while entering the command. This will help in copying the contains of the source folder to the destination folder. You can create a Batch file which will help you in copying the contains of the folder from one drive to the other. In the batch file which you will create, enter the following code :-

Xcopy /s "Source:\folder name" "Destination:\Folder name"

Hope this solves your query.