6

I have problem with lost timestamps ( creation date ) on files copied using Total Commander - only modification date remained. It's hundreds thousands of files and few TB of data, so I prefer not to copy them again.

I managed to update only folders timestamps using robocopy - that works great:

robocopy /e /dcopy:t c:\source d:\destination

But all files timestamps are modified to copy time.

I tried some options like:

robocopy /e /copy:t c:\source d:\destination
robocopy /e /copyall c:\source d:\destination

but it didn't help.

It does the job but only when destination is empty:

robocopy /e /copyall /dcopy:t c:\source d:\destination

It also does the job but only on Windows 7 ( on Windows 10 it does not work ) and it copies again all files which is not what I want:

robocopy /e /copyall /is c:\source d:\destination

Anyone has idea how to update only timestamps of files without copying data itself again? It could be any application/method but I prefer free one if possible. I need to recreate whole subdirectory structure, hidden files and symlinks - full mirror. :)

Thanks.

mike
  • 241
  • 2
  • 6

2 Answers2

7

Ok, I've managed to do this maybe it will be useful for someone else:

robocopy /e /timfix /dcopy:t c:\source d:\destination

Does the job :)

mike
  • 241
  • 2
  • 6
  • In my case, the source files are "older" than the destination files due to some timestamp issues. This command still ended up copying all files to the target destination - one at a time. – Origin Feb 08 '20 at 11:22
4

Copying it again might be the fastest method. Attended oversight of all commands took me hours and it wasn't perfect. To avoid file copy, added copy:t

robocopy /e /timfix /dcopy:t /copy:t c:\source d:\destination

indeed robocopy started physical copying without it (Windows 10 local or Samba). Needed to fix terabytes of Samba data wrongly copied without time part of timestamp thanks to linux abbreviation of "older timestamps" (time is not shown, and other commands treat it as midnight when copying). The result locally is ok but only modified time is copied in (FreeBSD) Samba. Creation time is not supported by robocopy time fix here, only when file is recreated.

A glitch of robocopy is it reports 'copied bytes' even if data was not copied, as unrealistic speed shows: Speed : 2826677.309 MegaBytes/min.

user533385
  • 66
  • 2