What switches can robocopy use to preserve file and directory times on the target?

Question

After using robocopy to copy files to a new drive I realized that all the file and directory creation times and been reset to the time of copying.

Are there some switches to make robocopy keep the original files times?

Answer 1

Take a look at the options for the /COPY:[copyflags] and /DCOPY switches.

As per the ROBOCOPY /? usage info:

/COPY:copyflag[s] :: what to COPY for files (default is /COPY:DAT).
                      (copyflags : D=Data, A=Attributes, T=Timestamps).
                      (S=Security=NTFS ACLs, O=Owner info, U=aUditing info).

/DCOPY:T :: COPY Directory Timestamps.

For example:

ROBOCOPY c:\src d:\dest /MIR /COPY:DT /DCOPY:T

Will copy all files and folders and preserve the date and time stamps.

ROBOCOPY c:\src d:\dest /MIR /COPY:DAT /DCOPY:T

Will copy all files and folders and preserve the date & time stamps and file attributes.

There is also another (and I believe deprecated?) switch /TIMFIX which does much the same as /COPY:DT but it doesn't fix the time stamps on folders.

These were tested with ROBOCOPY 5.1.10.1027 on Windows 7 x64 Ultimate.