This post will help you in excluding certain files of your choice from being copied.
Why exclude specific files?
By default, any copy program will copy everything (all the files) from the folder that you specify as the source. But, at times, we would like to filter and include only specific files. For Ex: Copy only pictures and not videos, only source code files and not object files, all documents except PDF files, and so on.
In this particular post, we will talk about this by comparing Robocopy to an alternative software , Copywhiz.
What is Copywhiz?
Copywhiz enhances your file-copy experience by letting you to have more flexibility & control over the file copying and backup process.
Here is how Copywhiz makes file copying a breeze:
- Copy only new or modified files
- Easily pick files by name, extension, folder etc from bunch of folders
- Automatically organize files based on file attributes and metadata
- Copy files to multiple folders/computers
- Copy files from multiple folders and paste them at once
- Sync files between source and destination
- Pick files from multiple folders and compress in single .zip file
- Schedule file backups
- Verify copied files for data integrity
- Retain security attributes of files & folders (ownership/user access)
- Several more hidden nuggets designed to make your file-copy task easier.
You can check out more of Copywhiz’s features from here
Steps to exclude specific files
Using Robocopy
Robocopy Source Destination /XF file [file]… command lets us to specify a list of files.
For Ex: To copy files from ‘C:\pictures’ to the folder ‘c:\backup’, by excluding certain type of files, the following command line will be used:
Robocopy c:\pictures c:\backup /XF list-of-excluded-files
You can use Xcopy too. Here is the article you can check out.
However, Robocopy commands are not straightforward. System administrators may be able to use it. But, Robocopy is confusing for ordinary users.
Let me now show you a more comfortable and faster way to do this.
Using Copywhiz
Copywhiz makes this very user-friendly. Watch a short video depicting this feature:
Video Transcription
1. Go to Windows File Explorer, select the files from the source folder, right-click and choose Copywhiz–>Copy as shown below:
2. Go to the destination folder, right-click, and choose Copywhiz–> Paste Advanced. The Advanced Settings dialogue box will open.
3. You can include or exclude files/folders to be copied by typing their names, file extensions, or folder names. You can also preview the list of files that will be copied and files that will be skipped by clicking on the Preview button. After confirming, press the OK button in the Advanced Settings dialog box. All the required files are copied successfully.
Conclusion
Copywhiz lets you to choose which type of files to copy & which to ignore – i.e, it lets you to do ‘Selective File Copy’. Easily filter files by name, extension, folder, etc. from a bunch of folders. You can complete big file copy tasks with few clicks & save manual effort with Copywhiz.
For more tutorial videos, check out this page and also our YouTube channel
Learn more about Copywhiz. Download the free trial from here.
Have a good day.
Thanks for reading till the end :)
If you found this post useful, do spread the word by sharing it.