Software & Apps > Windows 27 27 people found this article helpful Copy Command Duplicate a file and store it in a different place with the 'copy' command By Tim Fisher Tim Fisher Facebook Twitter Senior Vice President & Group General Manager, Tech & Sustainability Emporia State University Tim Fisher has more than 30 years' of professional technology experience. He's been writing about tech for more than two decades and serves as the VP and General Manager of Lifewire. lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on December 8, 2021 Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email In This Article Expand Jump to a Section Copy Command Availability Syntax and Options Examples Extra: Related Commands The copy Command Prompt command duplicates a file, storing the second version in a different location in your filesystem. Use the command to copy a file using its specific name and file extension or use a wildcard to copy groups of files at once, regardless of the file names or extensions. Some other command options include verification that the files were copied correctly and suppression of prompts to overwrite files of the same name. Copy Command Availability Copy Command Options (Windows 10 Command Prompt). The copy command is available from within the Command Prompt in Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP, as well as from the Advanced Startup Options and System Recovery Options repair/recovery menus. The availability of certain copy command switches and other command syntax might differ from operating system to operating system. Copy Command Syntax The command accepts the following general form: copy [/d] [/v] [/n] [/y | /-y] [/z] [/l] [/a | /b] source [/a | /b] [+ source [/a | /b] [+ ...]] [destination [/a | /b]] [/?] See How to Read Command Syntax if you're not sure how to interpret the copy command syntax as it's described above or in the list below. Copy Command Options Item Explanation /d Allows the destination file to be created decrypted. /v Verifies that new files are written correctly. /n Uses short file name, if available, when copying a file with a non-8dot3 name. /y Suppresses confirmation prompts to overwrite the destination file if it's the same name as the source file. /-y Shows confirmation prompts to overwrite a file if the source file name is identical to the destination file name. /z Copies networked files in restartable mode. /l Copies the link to source instead of the actual file that source points to. This is only relevant if source is a symbolic link. /a Indicates an ASCII text file. /b Indicates a binary file. source This is the location and name of the file you want to copy. The source may not be a folder and you may not use wildcard characters (the asterisk). destination This is the location and/or file name that the file specified in source should be copied to. /? Use the help switch with the copy command to show detailed help about the command's several options. Append files by choosing several source files but just one destination file. Copy Command Examples Below are several examples of how to use the copy command: Copy to a Different Folder copy Z:\Software\program.iso C:\Users\Jon\Downloads\Programs\ The command above copies program.iso from the Z: drive to the user's Programs folder. Copy and Rename copy Y:\install\j93n.exe Y:\more\m1284.msi Use the copy command to rename a file and even change the file's extension. In the example above, the j93n.exe file copies to a new folder on the Y: drive as m1284.msi. This isn't a file conversion technique (i.e., the EXE file isn't really being converted to MSI) but instead a way to make an identical copy but with the destination file saved under a different name and inside a different folder. copy D:\i386\atapi.sy_ C:\Windows\atapi.sys In the above example, the atapi.sy_ file, located in the i386 folder on the Windows XP installation CD, is copied to the C:\Windows directory as atapi.sys. Unlike the Y: drive example above, this one is a bit more realistic since copying files like that from a disc is a common practice when fixing some specific Windows problems. Copy to Current Path copy D:\readme.htm In this example, the copy command has no destination specified, so the readme.htm file is copied to whatever directory you typed the copy command from. For example, if you type copy d:\readme.htm from the C:\Windows> prompt, the readme.htm file will be copied to C:\Windows. Copy Only Certain File Types copy /y /v C:\Users\Jon\Downloads\*.mp3 C:\Users\Jon\Music\DownloadedMusic\ This example of the copy command copies all MP3s (*.mp3) from the Downloads folder to the Music\DownloadedMusic\ folder, but we want to make sure that every file is copied, even if there's already one in DownloadedMusic with the same name (/y). We'll verify the copy (/v) to make sure Command Prompt tell us whether the files were actually copied or if an error happened in the process. A folder has to already exist in the destination location before the copy command will copy files to it. Make new folders in Command Prompt with the mkdir command. Merge Files Into One copy Z:\file1.txt+Z:\file2.txt+Z:\file3.txt Z:\combined.txt The copy command example above merges three TXT files into one new TXT file called combined.txt. As you can see, each file that should be part of the merge need to be separated by a + sign, but no spaces. You can also use the asterisk to append multiple files. In other words, in our example, we could replace all of those .txt instances with Z:\*.txt, but only if we want to merge together every single TXT file from the Z: drive. Copy Related Commands This command is similar to the xcopy command, but unlike copy, xcopy works on folders, too. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Email Address Sign up There was an error. Please try again. You're in! Thanks for signing up. There was an error. Please try again. Thank you for signing up! Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. Cookies Settings Accept All Cookies