Copying files from multiple folders in windows batch

Question

I am trying to copy files to a new folder using a windows batch command, but something is not working. I wonder What I am doing wrong.

This works:

xcopy E:\folder\*.wav E:\wav\

But because I have many foldernames and the foldernames, I want to do this for each folder using this command:

xcopy E:\*\*.wav E:\wav\

But now it says:

File not found - *.wav
0 File(s) copied

How should I do this?

Answer 1

From the command line (no batch):

for /d %F in (e:\*) do @if /i "%F" neq "e:\wav" 2>nul xcopy "%F\*.wav" "e:\wav"

The above will only copy files from the root level folders. If you want all .wav files from the entire drive, then you need:

for /r "e:\" %F in (.) do @if /i "%F" neq "e:\wav\." 2>nul xcopy "%F\*.wav" "e:\wav"

Double up the percents if you put the command in a batch file.

Note that different files that share the same name from different folders will collide - only one will survive in your \wav folder.

Answer 2

I have done some searching and trying, and this was what I came up with.

for /D %%d in (E:\*) do (
    for %%f in (%%d\*.wav) do (
        xcopy %%f E:\wav\
    )
)