Copy, Move, and Delete Commands

Batch scripting provides four core commands for relocating and removing files: COPY duplicates files, XCOPY extends copying to whole directory trees with far more control, MOVE relocates or renames files and folders, and DEL (or ERASE) removes files outright. Each command has its own switch vocabulary, and choosing the right one matters: COPY is fine for a handful of files, but XCOPY or ROBOCOPY become necessary once you need to preserve folder structure or copy thousands of files reliably.

COPY source destination duplicates a file, and COPY *.txt Backup\ copies every matching file into an existing folder. The /Y switch suppresses the overwrite confirmation prompt, which is essential in unattended scripts since COPY normally pauses and asks 'Overwrite?' when the destination file already exists. The /B switch forces a binary copy (the default for most files), while /A treats the file as ASCII text, which matters when concatenating files, since COPY file1.txt+file2.txt combined.txt merges two text files into one.

XCOPY source destination /E /I copies an entire directory tree including empty subfolders (/E) and, when the destination doesn't exist yet, /I tells XCOPY to assume it should be created as a directory rather than asking. The /S switch copies subdirectories but skips empty ones, /D:date copies only files changed on or after a given date for incremental backups, and /C continues copying even if an individual file causes an error, which keeps a long batch job from stopping on one bad file.

MOVE source destination relocates a file or folder; when the destination is on the same drive it is a near-instant metadata operation, but across drives MOVE has to copy the data and then delete the original, which takes noticeably longer for large files. REN (RENAME) only changes a file's name within its current folder and cannot move it to a different path, so REN old.txt new.txt works but REN old.txt C:\Other\new.txt does not.

DEL filename (or its synonym ERASE) removes one or more files; /F forces deletion of read-only files, /Q suppresses confirmation when using wildcards, and /S deletes matching files from the current directory and all subdirectories while leaving the folder structure itself intact, which is different from RD /S that removes the folders too. Because DEL bypasses the Recycle Bin entirely, deleted files cannot be restored through Windows Explorer, so scripts should validate the target pattern carefully, especially when using wildcards like DEL /S /Q *.tmp across an entire tree.