Copy Folder Structure without Copying Files in Windows 10

How to Copy Folder Structure without Copying Files in Windows 10

You may have a complicated folder structure that includes many folder and subfolder hierarchy with plenty of files saved in those folders. Now you need to re-create the same folder hierarchy on a different partition, drive, or network location.

So, you are interested in learning if there is a way to replicate the existing folder structure in a different location without copying the files. Here’s what you can do.

First of all, you can use xcopy, the built-in command available in many Windows versions, including Windows 10.

Xcopy

Xcopy stands for ‘extended copy’ is a command line utility that can copy multiple files or directories from the source path to the other destination directory. It supports a special switch /t, which will allow you to replicate the same structure in the destination without copying the files. The only issue is that it will ignore empty folders. To solve it, you need to combine it with another switch /e.

To Copy Folder Structure without Copying Files in Windows 10,

1. Open a Command Prompt.
2. Type xcopy "source" "destination" /t /e.
3. Replace source with the path that contains your current folder hierarchy with files.
4. Replace destination with the path that will store the empty folder hierarchy(the new one).

Example:

xcopy "C:\Folder" "D:\Folder" /t /e

^It will duplicate the C:\Folder structure in D:\Folder.

An alternative solution is a third-party app XXCopy.

XXCOPY

XXCOPY is a third-party command line tool. You could consider it as an extended version of XCopy which supports 230 command line arguments! It supports all modern Windows version, including 32-bit and 64-bit of Windows 10.

XXCOPY works great when you need to copy the folder structure with a hierarchy level limit. For instance, you can copy the first 3 levels of your folder structure by using switch /DL<n>.

Also, XXCOPY can duplicate your folder hierarchy with file system permissions. This great option allows saving hours of work for large subfolder structures.

XXCOPY has a freeware package  which is free for personal use.

Download XXCOPY

Author: The MFTNEXT Team

The MSFTNEXT project is a small team of authors who love to engage with the latest technology and gadgets. Being passionate Windows bloggers, we are happy to help others fix their system issues. View all posts by The MFTNEXT Team