XCOPY

Copy files and/or directory trees to another folder. XCOPY is similar to the COPY command except that it has additional switches to specify both the source and destination in detail.

NOTE: Xcopy is now deprecated under Vista and Windows 2008 - use Robocopy instead

XCOPY is particularly useful when copying files from CDROM to a hard drive, as it will automatically remove the read-only attribute.

Syntax
      XCOPY source [destination] [options]

Key
   source      : Pathname for the file(s) to be copied.

   destination : Pathname for the new file(s).

   [options] can be any combination of the following:

   Source Options

   /A           Copy files with the archive attribute set (default=Y)

   /M           Copy files with the archive attribute set and 
                turn off the archive attribute, use this option
                when making regular Backups (default=Y)

   /H           Copy hidden and system files and folders (default=N)

   /D:mm-dd-yyyy
                Copy files changed on or after the specified date.
                If no date is given, copy only files whose
                source date/time is newer than the destination time.

   /U           Copy only files that already exist in destination.

   /S           Copy folders and subfolders

   /E           Copy folders and subfolders, including Empty folders.
                May be used to modify /T.

   /EXCLUDE:file1[+file2][+file3]...

               (Windows 2000 only) The files can each contain one 
               or more full or partial pathnames to be excluded.
               When any of these match any part of the absolute path
               of a SOURCE file, then that file will be excluded.
               For example, specifying a string like \obj\ or .obj will exclude
               all files underneath the directory obj or all files with the
               .obj extension respectively.

   Copy Options

   /W           Prompt you to press a key before starting to copy.
   /P           Prompt before creating each file.

   /Y           (Windows 2000 only) Suppress prompt to confirm overwriting a file.
                may be preset in the COPYCMD env variable.
   /-Y          (Windows 2000 only) Prompt to confirm overwriting a file.

   /V           Verify that the new files were written correctly.
   /C           Continue copying even if an error occurs.

   /I           If in doubt always assume the destination is a folder
                e.g. when the destination does not exist.

   /Z           Copy files in restartable mode. If the copy is interrupted part 
                way through, it will restart if possible. (use on slow networks)

   /Q           Do not display file names while copying.
   /F           Display full source and destination file names while copying.
   /L           List only - Display files that would be copied.

   Destination Options

   /R           Overwrite read-only files.

   /T           Create folder structure, but do not copy files. Do not
                include empty folders or subfolders. 
                /T /E will include empty folders and subfolders.

   /K           Copy attributes. XCOPY will otherwise reset read-only attributes.

   /N           If at all possible, use only a short filename (8.3) when creating
                a destination file. This may be necessary when copying between disks
                that are formatted differently e.g NTFS and VFAT, or when archiving 
                data to an ISO9660 CDROM.

   /O           (Windows 2000 only) copy file Ownership and ACL information.

   /X           Copy file audit settings (implies /O).

XCOPY will accept UNC pathnames

Examples:

To copy a file:

XCOPY C:\utils\MyFile D:\Backup\CopyFile

To copy a folder:

XCOPY C:\utils D:\Backup\utils /i

To copy a folder including all subfolders.

XCOPY C:\utils\* D:\Backup\utils /s /i

The /i defines the destination as a folder.

Notes

In many cases the functionality of XCOPY is superseded by ROBOCOPY.

To force the overwriting of destination files under both NT4 and Windows2000 use the COPYCMD environment variable:
SET COPYCMD=/Y
This will turn off the prompt in Win2000 and will be ignored by NT4 (which overwrites by default).

When comparing Dates/Times the granularity (the finest increment of the timestamp) is 2 seconds for a FAT volume and 0.1 microsecond for an NTFS volume.

The WinXP version of XCOPY will accept wildcards for the source e.g. *.txt
It is also more forgiving with trailing backslashes

"It is easier to copy than to think, hence fashion" - Wallace Stevens

Related:

COPY - Copy one or more files to another location
DEL - Delete files
MOVE - Move a file from one folder to another
ROBOCOPY - Robust File and Folder Copy
Fcopy - File Copy for MMQ (copy changed files & compress. (Win 2K ResKit)
Permcopy - Copy share & file ACLs from one share to another. (Win 2K ResKit)
MTC - XCopy and create a log file. (Win 2K ResKit)
Q240268 - XCOPY changes in Win 2K
PowerShell: Copy-Item - Copy an item from one location to another
Equivalent bash command (Linux): cp - Copy one or more files to another location