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SYS-C0112 · Windows Server & PowerShell

Robocopy Guide

Draft one robocopy, keep /MIR out of the first run, and read the exit code.

Updated 25 October 2026 · How-To

This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.

What this hour is for

robocopy copies files on Windows. The builder drafts the command. The exit-code explainer reads a number you type. Neither tool copies a share. An exit code can mean files were copied and still be a code people mistake for failure. Read the explainer.

/MIR makes the destination match the source and deletes destination files that are not in the source. That is not the first run. The first draft copies without a mirror delete. Both servers are ones you administer.

Do not put a password in the command. Do not copy a share you do not own. 192.0.2.10/24 and example.com are documentation. They stay in the note.

The change you can finish

Apply nothing while you are writing the note. When the lab window opens, it is one change on the host named in the ticket. Read the draft, then the host, then decide.

Rollback is the file, the package version, or the snapshot you saved first. You do not invent a rollback after the only copy is gone.

  1. Name the source and the destination.
  2. Confirm you administer both.
  3. Draft the copy without /MIR.
  4. Read an exit code only after a later run, with the explainer.
  5. Do not run it during the reading.
  6. Stop.

Mistakes that outlive the command

Robocopy Guide goes wrong in a small set of ways. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window.

Decisions to write down

One decision for Robocopy Guide: Both ends are yours. /MIR is absent from the first draft. The exit code will be read later. No password is in the command. And nothing was run yet.

Checks before you call it done

Confirm this before you call the change done: Source and destination are written. Both are yours. /MIR is absent. Nothing was run. And the explainer is the plan for the exit code. If one of those fails, stop.

# No /MIR on the first run.
# Both shares are yours.
# Read the exit code. Do not guess it.

Before you leave the host

Robocopy Guide ends when the hostname in the prompt matches the hostname in the ticket. If it does not, you are on the wrong host. Stop. A command that succeeded on the wrong host is not progress.

The draft stays a draft until a person has read the names in it. A generator does not log into the host and does not know which disk is empty. You delete a line that names a host, a path, or an account you did not write down.

192.0.2.10/24, gateway 192.0.2.1, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. example.com is a documentation name. They belong in the note. They are not values you leave on a host because a draft included them.

prompt-for-this is a reminder that a secret is missing. It is not a password, a key, or a token you save in the ticket or in git. The real secret stays in the password store.

One change is the window. If two things move and the result is wrong, you will not know which one did it. The next change waits for its own page.

If the same step fails twice, stop for the day. The failure is the result. Adding a forum command beside a half-applied change produces a host nobody can rebuild. Restore the copy you took first.

A second person reads the hostname and the change aloud. If they cannot find them in the ticket, the note is not done. Silence is not agreement. Then leave the host alone.

This page is a planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, not an official standard, and not permission to touch a host you do not administer. You do not disable a firewall, AppArmor, or SELinux to make a check pass.

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