Robot Copier (GPL)

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Robot Copier (GPL)

I have started writing more and more robot virtual assistants to help me perform tasks that I no longer have time to perform. One of my latest is this "Robot Copier.bat" batch script. It basically monitors a directory for files. Whenever it sees a new file that doesn't exist in another specified location, it automatically copies it for you.

I wrote this robot assistant to help me copy tons of CD's I've made over the years. Originally, I had to sit at the computer, insert the disc, copy the files, remove the disc, and do it again. With "Robot Copier.bat" I can shortcut those steps to just inserting and ejecting the disc. I don't even have to sit down any more.

Currently, it could only copy the files from the source directory you specify. It cannot copy sub-directories, because I didn't want to create any ambiguities. But you can easily change the code to make it do so.

"Robot Copier.bat" takes advantage of the following batch files. They are also available on this web site. So to use "Robot Copier.bat", you'll have to download these other batch scripts, if you don't already have them.

HasDirectory.bat
IsDirectory.bat
SetNumberOfArguments.bat
SetVariableToOutput.bat
Sleep.bat

"Robot Copier.bat" is distributed as executable source code under the GNU General Public License. Please see the license agreement elsewhere on this site. If you make changes to this batch file, please feel free to upload it back here to share it with others.

Usage

  "Robot Copier.bat" source destination

Attached File: Robot Copier.bat (1 KB)

Chieh Cheng
Mon, 01 Mar 2010 09:13:11 +0000

If you download the "Command Line Tool: Eject" from Four Ways To Insert/Eject CD-ROM Tray In Windows, then this "Robot Copier.bat" can even eject the CD tray after it copies the CD. You just have to put these two lines right after the "for" loop:

  call Sleep.bat 2
  eject %source%

Chieh Cheng
Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:18:57 +0000

After you insert the CD, "Robot Copier" will start copying files. But at the same time, on Windows Vista, the AutoPlay dialog will pop up (see screen shot below). You can, of course, ignore it. After the disc is ejected, it will disappear by itself. But if you are working on the computer, that can be quite annoying.

The "Set AutoPlay defaults in Control Panel" link on the AutoPlay dialog can help you eliminate that dialog box. For discs that contains "Software and games", "Pictures", and "Video files", the default is to "Ask [you] every time". You can change them to "Take no action" so that Windows Vista will never ask you again.

Attached Image:

AutoPlay..png

Chieh Cheng
Fri, 05 Mar 2010 05:17:20 +0000

"Robot Copier.bat" has worked really well. Within the last few days I have copied about a hundred CD's and DVD's to my hard drive. And doing all this leisurely while working on something else at my computer. With the command-line eject, all I had to do was swap the disc and close the tray.

Chieh Cheng
Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:21:51 +0000

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