Diskcopy
| Company type | Utility software |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer software |
| Founded | August 1982 |
Area served | MS-DOS, IBM PC DOS, Digital Research FlexOS, IBM/Toshiba 4690 OS, MetaComCo TRIPOS, Processor Technology PTDOS, AmigaDOS, TSL PC-MOS, PTS-DOS, SISNE plus, FreeDOS, IBM OS/2, Microsoft Windows |
Key people | Imre Leber (FreeDOS implementation) |
| Products | Disk copying utility |
Implementations
The diskcopy utility is implemented in a variety of operating systems such as MS-DOS, IBM PC DOS, Digital Research FlexOS, IBM/Toshiba 4690 OS, MetaComCo TRIPOS, Processor Technology PTDOS, AmigaDOS, TSL PC-MOS, PTS-DOS, SISNE plus, FreeDOS, IBM OS/2, and Microsoft Windows.
Initially introduced in August 1982 for MS-DOS, this command has been part of MS-DOS releases starting from version 2 onward. Similar versions exist in systems like DR DOS 6.0 and Datalight ROM-DOS. The FreeDOS implementation, created by Imre Leber, is distributed under the GNU GPL version 2 license.
Modern editions of Windows, including Windows 10 and Windows 11, no longer include the diskcopy command; instead, the xcopy command provides comparable functionality.
Example
- To duplicate the entire contents of a diskette from Drive A to Drive B:
<syntaxhighlight lang="doscon"> >diskcopy a: b: </syntaxhighlight>
- When only a single diskette drive is present, specify just the source drive; the program will request the destination diskette after reading each track sequentially:
<syntaxhighlight lang="doscon"> >diskcopy a: </syntaxhighlight>
- To copy solely the first side of a diskette, apply the /1 option even if the destination disk supports two sides:
<syntaxhighlight lang="doscon"> >diskcopy a: /1 </syntaxhighlight>
- Including the /V parameter enables verification of copied data but results in longer processing times:
<syntaxhighlight lang="doscon"> >diskcopy a: /V </syntaxhighlight>
- To restrict temporary storage usage to conventional memory, use the /M switch:
<syntaxhighlight lang="doscon"> >diskcopy a: /M </syntaxhighlight>
Limitation
The diskcopy command cannot be used with hard disk drives, CDs, network-attached storage (network drives), Zip drives, or USB drives. Additionally, it does not support copying between 3.5-inch and 5.25-inch floppy drives. Both source and target disks must have matching capacities.