powershell avoid error message copy-item for an existing folder

Question

I tried with -force but I still get error message

Copy-Item : An item with the specified name C:\folder2 already exists.

Copy-Item 'c:\folder1' -Destination 'c:\folder2' -force

It works for me. But this won't copy any files in folder1. And on second run it will create folder1 inside folder2. — js2010
– js2010, Commented Nov 29, 2021 at 16:26

Theo · Accepted Answer · 2021-11-29 16:17:57Z

2

You can create the destination folder first and then copy everything inside the source folder by adding \* to the path:

# first create the destination folder if it does not already exist
$null = New-Item -Path 'c:\folder2' -ItemType Directory -Force
# then copy all from the source folder to the destination
Copy-Item -Path 'c:\folder1\*' -Destination 'c:\folder2' -Recurse -Force

By using switch -Force on the New-Item command, the cmdlet returns either the object of a newly created folder or the object of an existing folder.
In both cases, we do not need that output, so we'll ignore it using $null =

answered Nov 29, 2021 at 16:17

Theo

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