Using robocopy on windows led to infinite subfolder duplication via a stray shortcut file.... How can I avoid this?

Question

I ran robocopy on my system (with all apps I could close, closed) and tried to rip the entirety of my C drive to a different drive.

Im not sure why but, there was a systemlink in the C drive called "Documents and Settings" and it used said link to create over a terabyte of junk data while I was asleep. Thankfully I stopped it and wiped the drive, but it still kinda sucked.. I was hoping to have it finished so I could go and reset the system this morning, now Im left with no viable backup and the possibility of having more issues in the future.

I would like to back all of the drive up without creating a similar situation again... is there a parameter in robocopy that would allow this?

Specifically, I want to copy the ENTIRE DRIVE. All of its structure and files, ignore empty folders, and only copy the files of links / shortcuts / junctions / whatnot, not the contents of where they point to... Thats what caused this whole mess.

The command I used: robocopy C:\ D:\backup /S /COPYALL /DCOPY:DAT /R:1 /W:1 /B

Answer 1

Append /sj and /sl option in the command to copy junctions and symlinks as is (Administrative privilege is needed to create symlinks). Documentation available here.

@YisroelTech the option /xjd excludes junction points, which does not meet OP's needs. Besides, excess options should also be added in case of symbolic links (although Windows does not automatically create them).

Answer 2

For what it's worth, for what you are probably trying to do, DISM might actually be the better option. You can capture an image of just your C:\ drive into a WIM file, this is done like this:

dism /Capture-Image /CaptureDir:C:\ /ImageFile:"D:\backup\YourFileNameHere.wim" /Name:CBackup2023OrWhatever

This will take the entire partition that holds C:\ and create a WIM file - this can then be natively mounted by Windows and explored like any other mounted filesystem. As far as I understand, it handles symlinks well and may even preserve them properly. Consider reading the link at the end for more inormations regarding WIM files and symlinks.

Alternatively, you can image the physical drive, including partition tables, recovery partitions, anything - but that will of course require there to be a second physical drive to save the file to. This is called an FFU ("Full Flash Utility", not really relevant here) image.

An FFU is captured like this:

dism /Capture-FFU /ImageFile:"D:\backup\YourFileNameHere.ffu" /CaptureDrive:\\.\PhysicalDriveX /Name:CBackup2023OrWhatever

You will need to replace the X after PhysicalDrive with the physical drive number of the drive you will be imaging - it is often 0 but do not assume and check it using diskpart:

C:\>diskpart
Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.19041.964

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: COMPUTERNAME

DISKPART>list vol
  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0     C   SYSTEM       NTFS   Partition    476 GB  Healthy    Boot
  Volume 1                      FAT32  Partition    100 MB  Healthy    System
  Volume 2                      NTFS   Partition    477 MB  Healthy    Hidden

DISKPART>sel vol 0

Volume 0 is the selected volume.
DISKPART> detail vol

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
* Disk 0    Online          476 GB  1024 KB        *

Read-only              : No
Hidden                 : No
No Default Drive Letter: No
Shadow Copy            : No
Offline                : No
BitLocker Encrypted    : Yes
Installable            : Yes

Volume Capacity        :  476 GB
Volume Free Space      :  274 GB

Short recap, start diskpart, get a list of all volumes (list volume; every keyword can be shortened down to at least 3 letters), note the number of the one that has your desired drive letter (like C), select it (select volume 0), then show the detailed information (detail volume - the 0 is not needed as volume 0 is already selected), which shows it living on Disk 0.

You can also go to Disk Management for a more graphical overview if that is preferred.

In my experience you will need to get into a recovery environment to be able to perform those images, however. Normally all it takes is to hold the Shift key and then click through the usual steps to restart Windows - you will then have a few menus to click through, you will want the option that gives you the command line.

You can also boot into a Windows install USB stick and hit Shift+10.