I'm in a bit of a bind here. I was running a Robocopy command in PowerShell to mirror files from drive X to drive Z, but now I find that there are no files left in either location! I suspect it might be because of the /MIR switch, which I heard can also delete files from the destination if they aren't present in the source. The two locations are on file servers across different Azure subscriptions, and unfortunately, we don't have any Azure backups set up. Is there any way to restore the lost files from either the source or destination?
3 Answers
Definitely check your log file to see what actually happened during the Robocopy process. It might give you clues about what was transferred or deleted. Just a note for future reference: always validate your source and destination paths before running something like this, especially when using /MIR, which is super powerful but potentially destructive.
This is a classic case of what NOT to do with Robocopy! The /MIR switch can cause all sorts of trouble if you’re not careful. If there are truly no backups, your best bet may be to resort to recovery software and hope for the best. But seriously, for the future, make it a rule to always verify you have good backups before executing commands that could wipe data.
Couldn’t agree more. And honestly, the person who ran this command should be reminded to test scripts in a sandbox environment next time!
Yikes, that sounds rough! The first takeaway here is always have backups for important data, especially before running commands like this. The /MIR switch can indeed be destructive, as it mirrors your source to the destination, potentially wiping out files that aren't in the source. If you don’t have a backup, recovery might be tricky, but you could try using a file recovery tool like Recuva to see if any data can be salvaged. Just keep in mind that if those destination files were overwritten by the source files, your chances of recovery might be slim.
Exactly! And be careful in the future. Testing your commands in a safe environment or using the /L option can save you a lot of headaches.
Good point! And if you’re ever uncertain, do a dry run first. It could save you a lot of grief.