General

basic command is move path+file1 newpath

create a *.bat file to batch move multiple files across multiple directories

Steps

1. Open a Command Prompt window at your desired location : hold Shift, right-click in the folder, and select “Open command window here.”

2. Extract all filenames including path by entering the command: dir /s /b >move.bat and press Enter

3. Goto NotePad and Open move.bat (to open select: view all file types)

4. From the menu select Edit>Select all>Copy

5. Goto Excel, paste data (may need to use text import wizard so data is not auto parsed)

6. Remove any files you do not wish to move (e.g. move.bat)

7. Insert column to left, enter “move” for all rows

8. In column to right of filenames, enter new path

9. Select entire range (3 columns) and press Copy

10. Toggle back to move.bat in NotePad

11. Replace all lines: Edit>Select all>Paste

12. Save and close file move.bat

13. Toggle back to command prompt and enter “move.bat” and press Enter

Figure 1: Example of creating command lines in excel

Other variations

Move folders with entire files

move     c:\folderA     z:\folderB      (no ending slash)

Move just the files to other folders

move     c:\folderA\*.*     z:\folderB      (*.* is a wildcard that tells the computer to copy all the files in the directory)