Copy folders to another partition with XP keeping the date

[Cixert]

It should be simple, but I can't seem to get it right.
Unlike newer Windows versions, XP does not preserve folder dates with copy and paste.

Objective: Copy all files and folders from one partition data to another from XP, preserving the folder date.
The new partition has a different file system and a new cluster size, so clones aren't possible.
It's possible to make a copy to an image and then unzip it, but that seems like a long time to copy 1 TiB and a lot of free space is required.

I've seen several programs that copy files and folders while preserving the folder's backup date, but these programs don't copy to the root directory; they only copy to a single folder. Therefore, they wouldn't be suitable for maintaining a well-organized file allocation table and could cause problems with long filenames. These are:
-Argentum Backup
-Cobian Backup
-Fbackup

So, I decided to look for a program that copies files and folders to the root directory. I've tried over 20 programs, and it doesn't seem to exist. By example these do not retain the date:
-Carifreed SimplySync Backup
-Microsoft Richcopy
-Microsoft Robocopy (command line)

I've only gotten a little bit of success with XXclone (command line), but only halfway. It turns out that using /T only copies folders, not files.
So I'd have to copy the folders first with
xxcopy Q:\ K:\ /E /H /K /T
And then the files with
xxcopy Q:\ K:\ /E /H /K
(Q: and K: are the drive letters)

Are there commands in xxclone to copy one partition to another while preserving the folder's date?
Is there a program with a graphical interface that can do this?
I don't think I'm asking for anything special.
I don't understand why it's so difficult...

Edit:
Achieved with Total Commander.
You must first select "Copy date/time from directories" in the settings menu + copy/delete.
Any other programs?

Edited April 11 by Cixert

[genieautravail]

XYplorer

Otherwise:

https://superuser.com/questions/1748898/how-to-copy-file-folder-and-preserve-their-creation-date-on-windows-10

 

Edited April 11 by genieautravail

[billmcct]

Try this:

https://www.roadkil.net/program.php/P29/Unstoppable Copier

Check the settings tab.

[AstroSkipper]

14 hours ago, Cixert said:

Edit:
Achieved with Total Commander.
You must first select "Copy date/time from directories" in the settings menu + copy/delete.
Any other programs?

I always do this with Total Commander. 

[Multibooter]

The issue of preserving the original folder dates seems to be an issue of NTFS partitions, not of FAT32 partitions,

For example, when copying FTP sites to an NTFS partition, the folder dates of the folders copied to an NTFS target partition get set to the current date. With Beyond Compare you can "Touch" the folder dates on the target NTFS partition in a 2nd step. But when you add a comment file etc later on, the folder date gets changed to the current date and the original folder date is lost. The original folder date provides sometimes important information, e.g. when software was available. The file and folder dates at FTP sites I have named in my notes as the "FTP upload date". I always try to copy FTP sites to a target FAT32 partition, except if there are files >4GB at the FTP site; in that case I copy the file >4GB separately to an NTFS partition..

As a workaround for maintaining the original folder dates I have tried to stick to FAT32 partitions as much as possible. This has limited me in my archive mainly to 1TB and 2TB HDDs, on which I have always created 4 large logical FAT32 partitions and the remaining space as 1 logical NTFS partition, 4+1 has worked fine for me over time. Having more than 4 FAT32 partitions on GPT HDDs >2TB would eventually result in a drive letter overflow, when also connecting a similarly partitioned backup HDD for copying data from one drive to the other. I also try to maintain some backward compatibility to Win98 for my archive. Win98 has a partition size limit for FAT32 partitions, cannot access NTFS without additional tools and cannot use stuff archived stuff on GPT HDDs >2TB.

I therefore consider HDDs >2TB, with huge NTFS partition(s), as useful mainly for movies, music, bittorrent downloads, .isos, stuff from archive.org, .gho and .tbi partition backups, not-yet-processed eMule downloads, infected stuff downloaded, stuff never accessed under Win98, stuff accessed only under Win10, etc, i.e. where the creation date of the holding folder is of secondary importance.

All other stuff I prefer to archive on FAT32 partitions, where the folder dates do not get modified when adding stuff into folders. Under FAT32 I do not need to ask myself "is this the original folder date?", especially because I use Beyond Compare for file handling.

Edited April 13 by Multibooter

[j7n]

I use Total Commander all the time and even bought it. Works well, and good compatibility with old OS. The author still thinks about  Windows 98 occasionally. But he also made the design flat to not be quite dismissed by the new crowd. A fine balance.

[Cixert]

On 4/13/2025 at 4:11 PM, Multibooter said:

The issue of preserving the original folder dates seems to be an issue of NTFS partitions, not of FAT32 partitions,

For example, when copying FTP sites to an NTFS partition, the folder dates of the folders copied to an NTFS target partition get set to the current date. With Beyond Compare you can "Touch" the folder dates on the target NTFS partition in a 2nd step. But when you add a comment file etc later on, the folder date gets changed to the current date and the original folder date is lost. The original folder date provides sometimes important information, e.g. when software was available. The file and folder dates at FTP sites I have named in my notes as the "FTP upload date". I always try to copy FTP sites to a target FAT32 partition, except if there are files >4GB at the FTP site; in that case I copy the file >4GB separately to an NTFS partition..

As a workaround for maintaining the original folder dates I have tried to stick to FAT32 partitions as much as possible. This has limited me in my archive mainly to 1TB and 2TB HDDs, on which I have always created 4 large logical FAT32 partitions and the remaining space as 1 logical NTFS partition, 4+1 has worked fine for me over time. Having more than 4 FAT32 partitions on GPT HDDs >2TB would eventually result in a drive letter overflow, when also connecting a similarly partitioned backup HDD for copying data from one drive to the other. I also try to maintain some backward compatibility to Win98 for my archive. Win98 has a partition size limit for FAT32 partitions, cannot access NTFS without additional tools and cannot use stuff archived stuff on GPT HDDs >2TB.

I therefore consider HDDs >2TB, with huge NTFS partition(s), as useful mainly for movies, music, bittorrent downloads, .isos, stuff from archive.org, .gho and .tbi partition backups, not-yet-processed eMule downloads, infected stuff downloaded, stuff never accessed under Win98, stuff accessed only under Win10, etc, i.e. where the creation date of the holding folder is of secondary importance.

All other stuff I prefer to archive on FAT32 partitions, where the folder dates do not get modified when adding stuff into folders. Under FAT32 I do not need to ask myself "is this the original folder date?", especially because I use Beyond Compare for file handling.

That's exactly the problem I'm experiencing. Copying the folder's modification date with Total Commander hasn't been helpful, since adding a new file to the folder changes the date in NTFS.
I've always used FAT32 as my storage drive, but with a 10Tb hard disk and a single partition, using FAT32 isn't possible.
FAT32 is limited to 8TiB in MBR and 2TiB in GPT.
I've created a list of all the limitations here.
https://msfn.org/board/topic/186771-partition-size-limit-for-fat32-exfat-and-ntfs
So far, I haven't found a program that can preserve the folder's original creation date. I'll try the other programs that have been recommended.
 

 

[jumper]

Moving a folder tree on the same volume should retain creation and modification dates. Moving to another volume is a copy/delete operation and the OS will give all items new creation dates. This could be post-processed by modifying the directory entries with low-level calls. Otherwise the system date and time would need to be temporarily changed as each item is moved.