Using TeraCopy, the file timestamps are preserved. However, if you copy a large nested directory, the modification date of some (but not all) of the directories are lost (replaced by the current time).
Are there any user-friendly file copy utilities that can preserve directory timestamps even for nested directories?
Have you tried Robocopy? According to Wikipedia:
- Ability to copy file data and attributes correctly, and to preserve original timestamps, as well as NTFS ACLs, owner information, and audit information using command line switches. (/COPYALL or /COPY:) Copying folder timestamps is also possible in later versions (/DCOPY:T).
The command cp -pr in a Cygwin Terminal does preserve the directory timestamps.
Unfortunately there is no user-friendly progress.
Double Commander also preserves directory timestamps. For large tree copy operations, it is recommended to enable the option "Skip file operations errors and write them to log window"
FreeCommander XE (although still in beta) also preserve directory timestamps.
RichCopy. Better than the command-line Robocopy and better than Robocopy with the GUI addon. RichCopy is a newer replacement generally accepted as the evolution of Microsoft copying tools. It's multi-threaded so it'll copy multiple files in parallel. Progress can be paused and resumed and it'll handle network interruptions. Furthermore, settings are very granular. You can select when to copy if the file already exists based on modification date, filesize, and other attributes. Give it a try and let us know if it preserves timestamps of nested directories. That link is a blog post introduction but the program is downloaded from a link at the top.
The author of RichCopy is Ken Tamaru and he posts occasional information and updates at his blog.
