I need to copy a batch of operating system images to a new hard drive. On Windows 10, I use robocopy to copy them. The command I use is
robocopy "F:\source" "E:\target" /E /Z /R:3 /W:10 /LOG:copy_log.txt /TEE
The meaning of the parameters is: copy all subfolders, support resume on interruption. Retry 3 times if an error occurs, with a 10-second interval each time, and save a log file. Show output progress.
However, after copying for a while, Windows 10 automatically put my computer to sleep! Windows 10 really is like a dumb pig. It upgrades when it shouldn't, sleeps when it shouldn't, and is usually terribly slow.
When I wake the computer, I still expect robocopy to continue transferring because of its powerful features. But I found that robocopy showed a lot of errors.
00% New File 886 sha1sum.txt
100% New File 1131 sha1sum.txt.asc
100% New File 1174 sha256sum.txt
100% New File 1419 sha256sum.txt.asc
New Dir 14 F:\System Images Collection\Centos\6.0 i386\
94.4% New File 4.3 g CentOS-6.0-i386-bin-DVD.iso
2026/06/18 20:17:29 ERROR 433 (0x000001B1) Copying File F:\System Images Collection\Centos\6.0 i386\CentOS-6.0-i386-bin-DVD.iso
A device which does not exist was specified.
Waiting 10 seconds... Retrying...
New File 4.3 g CentOS-6.0-i386-bin-DVD.iso
2026/06/18 20:17:39 ERROR 3 (0x00000003) Copying File F:\System Images Collection\Centos\6.0 i386\CentOS-6.0-i386-bin-DVD.iso
The system cannot find the path specified.
Waiting 10 seconds... Retrying...
New File 4.3 g CentOS-6.0-i386-bin-DVD.iso
2026/06/18 20:17:49 ERROR 3 (0x00000003) Copying File F:\System Images Collection\Centos\6.0 i386\CentOS-6.0-i386-bin-DVD.iso
The system cannot find the path specified.
Waiting 10 seconds... Retrying...
New File 4.3 g CentOS-6.0-i386-bin-DVD.iso
2026/06/18 20:17:59 ERROR 3 (0x00000003) Copying File F:\System Images Collection\Centos\6.0 i386\CentOS-6.0-i386-bin-DVD.iso
The system cannot find the path specified.
ERROR: RETRY LIMIT EXCEEDED.
New File 359497 CentOS-6.0-i386-bin-DVD.torrent
2026/06/18 20:17:59 ERROR 3 (0x00000003) Copying File F:\System Images Collection\Centos\6.0 i386\CentOS-6.0-i386-bin-DVD.torrent
The system cannot find the path specified.
Waiting 10 seconds... Retrying...
New File 359497 CentOS-6.0-i386-bin-DVD.torrent
2026/06/18 20:18:09 ERROR 3 (0x00000003) Copying File F:\System Images Collection\Centos\6.0 i386\CentOS-6.0-i386-bin-DVD.torrent
The system cannot find the path specified.
Waiting 10 seconds... Retrying...
New File 359497 CentOS-6.0-i386-bin-DVD.torrent
2026/06/18 20:18:19 ERROR 3 (0x00000003) Copying File F:\System Images Collection\Centos\6.0 i386\CentOS-6.0-i386-bin-DVD.torrent
The system cannot find the path specified.
Waiting 10 seconds... Retrying...
New File 359497 CentOS-6.0-i386-bin-DVD.torrent
2026/06/18 20:18:29 ERROR 3 (0x00000003) Copying File F:\System Images Collection\Centos\6.0 i386\CentOS-6.0-i386-bin-DVD.torrent
The system cannot find the path specified.
ERROR: RETRY LIMIT EXCEEDED.
New File 684.0 m CentOS-6.0-i386-LiveCD.iso
2026/06/18 20:18:29 ERROR 3 (0x00000003) Copying File F:\System Images Collection\Centos\6.0 i386\CentOS-6.0-i386-LiveCD.iso
The system cannot find the path specified.
Waiting 10 seconds... Retrying...
New File 684.0 m CentOS-6.0-i386-LiveCD.iso
2026/06/18 20:18:39 ERROR 3 (0x00000003) Copying File F:\System Images Collection\Centos\6.0 i386\CentOS-6.0-i386-LiveCD.iso
The system cannot find the path specified.
Waiting 10 seconds... Retrying...
New File 684.0 m CentOS-6.0-i386-LiveCD.iso
2026/06/18 20:18:49 ERROR 3 (0x00000003) Copying File F:\System Images Collection\Centos\6.0 i386\CentOS-6.0-i386-LiveCD.iso
The system cannot find the path specified.
Waiting 10 seconds... Retrying...
This robocopy, after trying and failing 3 times, just skips copying the file. It moves on to the next one. Then it keeps running into errors and keeps skipping. In the end, it tells you that the copy failed and that some files were skipped. This tool is unreliable. It works like a dumb pig.
I found that after my Windows system woke up, it actually changed the drive letter of my external USB hard drive. It went from F to G, which is why robocopy kept failing.
Windows 10 goes to sleep by itself while copying, and when it wakes up, it actually changes the drive letter of a USB hard drive. This causes all programs that rely on that drive path to fail. I have to say, Windows 10 is totally an unreliable dumb OS.
I was just copying 1.2TB of data and ran into such a serious problem. This clearly shows that both Windows 10 and robocopy are unreliable garbage.
