The manual method:

1. Right-click on the C: drive and select 'search'
2. Search for filenames, for example, *.doc
3. When search has found all the Word documents (from hundreds of different directories), press ctrl+a and drag all the results to a backup folder, e.g. D:\backup.

How could I make this process automatic, e.g. as a batch file that I could add as a scheduled task?

(I know steps 1 and 2 can be shortened with a saved search.)

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You mean you don't already save all documents to a documents folder?

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dir *.doc /b /s /x > C:\Output.txt
for /F "delims=" %%a in (C:\Output.txt) do (
xcopy /Y "%%a" C:\Blah
)

Copy to a batch file and run, should work.

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^^^ you'd need to make sure you run the batch file from the root of C: wouldn't you... or at least change the first line to...

dir c:\*.doc /b /s /x > c:\output.txt

....so you don't have to worry about where the batch file is run from.

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Ah shit yes I used the chdir command but forgot to note it here.

So it would start:
chdir c:\

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Thanks - seems to be working.

The only minor problem is that if I have 2 files named doc1.doc in 2 different folders, one of them gets overwritten in the backup folder. I guess I'll just have to be careful with naming files.

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You could remove the Xcopy switch (/Y) to make it prompt, but you'd have to okay it yourself and make a note of the filename and location separately. I'm not sure of a way to append the name if it exists...

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get yourself the commandline version of Rar. Read up on using file lists. Back up multiple files with directories intact.

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