ok so time for advanced operands:
test.exe>c:\outout.log will records console program output under it's working directory (the directory you are current in)
test.exe && notepad.exe test.exe will execute test.exe first, record the out then open it in Notepad, this can be useful for various things like debugging.
if you replace > with >> DOS with Append the file instead overwriting it
Robocopy is a very robust version of xcopy is manual is HUGE. I use it all the time for copying larg amounts of data as it will resrart where it left off and it also output a log so you double check for errors /LOG+ is the switch.
To read the help just type robocopy | more this will redirect the output to the more command so you can checkout the whole output instead of it kust rolling past you.
A basic robcopy command to mirror a drive contents (assuming you have NTFS permissions) is:
robcopy c: e: /mir /log=c:\robolog.txt /MIR /TEE
Now the important part is getting the SOURCE drive right (on the left) as if you get it wrong it will wipe the source drive, or at least the potential is there. So again USE CAUNTION
