Hi I just need to separate(move) one file from a folder containing n (n>=1) number of files to a different folder eg: Folder A has I1.txt I2.txt I3.txt move I1.txt to folderB . Please note : file names are dynamic so I cannot look for file stating with I1* . Regardless of file name and extension , move one file from the folder. Thanks Dolly

Here's one way, change copy to move when you're finished testing: @echo off cls for /f "delims=*" %%1 in ('dir /b a\') do ( copy "%%1" b\ > nul & exit /b )

Depends on how you define first. ===================================== If at first you don't succeed, you're about average. M2

Hi Thanks for your reply..But somehow I was not able to use the code because it was throwing me error saying system could not find the specified file.. came up with the following code which is working..Thanks all .. here is my code I dont know how good it is but serves my purpose .. @ECHO ON REM This is to copy all to an archive folder and move first file regardless of name & extn to a different folder and move rest of files to another folder. set dr_cb=C:\prc set drcb_O8322=C:\out\archive set drcb_O832T1=C:\Temp1 set drcb_O832T2=C:\Temp2 Set fnam_cb=I* set l_cbcon=('"dir /B /A:-D %dr_cb%\I*"') FOR /F %%G IN %l_cbcon% DO ( if exist %dr_cb%\%%G ( copy %dr_cb%\%%G %drcb_O8322%\%%G ) ) FOR /F %%G IN %l_cbcon% DO ( move %dr_cb%\%%G %drcb_O832T1%\%%G goto :end1 ) :end1 move %dr_cb%\I* %drcb_O832T2%\ del /Q %dr_cb%