Cannot copy files to hardrive as files names too long

Lady_K

I don't understand why I am not able to copy these files as they are already on an external hardrive from being copied before so there was no problem copying them then.

There are about 200 that cannot be moved from one hardrive to another one and the only option it gives is either skip or cancel so I had to skip. I don't know which files they are as there are too many to write down when skipping each one.

Its windows7 64bit and a Toshiba 2usb external portable hardrive going to a Samsung 3usb brand new portable external hardrive

How could these files have been transferred to the Toshiba hardrive in the first place but cant be transferred now to the Samsung hardrive because the names are too long?

Edit - I have just tried experimenting with one of the files that I know is too long and thought I would try to transfer it to the laptop first to see if that made a difference, it copied fine directly to the laptop but then it would not copy to the Samsung hardrive.
I then decided to try to copy it again to the Toshiba hardrive directly from the laptop and it copied no problem.

What can be wrong with the Samsung hardrive that it cannot copy the files that the Toshiba hardrive has? Could it be a setting or something for the Samsung? I've just bought 2 of these samsung hardrives and they are no good to me if they cant copy longer names that other drives can

bluesnake

windows can only read 256 characters. 3 big causes of long file names:

Possibility1: the common cause is that you have a setup like
c:\super\unmodified super\files\lyric.txt
Then you realise super is unmeaningful, so you make it a bit longer so rename it as follows:
c:\super\unmodified Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is a song from the 1964 Disney musical film Mary Poppins \files\lyric.txt
Then the first super looks a bit out of place and needs be enhanced

c:\this directory contains all the verions sung from 1900 to 2012 of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is a song from the 1964 Disney musical film Mary Poppins \unmodified Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is a song from the 1964 Disney musical film Mary Poppins \files\lyric.txt

now the file is 283 characters, you can probably not rename 'files' anymore or open lyrics.txt
*****************************
Possibility 2: I gave a folder called
c:\this directory contains all the verions sung from 1900 to 2012 of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is a song from the 1964 Disney musical film Mary Poppins (161 characters)

I share this folder as Mary. Now windows sees thus share as \\PCNAME\mary
which is 11-ish characters, but windows will allow me to add file of up to 256-11=245 characters, but when i look in the real folder, the name if 245 characters are used, plus the original folder path of 161 = 406 characters
*****************************
possibility 3:
I have :
c:\tempBS\ and is this dierctory is a combination of file and directories with files just under 256 characters.

I zip all these files up and unzip them into
c:\new directories\ work project 1\monday

The files are now too long for the dierctory.


File length does depend on the operating system.


FreeFileSync is good, but learn to use it properly first on dummy files, or it can and will delete your files. More forgiving is SuperCopier

Lady_K

Thanks that sounds a lot to take in and understand, I'm not tech to that extent really, I wish I was.

What confuses me the most is why am I able to save the files to my Toshiba drive from this very same laptop and operating system but it tells me the file name is too long when I try to save it to the Samsung one? That I don't understand.

I also cannot go through every one of the files that is too long as there are 200, I did start to write them down before skipping each of them but they are long names and I couldn't even see all of the letters or numbers, a lot were numbers so I stopped after 8 files when I realised there were going to be 200.
It also didn't give me the opportunity to change the file name length as I went through them so I had no choice but to skip. So after waiting an hour for the files to transfer I'm now left with missing files and I don't know which ones they are even if I did want to shorten them.

If I can transfer to the Toshiba I do not see why I should have to change the file names of 200 files because of the Samsung

I rang Samsung who gave me the number for Seagate as apparently they make the hardrive but Samsung make the rest. I will call them tomorrow and if there is no simple solution I will return the other one of the same drives back to Amazon for an exchange. Obviously I wouldn't want to return the faulty drive because it now has personal files on it but I'm not happy I don't even want it or trust it so would prefer a refund.

wealdroam

Lady_K wrote: »

If I can transfer to the Toshiba I do not see why I should have to change the file names of 200 files because of the Samsung

I think the suggestion being made earlier was to look at the names of the folders that contain the problem files.

If it is possible to reduce the length of the names of the folders, then it may be possible that by changing one long name you may find all the files can be copied.

Oblivion

Just a shot in the dark, but if the transfer worked on the Toshiba but not on the Samsung, I wonder if the new Samsung drive needs to be formatted first to NTFS?

compmad1

I found that I couldn't unzip a zip file because each the name was too long. I changed the name for a shorter one and all worked after that.

bluesnake

the easiest way would be to use supercopier and it tell you the ones it can't copy

&&&&&&&&&&
another way is to use http://www.parhelia-tools.com/products/pathscanner/PathScanner.aspx and scan for files over 200 characters. The will also show you character lenths of the files.
&&&&&&&&&&
often stuff in your profile like bookmarks. favourites and cookies have long file names
&&&&&&&&&&

sometime creating a directory on external usb e:\1\ and copy it into that.

&&&&&&&&&&

supercopier is the easiest, just look in logs after, then shorten and recopy

lovesgshp

Oblivion wrote: »

Just a shot in the dark, but if the transfer worked on the Toshiba but not on the Samsung, I wonder if the new Samsung drive needs to be formatted first to NTFS?

Thats what I was thinking as well!!

Lady_K

Oblivion wrote: »

Just a shot in the dark, but if the transfer worked on the Toshiba but not on the Samsung, I wonder if the new Samsung drive needs to be formatted first to NTFS?

Thanks, I just checked and its already NTFS.

I have arranged a return for the 2nd of these 2 hardrives but will still be stuck with this one.

I'm really not happy though as I wanted to use one of them as a back up drive and I cant do that now but cant send it back because there are personal files on it.

Lady_K

This is the hardrive, I don't know which to replace it with now

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Slimline-Portable-Hard-Drive/dp/B008PABFX8/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Lady_K

wealdroam wrote: »

I think the suggestion being made earlier was to look at the names of the folders that contain the problem files.

If it is possible to reduce the length of the names of the folders, then it may be possible that by changing one long name you may find all the files can be copied.

I am very reluctant to go to a lot of trouble to find and shorten any of the files because all the 200 went to the Toshiba drive without a problem, I just hope Seagate can tell me to do something easy to put it right unless its faulty.