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Transfer to External hard drive: file name too long

  • 04-04-2015 11:42am
    #1
    gaiscioch
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,534 ✭✭✭


    I have a MyPassport 500GB External Drive, this one. I am trying to transfer ordinary WORD files to it, but it says the file name is too long for the external drive. It does not allow me to shorten all the relevant file names (it seems really silly that I should have to) but instead says "try again" or "skip". Ultimately I have to skip, unaware of all the files which are not being copied.

    By the end of this quite frustrating process, I find there is some 2GB less in the external hard drive - and I don't know what is missing unless I spend hours trawling through both noting the differences. There must be a more intelligent way of doing this?

    Moreover, as it's likely at this rate that I'm going to have to find some computer shop and pay somebody to transfer everything, could somebody please recommend a 1TB external hard drive which will be able to manage a straightforward transfer of files like this? (In 2012, when I last transferred all my data before buying a new laptop, I lost much important work for the same reason so I just need to be sure everything is being transferred).

    Thanks.


Comments

  • #2
    maki
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 772 ✭✭✭maki


    Are you copying a lot of nested folders? Windows has a file path limit of 255 characters, so you're running into a limitation within Windows rather than a problem with your external drive.

    If the files exist on your computer though, they're already under the 255 character limit. Are you copying them into a deeper folder structure on the external drive, thereby pushing the path length over the limit?


  • #3
    gaiscioch
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,534 ✭✭✭gaiscioch


    maki wrote: »
    Are you copying a lot of nested folders? Windows has a file path limit of 255 characters, so you're running into a limitation within Windows rather than a problem with your external drive.

    If the files exist on your computer though, they're already under the 255 character limit. Are you copying them into a deeper folder structure on the external drive, thereby pushing the path length over the limit?

    Thanks. You were on the money there. The actual file names (i.e. MS Word documents) were not too long in themselves but they had been in a folder which was in a folder and that made the overall name too long so I just moved them into a single folder.


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