Folder names are to long for external H/D

[leon]

Hi Guys, maybe someone could suggest what the issue is with moving folders to an external H/D.

I have many folders, and now that my computer is playing up I want to make a second copy of the complete photo folders to an other external H/D

All folders have names, some short, some a bit longer, and some in between, however when i start to move the files to the external drive it copies some and than stops and tells me that it cant copy certain folders because the name of the folder is to long. :sadeyes: :shrug:

I know some one may suggest to shorten the names of the folders, but that is something i really don't want to do, besides there are about 4000 folders :)

Is this normal :shrug:

Thanks, Leon :thumbsup:

[mithrandir]

If the external disk is not formatted as NTFS you can't use the long names that you can on the internal disk.
Do you use the disk on any PCs which are not running XP or later? If not you can change the format to NTFS with the "convert" utility built in to Windows. Run "help convert" to get the syntax.
Once it has NTFS format you can use long names, but you might find you can not eject the disk without shutting down the system. It is critically important that you do remove the disk properly. NTFS is much more complex than FAT or FAT32 and does not take kindly to being shut down uncleanly, or the cable pulled without ejecting.

[leon]

Thanks Andrew, the external drive has only been connected to an xp machine.
And to be honest I don't really understand the other info you gave me.

Leon

[noeyedeer]

ntfs will take 128 characters for files and folders, whereas fat32 will take 32 (or 64) characters? usually anything above the recognised will have file/foldername~1 or something ...

least it's not fat .. which will only accept 8 characters

matt

[noeyedeer]

what format is your external hd? and or brand ..

some of the seagates are fat32 so you can use them with apple ... that'd give us a better idea of what you're dealing with

matt

[leon]

I have a WD My Book Essential

Leon

[noeyedeer]

WD should be fine .. I have an old wd, one of the first external hds ..an elements .. and have never had problems with it. for over 3 years.

that's strange Leon .. specially since you're running xp. xp is ntfs? .. or fat32? sorry I've forgotten .. goto my computer .. right click your hard drive and select properties and it should tell you what format it is ..

matt

[noeyedeer]

you could format your external to ntfs if it isn't already .. fairly straight forward .. right click your external and click on format in the menu and make sure ntfs is selected

matt

[noeyedeer]

reading the manual, my book are fat32 ... here's a screen shot ...you will need to reformat to ntfs ...

matt

[mithrandir]

Following those WD instructions erases the disk. "convert" preserves the data.

Everything from NT4 onwards (Win2K, XP, Vista, Win7, Win 8 and all the server versions) supports NTFS. Newer versions will only install on NTFS.

[noeyedeer]

thanks Andrew. if it were me, i would start from a clean format and copy over the files again .. just so youbdidnt miss anything that got busted with long filenames.

I know convert works .. I used that when going from win98 to xp ..

matt

[leon]

Many thanks guys, your help is appreciated, i have checked and the longest file name i have is 60 characters long,

Leon

[leon]

Andrew I have read your response again and get the picture, so to speak.
You are basically telling me that if i have the external H/D connected and then just pull it out it can actually cause it to play up. ?? :shrug:

Well I have to admit i am very guilty of that and have done it more times than i can remember, :rolleyes: I was not really aware of that. :shrug:

Leon :thumbsup:

[mithrandir]

Leon, you might get away with it on FAT or FAT32 devices if there have been no changes to the disk in the last 30secs or so. With NTFS devices it is never a good move.

If you do not properly eject any disk (that includes USB sticks) before pulling the plug the system may not have flushed all changed data from memory to disk. If it was just file contents then you would have corrupted files. If the data includes the directories as where to find files on the disk then you could lose entire directories, and in the worst case the whole disk. Disk recovery programs might find the files and data, but maybe not.

Shutting the system down cleanly does the proper eject process for the non-removable disks. That's why if you turn off the power with the system running, or hold the power button down until it forces a shutdown, when you restart it sometimes wants to check the disk.

It is probably good practice to use Window's chkdsk (at a command prompt run "chkdsk /?" to see the options) from time to time to see if there are any problems - especially if there have been any unclean shutdowns. Depending on what it finds it may schedule a more thorough check at the next reboot.

[leon]

Hmmmm, thanks you Andrew.

Leon

[leon]

Andrew, tomorrow i am heading to town and i will be buying another external H/D, is there anything i should be looking at to make sure it will copy all my files and folders that i currently have on my old XP machine.

I will need to be able to copy the entire files and folders with the longer file names as well.
The longest file name i have is roughly 60-65 characters, but that may extend out to say about 70-80 one day.

And what would be a good purchase you think. :shrug:

Thanks in advance. :thumbsup:

Leon :thumbsup:

[mithrandir]

Leon, I'd suggest you ask for a disk with USB3 connection, but check it is USB2 compatible too. Your current PC may not have USB3 ports, but if you upgrade the PC the new one will have USB3 and it is much faster.
At todays prices you might as well get at least 1TB or 2TB if the prices is only a little more.

I usually buy a drive - Western Digital or Seagate - and fit it in a case myself.

As for ready-to-use brands it might come down to what the dealers stock. If you stick with a better brand like Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba or Apple you should be OK, but the prices differ quite a bit.

Don't forget if the disk is in FAT or FAT32 format to reformat it as NTFS. That way and folder name that works on the PC will work on the external disk too.

By the way, there are also eSATA external disks but you probably don't have an eSATA port on your PC. Those are as fast as internal disks, and ejecting them properly is just as important as USB.

[leon]

Thank you Andrew, I did think WD would be OK, or Seagate for that matter, but just thought i would check.

Leon

[leon]

Andrew, today i purchased a Toshiba 1tb external hard drive, it tells me in compatibility section that it will support XP and USB 3 and 2, also it is formate already for NTFS.

Having said that i presume it will be OK for hooking it up to the old XP machine and downloading all my files with the longer characters to this drive.

leon

[mithrandir]

Leon, that sounds like what you needed. Try copying some directories with long names, and eject it properly. There should be an eject icon in the system tray. If not you'll have to shut down and then unplug. Reinsert it and check everything is there.

You might find that your virus checker or Window's indexing service locks the drive against ejecting. Then the easiest solution is reboot and unplug before Windows starts.

You might try "USB Disk Ejector (http://quickandeasysoftware.net/software/usb-disk-ejector)" to see if that makes things simpler.

[leon]

Excellent, thank you for your support.

Leon

[leon]

Andrew, I have connected and all is well however the download of the files are painfully slow, but i put that down to the very slow XP machine.

The external is doing its stuff, it is a USB 3 unit capable of USB 2 as well, but as i said it is so slow.

I have had it connected since 2pm yesterday and now at 7 pm the next day it is still going and only half way through.

It has 275 Gig to download, which comprises of some 90,000 photos, so i am just letting it run tonight as well.

What else is there to do :shrug:

Leon:thumbsup:

[pw]

Your PC probably has USB 1, so slow no matter what you connect.
Get it backed up and go for something new.

[mithrandir]

Sit back and relax. There isn't anything you can do about it. Once the first copy is complete incrementals should be faster. You could try SyncToy (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=15155) from M$ to do the copying.
If it was USB1 (Full-Bandwidth) you would expect it to take about 17 days.
USB2 (Hi-Speed) should be around 2 days so since you say it's half way there I'd say that's what you have.
USB3 (SuperSpeed) would be something like 4 hours.

[leon]

Thanks guys now i feel a bit better about it, i will just let it run and do it's stuff.

Leon

[leon]

Andrew, yep it is me again LOL, it is still running but close to the end, it has done all the larger Tiff/CR2's and is now working on the Jpegs, which are moving much better.

There was a power failure during the day and i was then able to see where it was at, so have started it up again and hopefully by nights end it will be done. :shrug:

Time for a new machine i reckon. :D :D

Leon :thumbsup:

[mithrandir]

Time to get a UPS I'd say. You want one with a cable to connect to the PC and software to shut the PC down cleanly if the mains power goes away. I've got two (one Sola and one APC) since one won't power my gear (2 PCs and a NAS) for long enough.

Did you get SyncToy or something similar? You might find a few files didn't copy or didn't copy correctly when you lost power and one of the file sync programs will pick that up.