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My backup software will not back up a particular file if the path to that file (including the name itself) is over 255 characters. The file name length does not matter, by itself.

But my backup software will NOT stop at that file. It will skip it and continue to back up all files whose paths are no more than 255 characters in length. I can then look in the log and see which files were not backed up.



I have no idea what software he is using, but there are clearly programs that do not STOP. I use one of them.

Likewise, if his software stops at 18 character file names per se, he's using bogus software. I've never even heard of software that will balk at anything other than full path length of 256 or more characters--and even then it should skip rather than stop.

It may be that his files are in a deeply nested folder that itself is circa 237 characters in path length. In that case, an 18 character file name would succeed (255 character total path length) and a 19 character file name would fail (256 character total path length).

Thanks for the info.

Will do.

The problem is that to find files (where I have hundreds of thousands); the only way I can think of, of finding them, is to have a descriptive file folder and descriptive file folder contents and descriptive files-names. That job of pulling files out of directories and re-naming each one would take forever. It would break my understanding of how to find a specific file.

I guess having files I do not know where to find; e.g. having a short time to find an important legal file, which relates to a specific part of a case; or when trying to find a piece of conceptual design file for a specific image; requires that I have the most information I can to dig through maybe half-a-million files of various types.
I don`t have the lifespan to search one-by-one.

Length of the Path ALSO. EXACTLY. Nail on the head.


I have had thousands.

N.B.
I have a concept on how to get a programmer to write a program to prevent files from being made too long (including directory names); and today wrote to a software company to move that one forward.
Maybe even have a 64Gb USB `program` that collects copies of selected file types automatically when you save in Word or whatever program you select....I would need a lot of them and some way to catalog them. CD/DVD Discs get sat-on or scratched or sometimes just fail.
P.S.
Most of my files are WORD (2010/ Word 2007 Word 2000) files, JPEG/RAW images and AVCHD (+MPEG etc) video files and WAV/MP3 sound files etc.
Some documents are within files, that are within files, that are within briefcases etc.
LONG PATH, over the limit.

P.P.S.
I found it interesting the way opening a laptop Windows 7 x64 Word 2010 document in Word 2000 on my XP desktop used to smash my documents to pieces when it auto-saved.
But eventually microsoft fixed that glitch; in my case, only after I lost two-to-three hundred hours work.

I agree with ignatzatsonic's hypothesis.

I have experienced similar problems.
I think it was when I tried accessing files on Network Shares that weren't mapped to a drive letter.

Here are some ideas:

There are excellent search tools that can produce a list of file names containing a certain search string very quickly---typically in a second; presumably a bit longer in your case if you have hundreds of thousands.

One such search tool is Everything, from voidtools.com. It is free. It searches file names or partial file names ONLY, not file contents.

To give you an idea, I just typed "and doc" into Everything. It coughed up 298 files in less than 1 second. All of them contain "and doc" somewhere in the file name. Most of them are Word files, found due to the "doc".

I then tried "and docx" and the list immediately shrunk to 75, representing Word files with a docx extension.

Secondly--and you apparently rejected this years ago:

If you have a file that contains roast beef recipes, name it "roast beef" and put it in D:\recipes. Rather than naming it "here is a file that contains some pretty cool pictures I took while on vacation and also some food related stuff" and putting it in D:\users\yourusername\stuff\food-related\cooking\recipes.

I have tens of thousands of files---I'd guess no more than 100 have file names per se that are more than 50 characters. I can get away with that because of my folder structure, which is often 5 folders deep.

So, I might have this path:

D:\pix\vacation\1998\Vegas\RollingStones

and in that a file named "Mick Jagger grinning.jpg". Total path length maybe 50 characters.

Effectively, most of the "naming" is done by the path, rather than a file name such as "Picture of Mick Jagger grinning, taken in Las Vegas while on vacation in 1998" located in a folder called D:\stuff, where there might be 50,000 pictures with no further categorization.

If I am looking for Jagger pictures and can't recall the year I saw the Rolling Stones in Las Vegas, I use the Everything search engine to ID the path, and then either navigate to the folder manually or pop the pic open directly from Everything. The search term would be "jagger jpg".

My data drive has 62,000 files and 12,000 directories. The number of directories poses no problem and in fact helps because of the high degree of categorization and the search tool when I need it (which is only occasionally).

Maybe you have thought all of this through and rejected it. It's just my method.

Thank you for your addressing the issue/s.
But this method you use;-
..could not work in my case.
Mainly because of all the cross-referencing elements all my files need to have.
I cannot put files for Manchester in a Manchester file folder because they are also in part used in a London folder and even a Strasbourg folder. I need to find names, or other details form memory also in a file and I would have to have more copies than you could shake a stick at if they were cataloged normally.
If I put a set of files in Manchester I might spend ages searching through all the London files for that document set. etcetera.
Descriptive file-names are the way to go for me until I get a brain update.
At least I can find them with just a few key words.
Naming files;- "Stuff" just doesn`t cut it, on this occasion.
Each document has essential elements which need to be found and may need to be addressed in a short time. Thank goodness for USB sticks. wherever they all get to.

Who has one which has a ticker-tape LCD to `see` the content file-name/s (when you press a button)?

Another `conceptual design` from yours truly.

If you are talking about pictures you could use a series of tags and arrange you pictures library by tag. This would work for videos as well. Unfortunately other types don't natively support tags so you may require a third party solution.

I appreciate the point and agree All file types could have (via update) or should have a tag　option when saving any file or set of files.
Many people do need to keep many file types　in one folder of a set of similar. Tagging is a step in the right direction.
midnight here in . Gdnite

I think you need to re-read ignatzatsonic's post...

His method is in blue, not the part you quoted.

As Derekimo pointed out----you apparently did not read my post accurately.

I would NEVER use a method like that.

I pointed out that that type of file name is exactly what I would NOT do and I gave my alternative.