Max. Number Of Characters Allowed In Names For A Transfer To Ext. HD ?

Robert11 · 21 May 2015

Hello,

I tend to use pretty long file names on my Folders, and also, often for the WORD documents inside.

When I try to transfer these to an external HD for backup, the following seems to happen.
But, it is very inconsistent.

Most of the time, but not all, it will ask me to if I want to skip the transfer because the name of the
Folder, or file(s) inside are too long.

If I say yes, but go back and look later, the files have transferred fine.
This is true sometime, but not all the time.
Sometimes it does the transfer, other times it does skip transferring them.

I just ran an experiment with a horrendously long folder name, and also for the WORD document I put inside.
Transferred just fine.

So, for W7, the 64 bit version:

What are the rules, and limits for the number of characters allowed in a
Folder name that will transfer without any problem ?

How about for what is inside the Folder; same rules ?

Can it be possibly that the external HD is controlling this ?

Thanks,
Bob

ignatzatsonic · 21 May 2015

I'm not sure---

But I've always thought that the maximum length was 255 characters in the ENTIRE path.

So, D:\ is 3 characters, leaving you with an additional 252 for all of the subfolders and the file name, COMBINED.

I have some long files names and use a lot of subfolder levels (over 90,000 data files and over 16,000 folders), so I have some long paths. When I copy all files from one drive to another, I occasionally get that notice you mentioned. But I've never noticed that the "too long" file names copy anyway. When that happens, I either go back and shorten the file name or ignore the notice and accept the fact that it hasn't copied.

You should be able to Google for more details.

This might help. I've never used it.

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