Problems copying from Flash Drive to Hard Drive

I have an 8GB flash drive that holds alot of data but when copying the files
onto my desk top's hard drive, I find that copying goes OK for a while until
I get an error message along the lines of " .... cannot copy file xxxx
becasue the file name or directory name is too long ...".

The files on the flash drive are 'nested' but do not have that many levels
and the files that are apparently causing problems have only short names.

The flash drive is a FAT32 format and the hard drive is NTFS format. I'm
not sure if this makes any difference.

Any help appreciated.

Dave

DavidS wrote:
I have an 8GB flash drive that holds alot of data but when copying the files
onto my desk top's hard drive, I find that copying goes OK for a while until
I get an error message along the lines of " .... cannot copy file xxxx
becasue the file name or directory name is too long ...".

The files on the flash drive are 'nested' but do not have that many levels
and the files that are apparently causing problems have only short names.

The flash drive is a FAT32 format and the hard drive is NTFS format. I'm
not sure if this makes any difference.

Any help appreciated.

Dave
Perhaps the folder that you're copying into has a character length that,
when added, exceeds the limit?

DavidS wrote:
I have an 8GB flash drive that holds alot of data but when copying
the files onto my desk top's hard drive, I find that copying goes
OK for a while until I get an error message along the lines of "
.... cannot copy file xxxx becasue the file name or directory name
is too long ...".

The files on the flash drive are 'nested' but do not have that many
levels and the files that are apparently causing problems have only
short names.

The flash drive is a FAT32 format and the hard drive is NTFS
format. I'm not sure if this makes any difference.

Where are you copying to?

Desktop? My Documents?

You should know the default location for those are, "C:\Documents and
Settings\username\Desktop\" and "C:\Documents and Settings\username\My
Documents\" so the path you start out with already include at least that.

Tried copying a single file you are having trouble copying directly to the
root of the C drive - all by itself?

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

The complete file path has a limitation of 255 characters, including your
"short" filename

--

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience & Security


"DavidS" wrote in message
news
I have an 8GB flash drive that holds alot of data but when copying the
files
onto my desk top's hard drive, I find that copying goes OK for a while
until
I get an error message along the lines of " .... cannot copy file xxxx
becasue the file name or directory name is too long ...".

The files on the flash drive are 'nested' but do not have that many levels
and the files that are apparently causing problems have only short names.

The flash drive is a FAT32 format and the hard drive is NTFS format. I'm
not sure if this makes any difference.

Any help appreciated.

Dave