Problem archiving to external drive

R

rob morsberger

Registered
Hi,
I have a recurring problem in system 10: I cannot successfully archive
finished projects (by copying to an external drive) if a folder contains a file name that is too long. Is there a workaround for this; otherwise, what does one do?

Thanks,
Rob
 
It sounds like your external drive is not formatted as Mac OS Extended format. It sounds like it's FAT32-formatted... did you ever reformat the external drive to a native Macintosh format after receiving/purchasing it, or did you just use it straight-away out of the box?

Solution is to get everything off the drive, reformat the drive as HFS+, then copy everything back. That way, any legal filename on your internal hard drive will be a legal filename on the external hard drive since the hard drives are formatted with the same format.
 
Jeff,
thanks so much. I just checked and the internal drive is Mac OS Extended,
while the external one is Mac OS Standard. Does the discrepancy still explain my problem?
 
Hmmm... it shouldn't, but it very well could. Mac OS Standard format (HFS) was replaced in the mid 1990s by Mac OS Extended format (HFS+) and is recommended over HFS.

If you've got the time and room to copy everything off the drive, reformat, then put it all back on, it's worth a shot.
 
Yeah, standard HFS doesn't support >31 character file names. It's a completely outdated format; you should use HFS+ whenever possible. The only real reason to use HFS standard is if you need to maintain compatibility with computers running a version of the Mac OS prior to 8.1.
 
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