hello all, i have recently brought a freecom external hdd, thing is it wont back up some of my folders which are on my d drive, it prompts me with filename too long, will this be a case of me having to rar the files that it doesnt like? or just renaming the folder?
How-To Geek Forums » Windows XP
external hdd problem
(7 posts)
Lucas, hello. The first idea that comes to mind is that the external HDD is formatted with FAT or FAT32 filesystem. Can you check to see what filesystem it is? You can go to My Computer, right-click on the drive, select Properties and you should see the filesystem there.
Still, FAT filesystems can support up to 255 character filenames. Is it possible that those files with the full pathname could be longer than 255? The full pathname includes all parent directories, for example D:\long directory name 1\long directory name 2\...\long filename.long extension. Also, what software are you using to do the backups. Good backup software should handle long names, too.
i also thought about the filesystem but it is ntfs,some of the files contained in the folder will transfer whereas the files that the software reports as filename being too long etc seem to have transfered to the external and i can open them but i need to make sure,the software is the bundled cd that came with hdd,is there a decent transfer programme that i could try? i brought this external with secure back up in mind and have used raid 1
Lucas, when you say "transfer", do yo mean that you are copying the files from your D: drive to the external drive? If the D: drive and the external are both NTFS formatted, then there should be no problem with the file names being too long.
It also sounds like you are using some software that came with the external drive. What is the software called? I wonder if it's some outdated utility that can't handle long filenames.
Lucas, there seems to be more than one software utility available for Freecom Data Tank hard drives. There is a Freecom Backup and a Freecom "Personal Media Suite" which apparently includes FreecomSync and Secure & Compress. If you want to continue using these, be sure you have the latest version and try their tech support line:
http://www.freecom.com/ecDownl.....%20Updates
I also found this review of another Freecom drive where they say that the bundled software is a let down. As for alternative software, I use Norton Ghost for imaging and it also does file backups since v12. I have also used Nero BackItUp for file backups. These two are commercial products, though. DriveImage XML is freeware imaging software that I have tried. I use TrueCrypt freeware for encryption.
I have never personally used any syncing software, so I can't recommend any.
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