Destination length question

[MajorFoley]

So while backing up stuff for my new PC i get a destination length error cos it what too long. Just wondering on the external does the name of the external count? Or does it just use root?

So since my drive is a WD elements is it

Elements (E:\)

Or is it just E:\

[seagate_surfer]

Hello MajorFoley,

 

What you are describing point to limitations of the format of the external unit, it happens to be that if the external unit is formatted to FAT32, that external unit will also carry the limitations of FAT32, and one of them is that it cannot handle large files, I quote the following from the FAT32 Wikipedia page:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table#FAT32

 

The maximum possible size for a file on a FAT32 volume is 4 GiB minus 1 byte or 4,294,967,295 (2³² − 1) bytes. This limit is a consequence of the file length entry in the directory table and would also affect huge FAT16 partitions with a sufficient sector size.^[1]Large video files, DVD images and databases often exceed this limit.

 

4GiB can be a synonym of 4GB, you can covert gibibytes to gigabytes or to megabytes and you'll see what I am talking about. So, if this is the case and the format is FAT32 you will need to change it to exFAT to use it across different system types or NTFS for Windows computers.

[MajorFoley]

10 hours ago, seagate_surfer said:

What you are describing point to limitations of the format of the external unit, it happens to be that if the external unit is formatted to FAT32, that external unit will also carry the limitations of FAT32, and one of them is that it cannot handle large files, I quote the following from the FAT32 Wikipedia page:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table#FAT32

 

Except the external is not formatted as FAT32 It's formatted as NTFS as is my internal Data Drive.

[seagate_surfer]

I see... What about the file system type? Different file system types may bring benefits but also incompatibility, when the drive was first formatted the option you used was NTFS but what about the boot drive?

 

 

It appears to be that the destination file system must match the source file system (a bug with the ReFS). If your source location on a local computer is formatted NTFS and the destination is ReFS  or vice versa you may get this error, to check the file system type right click the hard drive, check under properties, general, and see the file system type, examples below:

 

 

 

 

[MajorFoley]

13 hours ago, seagate_surfer said:

I see... What about the file system type? Different file system types may bring benefits but also incompatibility, when the drive was first formatted the option you used was NTFS but what about the boot drive?

 

 

It appears to be that the destination file system must match the source file system (a bug with the ReFS). If your source location on a local computer is formatted NTFS and the destination is ReFS  or vice versa you may get this error, to check the file system type right click the hard drive, check under properties, general, and see the file system type, examples below:

 

 

 

 

I have they are both standard NTFS, the external came formatted as NTFS and the internal I formated as NTFS the moment i got it. There was no reason to use FAT32, I have an older external that was used for my PS3 that way but thats it. 

[seagate_surfer]

Then yes, I guess it is just that the name is too long! Did you try renaming the file to something different (smaller)?

[MajorFoley]

On 9/21/2018 at 10:35 PM, seagate_surfer said:

Then yes, I guess it is just that the name is too long! Did you try renaming the file to something different (smaller)?

Course i did first thing i did, still find it annoying there's limits though.

[seagate_surfer]

Follow the steps below:

1. Open Group Policy Editor (Press Windows Key and type gpedit.msc and hit Enter key.
2. Navigate to the following directory: Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Filesystem > NTFS.
3. Click Enable NTFS (Win32) long paths option and enable it.

 

Microsoft is giving users the ability to increase the limit in Windows 10. However, you will be required to make some edits using Group Policy following these aforementioned steps.