NTFS disk suddenly not allowing long filenames

  • Thread starter Thread starter Christoph Burschka
  • Start date Start date
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Christoph Burschka

I have been using an external USB hard drive for a long time on one
Windows XP system. It is formatted as a single NTFS partition.

Now I have connected it to a different computer (also XP), and suddenly
I can no longer create new filenames that are longer than 8 letters. The
drive already contains a lot of such files that can be easily opened,
but are forcibly truncated to 8 letters when I rename them.

I'd suspect an outdated driver or the lack of Service Pack 2, except
that the second computer's local disk *also* uses NTFS - and there I can
create filenames of any length. This appears to be drive-specific, but I
don't see any option to change it in the drive properties. Any advice?

Thanks,
-Christoph

--
"Omniscient? No, not I; but well-informed." -Mephisto
--------------------------------
AOL: cburschka / 313125838
XMPP: (e-mail address removed)
PGP: http://burschka.de/christoph/0x55A52A2A


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I have been using an external USB hard drive for a long time on one
Windows XP system. It is formatted as a single NTFS partition.

Now I have connected it to a different computer (also XP), and suddenly
I can no longer create new filenames that are longer than 8 letters. The
drive already contains a lot of such files that can be easily opened,
but are forcibly truncated to 8 letters when I rename them.

I'd suspect an outdated driver or the lack of Service Pack 2, except
that the second computer's local disk *also* uses NTFS - and there I can
create filenames of any length. This appears to be drive-specific, but I
don't see any option to change it in the drive properties. Any advice?

Thanks,
-Christoph
Click to expand...

Follow-up: Never mind. Now, a few minutes later, it works. The other
difference is that before I was only able to create new folders in the
right-click context menu; now I can also create new text files etc.

Still mysterious, but at least the problem is gone for now.

- --
"Omniscient? No, not I; but well-informed."
- --------------------------------
AOL: cburschka / 313125838
XMPP: (e-mail address removed)
PGP: http://burschka.de/christoph/0x55A52A2A
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