Recommedndation on filecopy utility that truncates long filenames

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Guest

I have file names from web pages that are very long and prevent copying to my
new storage drive.

Is there a utility that will batch-rename long fileneames to enable a drag &
drop directory-copy to a new storage device?

Also, a "search for duplicates" function would be helpful to make sure
nested duplicates can be eliminated, to prevent copying multiple copies of
same file.

thanks!
 
xcopy source dest /e /c /h /r /k

will skip the files it can't copy. Does mean losig the files with over-long
names though.

This is a very serious issue with Windows' filing-system, and one which
urgently needs fixing. It can result in a major data loss, since many
backup-progs fall-over completely when they encounter an illegal filename,
and this generally means that userprofiles cannot be backed-up with any
confidence.

The blame (as wth so many computer woes) lies with Internet Explorer, which
for some reason is allowed to break the normal filing-system rules.
 
Thanks Anteaus ....

I'm not a tech guy -- so could you help me understand that command, please?
If I am copying a folder called "WEB RESEARCH" from my computer's hard drive
to an external drive, and if within that folder are overly-long files names,
and names using invalid characters, can you give a more specific example of
what that command looks like? and, since I am a NewGuy, is this command
entered after I select the "Run" choice from the Start Menu?


ALSO: Yeah, as far back as in 2000, I had paid an IT consultant in SF Bay
Area to provide me a backup solution, and told him I save a lot of webpages
and webpage URL files... In addition to paying inflated consulting rates back
then, he had me buy an HP tape drive that, back then was $1500, and I could
never figure out how to run a backup on my own. But worse, while he was
there, the copy process would stop ALL the time due to these long file names,
and his answer:

"Rename them, with shorter names". I said, but there are thousands of files.
I'm supposed to go through an manually rename all those that are too long?

He said "yes". Drove me nuts.

Later a few years ago, after I'd abandoned that hardware, and had never
gotten a backup, since it wouldn't skip the long names, and just ate up
chunks of hours of my time for what would seem like something routine, a
friend says "just buy hard drives, they're so cheap now, I wouldn't bother
with tape at all, for home use... AND you'll probably have better luck with
those long file names copying over."

Still had the problem... And now I have finally hired a new consultant to
set up a cross platform (PC and Mac) file server for me, and yet again, in
2007, still, the same problem, and the solution? "Rename those long
filenames". It's insane. It's as if no one at Microsoft has ever found that
anyone has ever wanted to backup files that include these webpages that
save-to-drive with these long and invalid file names -- that choke when
trying to copy.

So, when you say, a problem that urgently needs fixing... I have to wonder,
what have other people been doing these past 7 years?

All that said, I did find a utility at DOWNLOAD.com which apparently aims to
correct this problem, but I wanted to get someone's opinion of it first:

FilenameFixer (aptly named :)
http://www.download.com/FileNameFixer/3000-2248_4-10542711.html

I also found these, which seem less relevant:

Renamer 1.1
http://www.download.com/Renamer/3000-2193_4-10529406.html

lastly, this one, meant for MP3 renaming:
http://www.download.com/File-and-MP3-Renamer-2006/3000-2248_4-10614509.html

Thanks for any further advice :)
 
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