I tend to use long file names, so as to identify needed files readily.
If the file saves to my C drive in Windows XP Professional,
I don't pay particular attention to the length of the file name
that I've used.
But in trying to COPY large files (e.g., a folder holding tens
of thousands of sub-folders, with 2GB of saved data), most
copying programs that I've encountered -- on 250 GB Maxtor
external hard drives, on 40 GB HP external hard drives,
on 2 GB Lexar flash drives -- not only will NOT COPY
a file with an overly-long file name, but they also TERMINATE
THE ENTIRE COPYING PROCESS INSTANTLY, merely on
hitting a single too-long file name.
Going into huge saved data files MANUALLY and MANUALLY
reducing the length of each long file name is impossible.
That's why we have COMPUTERS AND PROGRAMS:
to automate important but tedious tasks and processes.
I am hoping that someone somewhere has
AN AUTOMATIC FILENAME-LENGTH TRUNCATION PROGRAM,
or subroutine -- that could be run through my entire C drive
prior to attempting to copy large files, or, even better,
that could be run ON-THE-FLY in conjunction with any
file-copying process, and that could truncate overly-long
file names on-the-fly, as they are encountered, to permit the
standard file-copying routines or algorithms to proceed
without stopping, and even without losing those particular files
with overlong names.
IS THERE SUCH A FILENAME-LENGTH TRUNCATION PROGRAM?
If so, how can I get an operational version, both for XP Professional
and for XP Media Center?
I'd have thought that this sub-routine would have been the most
obvious thing in the world for MICROSOFT itself to have
incorporated into Windows.
But if it's available in Windows XP Professional or in XP Media Center,
I'm not aware of it.