Character limit NTFS??

H_L

Member
I know it has been discussed heaps of times but it’s getting really dam annoying!!

I formatted a 1tb usb drive in NTFS from research thinking it was the best for what I want as it claims “No realistic file-size or partition size limits” and compatibility very high (which I need as some files are larger than 4gb)

And now I’m running into dramas copy files and folders to the drive as it says “the file names would be to long for the destination folder” and it wont copy so I’m guessing NTFS does have limitations…… limitations on characters.

I could format the drive again but that’s a real hassle as half of the drive is all sorted out.

I have read that you can change the file system without losing your data, I know there’s a chance I’ll loose the date but what’s the safest way to change the file system without losing data?

If anyone has any suggestions that would be greatly appreciated!!!
Cheers
 

H_L

Member
Thanks so much for your reply.

I’m not too sure but I’ll find out as It could be the path as I have all my music in folders and sub folders organised BUT if I rename the actual song to a shorter name sometimes it will copy across.

The source is an old 500gb haddrive (micro usb) formatted in NTFS and I’m directly copying the contents by selecting all the folders “ctrl a” and copy and paste them directly onto an Orico TCM2-C3-BK NVMe USB-C enclosure and that too is formatted as NTFS.

If it works on one NTFS drive shouldn’t it work on the other NTFS drive?

Cheers
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Might have to change your folder structure. Remove a folder or 2 out of the equation if you can. Say for.instance d:/music/artist/album/song.mp3
 

Cromewell

Administrator
Staff member
If it works on one NTFS drive shouldn’t it work on the other NTFS drive?
I would expect. However if you are doing something like copy/pasting the root of one drive to a subfolder on the destination you could be hitting the max path.
 
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