WinZip - WinRar - etc., for large file compression and transfer?

[Da Mail Man]

Greetings all again....

Win XP Pro, (SP3), (1 TB HD), on computer......

I have MANY HUGE files saved in an external hard drive that, when I attempt to transfer them to my XP computer from the EXT HD,, I get an error indicating that the file name is to long ....( I am talking about 1/2 - 3/4 TB in data)....I have not yet attempted to transfer files (as above) to my "7" computer..

So, to try and get around this, tried to "Winip" (ZIP) them in the EXT HD and transfer them that way but, found out that ZIP as a 2 GB size limit....

I tooled around on the net to see the size capacity of WinRar (Rar) but, cannot locate any info....

My next thoughts are, to encrypt the files (MANY stored in individual folders) and try to transfer them that way since XP would not give me an error message of "to long a file name"......

Somewhere, buried in my closet is a "cross-over" cable which, I have never used......All I know about setting it up is, each end of the cable plugs into each computers' net card.....

Possible solutions?

 

[johnb35]

Word of advice here. Windows considers the whole file path part of the file name. So you may have move files to a folder and then move them from drive to drive.

 

[Da Mail Man]

Thanks for the reply....

What I have (for example) is 1 folder with a single name as "DONE", containing many folders, and in some of them, other folders....

 

[beers]

You're confusing file name with file size.

 

[Da Mail Man]

I received (2) error messages........I can spend a day looking at a few hundred file s and shorten names but, "zip" gave me the size error.

 

[johnb35]

Thanks for the reply....

What I have (for example) is 1 folder with a single name as "DONE", containing many folders, and in some of them, other folders....

That is your problem. Like I said they consider the actual file path part of the filename when copying. You need to better sort your files.

 

[beers]

I received (2) error messages.

Correct, and you're confusing them both.

 

[Da Mail Man]

Thanks for the replies!

AHHH, now I think I understand.........%#%$&*&%^%%$^.......I'll be doing this 2 years after I am DEAD just to get this straightened out!....
"As I raise the gun to my head----"

What if I were to encrypt all of it (the entire file folder with it's contents?...There would be nothing for the computer to read except the "main folder extension(???) (it's like reading an outside of an "envelope but, not seeing the contents).

 

[johnb35]

What if I were to encrypt all of it (the entire file folder with it's contents?...There would be nothing for the computer to read except the "main folder extension(???) (it's like reading an outside of an "envelope but, not seeing the contents).

Just don't. Just store your files in your user folder but don't keep creating folders inside of folders inside of folders inside of folders. So instead of having 1 folder with who knows how many folders nested deep, have that many folders inside your user document folder. Then you'll never have this error again.

 

[Da Mail Man]

Yeah...It was easy to place 'em there but, taking them out is/was another story.......

Now, all I have to do next is deal with my mail transfer problem!.....THANKS AGAIN!!

 

[beers]

What if I were to encrypt all of it (the entire file folder with it's contents?...There would be nothing for the computer to read except the "main folder extension(???) (it's like reading an outside of an "envelope but, not seeing the contents).

That resolves neither the file path situation nor a file size situation.

You can have folders in an archive however, which would reduce the 'effective path' of things within the archive as it is a single container file. A lot of people do similar things with ISO that you can mount/unmount similar to a block device.

 

[Da Mail Man]

THANKS FOR THE REPLY!
Still a bit confusing to me...I figure that all the computer would see is the extension of "the main folder" and nothing "inside"....

 

[Da Mail Man]

Let me tray something else----

If the files that I have on a different (external) hard drive not installed to which I am trying to transfer files from it to my "7" computer and having issues due to long file names as previously addressed.....What if I installed that "external" hd into my "7" computer as a 2nd drive and then, slid files over onto main "7" drive?..Could that work?

 

[johnb35]

It's not gonna matter because you will still have the long filepath causing the problem. As I said before you will need to pull all your files out of those deep folders or pull your folders into one main folder. No more folders inside of folders inside of folders inside of folders and so and so on. This thread has been going on for 9 days now. I don't know why its so hard for you to understand what you need to do to resolve this.

I am now closing this thread.