File Path Limitations

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Bart Perrier

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We are getting ready to migrate about 1000 Home Directories to a new
location on the network and I have my strategy/plan ready to go but I have
been noticing something that I am hoping I can get around.

I have some users who are very, very organized and very beautifully create
folders with excellent names for everything. The problem is, eventually the
complete path of the folder, even with a mapped letter drive, becomes too
long.

What is the character limitation for the path to a file? I was under the
impression is was a lot longer than a user could conceivably exhaust, but I
am mistaken.

Below is an example -- I have removed the username and replaced it wtih
NAME01. It is 326 characters long.

Thanks.
Bart


d:\Users\NAME01\Audits\FY2008 Audits\2007-06 Lab MCR Compliance
Review\Background Research\CAP accreditation-all files req'd to access
webpage\Certification Boards for Clinical Consultants and Laboratory
Directors of High Complexity Testing_files\Standards for Laboratory
Accreditation - College of American Pathologists_files
 
Re: File Path Limitations


"Bart Perrier" <bart_perrier@SPAMFREEhotmail.com> wrote in message
news:uBe7KdoxIHA.3968@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> We are getting ready to migrate about 1000 Home Directories to a new
> location on the network and I have my strategy/plan ready to go but I have
> been noticing something that I am hoping I can get around.
>
> I have some users who are very, very organized and very beautifully create
> folders with excellent names for everything. The problem is, eventually
> the complete path of the folder, even with a mapped letter drive, becomes
> too long.
>
> What is the character limitation for the path to a file? I was under the
> impression is was a lot longer than a user could conceivably exhaust, but
> I am mistaken.
>
> Below is an example -- I have removed the username and replaced it wtih
> NAME01. It is 326 characters long.
>
> Thanks.
> Bart
>
>
> d:\Users\NAME01\Audits\FY2008 Audits\2007-06 Lab MCR Compliance
> Review\Background Research\CAP accreditation-all files req'd to access
> webpage\Certification Boards for Clinical Consultants and Laboratory
> Directors of High Complexity Testing_files\Standards for Laboratory
> Accreditation - College of American Pathologists_files

The maximum relative length is about 255 characters, as seen by the user.
If his share points into the middle of a long path
(e.g. d:\Users\NAME01\Audits\FY2008 Audits\2007-06 Lab MCR Compliance
Review)
then the physical length as seen on the server can be much greater. You need
to educate your users to put their information into their files, not into
their folder
names. Paper-based suspension files used to have tabs and people got along
very nicely with the small amount of text they could write on these tabs,
so ask your users to stick to this principle.
 
Re: File Path Limitations


"Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@fly.com.oz> wrote in message
news:uBuVF$oxIHA.4952@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>
> "Bart Perrier" <bart_perrier@SPAMFREEhotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:uBe7KdoxIHA.3968@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>> We are getting ready to migrate about 1000 Home Directories to a new
>> location on the network and I have my strategy/plan ready to go but I
>> have been noticing something that I am hoping I can get around.
>>
>> I have some users who are very, very organized and very beautifully
>> create folders with excellent names for everything. The problem is,
>> eventually the complete path of the folder, even with a mapped letter
>> drive, becomes too long.
>>
>> What is the character limitation for the path to a file? I was under the
>> impression is was a lot longer than a user could conceivably exhaust, but
>> I am mistaken.
>>
>> Below is an example -- I have removed the username and replaced it wtih
>> NAME01. It is 326 characters long.
>>
>> Thanks.
>> Bart
>>
>>
>> d:\Users\NAME01\Audits\FY2008 Audits\2007-06 Lab MCR Compliance
>> Review\Background Research\CAP accreditation-all files req'd to access
>> webpage\Certification Boards for Clinical Consultants and Laboratory
>> Directors of High Complexity Testing_files\Standards for Laboratory
>> Accreditation - College of American Pathologists_files
>
> The maximum relative length is about 255 characters, as seen by the user.
> If his share points into the middle of a long path
> (e.g. d:\Users\NAME01\Audits\FY2008 Audits\2007-06 Lab MCR Compliance
> Review)
> then the physical length as seen on the server can be much greater. You
> need
> to educate your users to put their information into their files, not into
> their folder
> names. Paper-based suspension files used to have tabs and people got along
> very nicely with the small amount of text they could write on these tabs,
> so ask your users to stick to this principle.
>

Thanks, Pegasus. I was afraid it was 256.

Bart
 
Re: File Path Limitations

Hello Bart,

Small remark, today i got a dvd with a lot files without a document type
like .doc or whatever, which i found out after copying them to the harddrive
with robocopy (windows drag and drop itself was crying about corrupt files).
After determining the corrupt files in a more then 255 character based folder
structure + filename, which contains the content of the document, i had problems
to delete this files. Because of no endings like .doc or whatever, i could
not rename or add an extension, nothing. The disk was from another company
built and finally i found a way to delete the corrupt files, but it took
me longer then planned for this. In our offices we teache the user's about
this, over years ofcourse, but it helps.

Best regards

Meinolf Weber
Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers
no rights.
** Please do NOT email, only reply to Newsgroups
** HELP us help YOU!!! http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm

> "Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@fly.com.oz> wrote in message
> news:uBuVF$oxIHA.4952@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>
>> "Bart Perrier" <bart_perrier@SPAMFREEhotmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:uBe7KdoxIHA.3968@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>
>>> We are getting ready to migrate about 1000 Home Directories to a new
>>> location on the network and I have my strategy/plan ready to go but
>>> I have been noticing something that I am hoping I can get around.
>>>
>>> I have some users who are very, very organized and very beautifully
>>> create folders with excellent names for everything. The problem is,
>>> eventually the complete path of the folder, even with a mapped
>>> letter drive, becomes too long.
>>>
>>> What is the character limitation for the path to a file? I was under
>>> the impression is was a lot longer than a user could conceivably
>>> exhaust, but I am mistaken.
>>>
>>> Below is an example -- I have removed the username and replaced it
>>> wtih NAME01. It is 326 characters long.
>>>
>>> Thanks.
>>> Bart
>>> d:\Users\NAME01\Audits\FY2008 Audits\2007-06 Lab MCR Compliance
>>> Review\Background Research\CAP accreditation-all files req'd to
>>> access webpage\Certification Boards for Clinical Consultants and
>>> Laboratory Directors of High Complexity Testing_files\Standards for
>>> Laboratory Accreditation - College of American Pathologists_files
>>>
>> The maximum relative length is about 255 characters, as seen by the
>> user.
>> If his share points into the middle of a long path
>> (e.g. d:\Users\NAME01\Audits\FY2008 Audits\2007-06 Lab MCR Compliance
>> Review)
>> then the physical length as seen on the server can be much greater.
>> You
>> need
>> to educate your users to put their information into their files, not
>> into
>> their folder
>> names. Paper-based suspension files used to have tabs and people got
>> along
>> very nicely with the small amount of text they could write on these
>> tabs,
>> so ask your users to stick to this principle.
> Thanks, Pegasus. I was afraid it was 256.
>
> Bart
>
 
Re: File Path Limitations


"Meinolf Weber" <meiweb(nospam)@gmx.de> wrote in message
news:ff16fb669f65e8ca9576cb6fb030@msnews.microsoft.com...
> Hello Bart,
>
> Small remark, today i got a dvd with a lot files without a document type
> like .doc or whatever, which i found out after copying them to the
> harddrive with robocopy (windows drag and drop itself was crying about
> corrupt files). After determining the corrupt files in a more then 255
> character based folder structure + filename, which contains the content of
> the document, i had problems to delete this files. Because of no endings
> like .doc or whatever, i could not rename or add an extension, nothing.
> The disk was from another company built and finally i found a way to
> delete the corrupt files, but it took me longer then planned for this. In
> our offices we teache the user's about this, over years ofcourse, but it
> helps.
>
> Best regards
>
> Meinolf Weber
> Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
> confers no rights.
> ** Please do NOT email, only reply to Newsgroups
> ** HELP us help YOU!!! http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm
>
>> "Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@fly.com.oz> wrote in message
>> news:uBuVF$oxIHA.4952@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>>
>>> "Bart Perrier" <bart_perrier@SPAMFREEhotmail.com> wrote in message
>>> news:uBe7KdoxIHA.3968@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>>
>>>> We are getting ready to migrate about 1000 Home Directories to a new
>>>> location on the network and I have my strategy/plan ready to go but
>>>> I have been noticing something that I am hoping I can get around.
>>>>
>>>> I have some users who are very, very organized and very beautifully
>>>> create folders with excellent names for everything. The problem is,
>>>> eventually the complete path of the folder, even with a mapped
>>>> letter drive, becomes too long.
>>>>
>>>> What is the character limitation for the path to a file? I was under
>>>> the impression is was a lot longer than a user could conceivably
>>>> exhaust, but I am mistaken.
>>>>
>>>> Below is an example -- I have removed the username and replaced it
>>>> wtih NAME01. It is 326 characters long.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks.
>>>> Bart
>>>> d:\Users\NAME01\Audits\FY2008 Audits\2007-06 Lab MCR Compliance
>>>> Review\Background Research\CAP accreditation-all files req'd to
>>>> access webpage\Certification Boards for Clinical Consultants and
>>>> Laboratory Directors of High Complexity Testing_files\Standards for
>>>> Laboratory Accreditation - College of American Pathologists_files
>>>>
>>> The maximum relative length is about 255 characters, as seen by the
>>> user.
>>> If his share points into the middle of a long path
>>> (e.g. d:\Users\NAME01\Audits\FY2008 Audits\2007-06 Lab MCR Compliance
>>> Review)
>>> then the physical length as seen on the server can be much greater.
>>> You
>>> need
>>> to educate your users to put their information into their files, not
>>> into
>>> their folder
>>> names. Paper-based suspension files used to have tabs and people got
>>> along
>>> very nicely with the small amount of text they could write on these
>>> tabs,
>>> so ask your users to stick to this principle.
>> Thanks, Pegasus. I was afraid it was 256.
>>
>> Bart
>>
>
>

Thanks for the additional reply, Meinolf.

I have not thoroughly explored RoboCopy but do have a strategy that I am
familiar with -- I will do a full restore (about 5 hours -- 200 GB) during
the week and then a final incremental backup after i break the share. My
mock testing has indicated this will take me about 2.5 - 3 hours total on
the night of go live. Fortunately, that is will within my window of
availablity.

We have 5000 plus users of which about 2000 use home directories, but we
don't have a good training plan for the windows side of things as office
folks are hired. Ironically enough, our users have not notified us of a
problem, yet I have noticed it in my testing.

5,000 users = 10,000 opinions, all subject to change after sleep.

Thanks, again, for the replies.

Bart
 
Re: File Path Limitations

Hi, I am aware of 256 characters path limit in naming a file, but can you
help me how to limit the path for file naming to 240 characters only? is
there a way to limit that in registry editor or is there a way to group
policy (if so, pls. show me), we are using windows xp pro as our client pc
and windows server 2003 std edtn R2 as our server.

your help is very much appreciated

Thanks,
James

"Bart Perrier" wrote:

>
> "Meinolf Weber" <meiweb(nospam)@gmx.de> wrote in message
> news:ff16fb669f65e8ca9576cb6fb030@msnews.microsoft.com...
> > Hello Bart,
> >
> > Small remark, today i got a dvd with a lot files without a document type
> > like .doc or whatever, which i found out after copying them to the
> > harddrive with robocopy (windows drag and drop itself was crying about
> > corrupt files). After determining the corrupt files in a more then 255
> > character based folder structure + filename, which contains the content of
> > the document, i had problems to delete this files. Because of no endings
> > like .doc or whatever, i could not rename or add an extension, nothing.
> > The disk was from another company built and finally i found a way to
> > delete the corrupt files, but it took me longer then planned for this. In
> > our offices we teache the user's about this, over years ofcourse, but it
> > helps.
> >
> > Best regards
> >
> > Meinolf Weber
> > Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
> > confers no rights.
> > ** Please do NOT email, only reply to Newsgroups
> > ** HELP us help YOU!!! http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm
> >
> >> "Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@fly.com.oz> wrote in message
> >> news:uBuVF$oxIHA.4952@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> >>
> >>> "Bart Perrier" <bart_perrier@SPAMFREEhotmail.com> wrote in message
> >>> news:uBe7KdoxIHA.3968@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> >>>
> >>>> We are getting ready to migrate about 1000 Home Directories to a new
> >>>> location on the network and I have my strategy/plan ready to go but
> >>>> I have been noticing something that I am hoping I can get around.
> >>>>
> >>>> I have some users who are very, very organized and very beautifully
> >>>> create folders with excellent names for everything. The problem is,
> >>>> eventually the complete path of the folder, even with a mapped
> >>>> letter drive, becomes too long.
> >>>>
> >>>> What is the character limitation for the path to a file? I was under
> >>>> the impression is was a lot longer than a user could conceivably
> >>>> exhaust, but I am mistaken.
> >>>>
> >>>> Below is an example -- I have removed the username and replaced it
> >>>> wtih NAME01. It is 326 characters long.
> >>>>
> >>>> Thanks.
> >>>> Bart
> >>>> d:\Users\NAME01\Audits\FY2008 Audits\2007-06 Lab MCR Compliance
> >>>> Review\Background Research\CAP accreditation-all files req'd to
> >>>> access webpage\Certification Boards for Clinical Consultants and
> >>>> Laboratory Directors of High Complexity Testing_files\Standards for
> >>>> Laboratory Accreditation - College of American Pathologists_files
> >>>>
> >>> The maximum relative length is about 255 characters, as seen by the
> >>> user.
> >>> If his share points into the middle of a long path
> >>> (e.g. d:\Users\NAME01\Audits\FY2008 Audits\2007-06 Lab MCR Compliance
> >>> Review)
> >>> then the physical length as seen on the server can be much greater.
> >>> You
> >>> need
> >>> to educate your users to put their information into their files, not
> >>> into
> >>> their folder
> >>> names. Paper-based suspension files used to have tabs and people got
> >>> along
> >>> very nicely with the small amount of text they could write on these
> >>> tabs,
> >>> so ask your users to stick to this principle.
> >> Thanks, Pegasus. I was afraid it was 256.
> >>
> >> Bart
> >>
> >
> >
>
> Thanks for the additional reply, Meinolf.
>
> I have not thoroughly explored RoboCopy but do have a strategy that I am
> familiar with -- I will do a full restore (about 5 hours -- 200 GB) during
> the week and then a final incremental backup after i break the share. My
> mock testing has indicated this will take me about 2.5 - 3 hours total on
> the night of go live. Fortunately, that is will within my window of
> availablity.
>
> We have 5000 plus users of which about 2000 use home directories, but we
> don't have a good training plan for the windows side of things as office
> folks are hired. Ironically enough, our users have not notified us of a
> problem, yet I have noticed it in my testing.
>
> 5,000 users = 10,000 opinions, all subject to change after sleep.
>
> Thanks, again, for the replies.
>
> Bart
>
>
>
 
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