photo backup failure

[swedeheart]

Hi. I use the default image viewer in Vista. Yesterday I made a backup of my photos to a USB flash drive. At the end of the process there was a pop-up window telling me there were 5 photos the names of which were too long and so they had not been copied. Okay. Only, it didn't tell me WHICH photos. How do I find out, so I can shorten their names and make a new backup? Looking through each photo file name "manually" is not an option - I have loads. Thanks guys.

PS Not all that interested in replies telling me which image viewer I should be using instead of the one that I am using:)

[snags]

View your photo/image folder contents in 'list' format... a quick scroll down the list and the 5 longer named file names will show up...

[swedeheart]

Hi snags, I haven't stopped laughing at your Flounce Announce Form yet:) Now let me see if I understand this correctly: It would still involve clicking on each FOLDER manually and going through them separately, would it not? Cos I've got loads and loads of those too...

[scotman]

Hi Swedeheart

If you have several folders to copy I would start again with an empty USB memeory stick and copy one folder at a time. If it tells you that some images have not copied you will know which folder they are in. You would still have to search manually but you would be sure you were looking in the right place.

[swedeheart]

It's not a bad idea scotman - for somebody who doesn't keep an insane amount of folders;-)

[swedeheart]

hm, that should be 'number of folders' should it not...

[snags]

Or... search your entire computer for .jpg (or whatever the file extension of your image files are called) then look at the results in 'list' view and the longer names will stand out and can be edited...

[scotman]

Swedeheart

I know nothing about Vista so can't comment. Snags option will get all images in one place at the same time. Depends on how many images we are talking about here.

I would usually say number of folders, I try to avoid vague words like amount.

[ChuckFickens]

http://www.dcsoft.com...cts/longff/longff.htm

[swedeheart]

"Depends on how many images we are talking about here" - a lot, scotman, a lot... and most of them of snow at the moment=:0

snags, that seems doable! Thanks a lot.

Chuck how do I know what the filename length limit IS? (<<<sorry for shouting, think of it as italics:) Also, being a biddy, I'm nervous that I'll provide too much information when stating the name of the starting folder - is there any kind of risk involved, if I state the name "too generously" if you see what I mean? For instance, should I state owner name? When I click on properties/general of particular images, the place name given is much longer than in the example on "your" site, and "my" place names involve owner names and stuff. Is that all right or should I exclude some information when using that site?

[ChuckFickens]

You're not using the site, it's a small program to download and run on your computer, just click the browse button and point it to the folder that all your folders with the pictures are stored in.

And just use trial and error for the length, you know you're looking for 5 files, so start it at, say, 50 if it finds loads more than 5 try again with a higher value, if it doesn't find any try it with a lower value.

Just a point though, the too long error isn't just referring to the file name, it also includes the path to the file and the full path and file name can't be over 255 characters in total. so you may find that it's not the file name that's too long, it may be your folder names are too long.

[swedeheart]

Oh okay, I see, Chuck, thanks a lot. (Boy do I need new glasses.) I have actually found some "suspects" using snags' method now but haven't done a new backup yet so I'm not sure. I'll try the program if the next backup fails again. Thanks a lot for all the info, very useful.