1

When I try copying a bunch of file and folder (many gigabytes) at once, to one of our Windows 2008 R2 servers, I get the error message attached. Can it be avoided/stopped?

filename_too_long_win_2k8_r2.JPG

5 Spice ups
2

It can only be avoided or stopped if you fix the problem. Either shorten the full name of the file, or choose a destination with less subfolders that you need to go through.

2 Spice ups
3

Use robocopy

1 Spice up
4

If memory serves me correctly, the full file path including the file name has to be less than 256 characters. As Ross above states you can either shorten the name of each file or move them further up the file hierarchy.

5

This might answer your question:

Also try to copy the files from the command.

6

Ran into this same issue before when trying to copy files from a Mac share and I used FastCopy and it pulled everything over with no problem for me.

7

Windows’ built-in copy routines are awful at dealing with long paths, to the point that Microsoft themselves advise using RoboCopy if you are doing major file-copy work on a server.

Personally I prefer FastCopy, it’s the quickest copier I’ve found: FastCopy

8

Having long file names / paths can be a problem not only for copying or moving the file, such as read write issues or if the file needs to be accessed by software that doesn’t support long file names / paths, etc.

if all you care about is getting it copied or moved, you can use robocopy, but in general its good practice to keep the file name/path under 256 characters.