Folders Inside Folders Inside Folders, etc...?

Question

Normally I work at home on a Mac... but I am freelancing at a small company with PCs... every Friday they pass around a 200+ gig hard drive to back up all our computers... but when I try to back up the "Shared Docs" from the main network server, it has problems. It says some of the file names are too long and doesn't copy them all.

Now this company creates folders inside folders inside folders to 7, 8 or 9 levels deep... and it seems to be that the deeper folders are the ones that the back up drive doesn't like having long names, even though they have long names on the original server.

Is there something someone can tell me? Is it bad to do nested folder after nested folder on a PC? Why? (It's a pain in the butt too, but hey, I didn't set this foolish system up...)

Answer 1

The problem with this system is the old generic dos one of only allowing so many folders inside so many folders & also limiting the length of the path name.
Some programs like Nero for example will actually truncate the path names for you.
What the company could do for example is if the root folder is called employees they could set up a couple of folders called employees a - f , employees g - s, employees t - z. etc. and then moved some of the sub folders into them. They really need to get their act together & change the system.

Answer 2

Do you test for Viruses? that's many times the effect of a old .exe replication application. RE: Folder call TOM, open Folder and spot TOM.exe folder. in case you're bearing on a start up menu Folder on your XP, and replica and pste it someplace else then rename it.. XP might have the two folder with comparable call in spite of if interior eachother.

Answer 3

I suspect the backup drive adds at least one directory name at the front of copied files in order to prevent duplication of names further on, This would explain the file names being fine on the original machines but "too long" on the backup drive.

I think the limit is 240 or 255 characters.

There's nothing wrong with deep nesting. It's a good way to organize scads of files.