folder/file names too long

[ldoubled]

I got this

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a47/ldoubled/errormessage.png

message when i was trying to transfer files from my G5 hard drive to a portable hard drive. i was wondering if there is any type of program that can sift through all the folder (and file) names and point out (and/or change) the ones that are too long. or if there is an easy way of doing this myself. im assuming i can just do a search for characters that are not allowed ( * -, etc)

thanx!

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Most likely your external hard drive is formatted in FAT32 format (maybe even FAT16 format), which doesn't support Macintosh long filenames as well as certain characters.

Best bet is to reformat the drive using Disk Utility to HFS+ format if you only intend to use the drive with your Macintosh.

If you need Windows-compatibility for the drive (ie, you intend to hook the drive up to a Windows computer and use it there as well) then leaving it as FAT32 format and simply manually editing the filenames would be the best bet.

 

[Mikuro]

For most non-HFS-formatted drives, you'll need to strip all the slashes out of your file names. The length in this case shouldn't be a problem with any drive format.

There are lots of apps to make renaming batches of files easier. Check out http://www.macupdate.com/search.php?keywords=rename files