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Ropey Pilot
11th Oct 2005, 13:06
I am having probs with my machine which I am putting down to the hard drive being nearly full.

To make space I have bought an external hard drive and am moving some files (eg 10 Gb worth of music).

When I start moving the files it will move 'some' (anywhere from a single track to several albums and come to an abrupt halt with the message

cannot move x the path is too deep.

What does this mean and what can I do about it?

Conan the Librarian
11th Oct 2005, 15:09
Think this is similar to when you sometimes try to delete a directory and it won't let you, with the spurious claim that the directory is in use or similar. With this in mind, are you moving or copying the data to your new drive? If the former, try to copy it - then take the opp to verify the new against the original (size, no of files etc) and then delete the original directory as a separate operation. That should do it.

Am just about to buy another ext drive in the next 10 mins or so, oddly enough. I already have a 160GB ext but have filled it up with music collection and photographs I have taken. Was a bit shocked, I can tell you... Mind you, I have found a 300GB Ext Firewire drive, for just £105 so am going to go for that.


Conan

newswatcher
11th Oct 2005, 15:33
Are you sure that none of the files that you are trying to xfer have a fully exploded path structure which exceeds 255 characters? Roughly speaking, that is what the message is trying to tell you. What is the OS on your machine?

Ropey Pilot
11th Oct 2005, 16:29
thanks for taking the time to reply guys:

Conan -

was moving originally, tried copying on your advice but unfotunately with no success. Each track takes approx 1 sec and you can then see it try to move/copy one for about a minute before it gives up.

newswatcher-

Operating XP. I am copying from a pretty simple path c/shared/docs/my music or similar to h/music. The really puzzling thing is that it will copy some of the problem files on further attempts!

The only other unusual thing is that my laptop (On Win ME) has no probs with the drive wheras my desktop regognizes it as a 'phantom reader' - a drive with a RAW data system and 0GB storage unless I put it through a USB hub/splitter (instead of directly to a USB port) in which case it recognises it as a 160 GB drive with 10Gb of info on it! It has been disappearing while playing music from it only to reappear a min later but I (probably incorrectly) thought this was to do with the severe lack of room on my integral drive and buffering issues etc.

:uhoh:

Conan the Librarian
11th Oct 2005, 18:37
Something coughing a bit here... is everything USB 1.0/1.1 compatible as well as USB2? (Hubs as well)

It should report the EXT as just another attached drive. It has got me scratching my head now :-)


Conan

Keef
12th Oct 2005, 00:28
Sounds a bit like power problems on the plugin drive. If the power supply isn't "stiff" enough, they will hiccup. Try it with a USB port to itself, or as the only thing on your powered hub.

My external one will only work on an onboard port, if that's any use.

Moving the files - copy them a few at a tme and ensure they are on the new drive, then delete them.

Takes longer, but when you find one that won't move, ignore than and go on down the list. That might reveal something.