"Path is Too Deep" error when copying files from PC to NAS

I keep getting a "path is too deep" error when copying files and folders from my PC to a NAS device over the wireless network.

Anybody else had this?

When I try from Windows command prompt, I get "semaphore has expired"

Also, I tried copying a couple files from c:\ to l:\, first I got "network name no longer valid", then I got "the path is too deep" again!

The device is a Buffalo Link Station LS 500GL 500GB.

4 Answers

What is the file system on the device? Windows has trouble with FAT12 and FAT16 volumes that contain path names longer than 260 bytes. Consider changing the file system over to NTFS perhaps? This limit is bumped up to 32767 characters (unicode).

On FAT12 and FAT16:

• Entire path is limited to 260 bytes
• File & Directory names are limited to 255 characters each

On NTFS:

• Entire path is limited to 32767 unicode characters
• File & Directory names are limited to 255 characters each

The semaphore has expired error can also be related to path names that are too long.

It really depends on the file system of your PC and NAS. If it's a Windows-related error this MSDN Article may enlightening:

In my experience, I have worked around these types of errors by shoretening the path names. Here's an over-simplified example, if I am unable to access a file named MyFile.txt:

orginal: c:\MyFolder\ReallyLongFolderName\AnotherReallyLongFolderName\MyFile.txt

changing this to: c:\Myfolder\ShortName\AnotherShortName\MyFile.txt

would allow me to access my file.

This error simply means that the full directory / file name is to long.

This is quite a common problem I have seen with people who neatly label and organise files. If for example, you have a long file path of:

c:\users\name\documents\job\date\long_neat_filename.docx

and you have a backup path of

x:\myname\backups\machine1\13-12-2009\users\name\documents\job\long_neat_filename.docx 

Or something similar, you get through the limit pretty fast.

On typical FAT (I think also NTFS) systems, I think the limit is 255 bytes, but not 100% sure on the exact length.

If the NAS isn't on a Windows computer and so doesn't suffer from the Windows path-length limitations, you might avoid the problem by using the good old subst command under cmd, like this :

subst x: nasdisk:\very\long\path
copy mydir x: