Windows error message: "Path is too deep" ?!??!?!

I just got a new 200gb western digital drive and I am trying to transfer some stuff over from an older hard drive. When I try to Copy and Paste from one file to another, it says,

" Path is too deep."

This is getting really irritating, because I have really important documents, and it won't let me transfer them. I even tried to rename them and the computer just hangs and times out. I can't move them, I can't open them, I can't rename them. Anyone know what the hell is going on herE?

could it be that 137GB limit for hard drives?

you might need to update windows?

not sure if that's it, that's just something that popped into my head.

Refer to MS Knowledge base article Q180410 for more information on the message "Path too deep"

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;180410

What file system are you transfering too or from?

Try changing the name of the file to something shorter and then moving the file - this should solve the problem.

hey guys,


I'm transferring from an 120gb NTFS system to a 200gb NTFS system. The 200gb is partitioned into 40 and 150gb's and is using a Promise Ultra ata100 tx2 card to overcome the 200gb limitation. These are really important files and I can't open or get them off the drive...


I called Western Digital about it. Western Digital took all my information, serial #, etc, and told me that this is my first call so it will be free, and that after 30 days if I need tech support, there will be a $14.95 charge . I was like, okay, hopefully you can solve this problem. Then I explained the problem and he said, "Oh, this is an operating system problem. We can't support this." So I ask if this will be counted against my first free call. He said "yes."

IMOG said:

Refer to MS Knowledge base article Q180410 for more information on the message "Path too deep"

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;180410

What file system are you transfering too or from?

Try changing the name of the file to something shorter and then moving the file - this should solve the problem.

Click to expand...

I took a look at the article, and I don't know if I'm doing it right, it says to

subst <drive>: .

where <drive> is an available drive letter and "." is a period, indicating the current folder

now do I type in this for example

subst <d>:G:\my documents

cause that gives "The system cannot find the file specified."

it seems like I can't even transfer the files from the D: partition to the C: partition (which is the same drive)

the actual path and directory tree is very short

at most 25 characters including file name

D:\documents and settings\Rephlection\My Documents\econ139.xls

This is an example of a different file with a longer pathname that transferred well.

BUMP

thanks for the bump IMOG

I figured out the problem guys. And in case anyone else is running into this problem (which I doubt, it seems so isolated), here's the solution:

I had my Western Digital 200gb drive on a Promise ultra tx2 Ide controller and it was the main system boot. I had my Western Digital 120gb drive on the mainboard's Ide controller. When I tried to copy/cut paste files from the 200gb to the 120gb the 200gb would just hang for like 30 seconds without doing anything and then Windows would give the error: "Path is too deep." The wierd thing was that in that same directory, some files would cut and paste over just fine and some just wouldn't budge (even though they were the same character length).

The fix is: have both hard drives sit on the Promise tx2 controller. I tried that. And it worked great. The only problem was that, I shouldve done this from the beginning because many of my files which I attempted to transfer became corrupted and I had to delete them.

But there it goes, the solution. Thanks for the help everyone.