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Hi all. I would appreciate any help you could give me with this very bizarre problem which has NEVER happened to me before or since - but, as luck would have it, happened to a VERY important piece of coursework which I desperately need back for my education. It's a report for my third year project in psychology which I wrote with no problems, and was all very involved and detailed, and then I saved it with the following title: "Investigating The Extent To Which Uncles And Aunts Invest In Their Nephews And Nieces And Exploring The Psychological Explanations In Human Evolution And Genetics.doc". Ever since, I have not been able to open it in Word, even though it has a Word icon. When I double-click, nothing happens; when I open it in Word physically, I get told "The full path of the file is too long. Please try using the 'Map Network Drive' command to connect to the server to shorten the path". I don't have a clue how to do this! Anyway, I figured the length of the filename had messed things up, but I can't do anything with it: When I right click, I get a really short menu with only "Open", "Edit", "New", "Print" and "Send To". If I click on File and go to "Rename" there, it won't let me. I can't even copy or move the file somewhere else. But it's killing me because this is probably the most IMPORTANT file on my computer right now, and it's all locked up in there and I just can't get it out! Anyhow, I'm guessing that it is the length of the file that is the problem; I just can't change it. Can somebody please tell me how I can go about fixing this file and getting my work back out of it, i.e. shorten the filename (if that's the problem). Is there a program out there, or can anyone please explain this 'Map Network Drive' command to me in detail? I'd be eternally grateful for any help as this is very important work that I really need. Thanks very much for your time, and all the best ...
Shot in the dark-Try renaming it in the safe mode.
Please post back within 24 hours or I will delete the post from my follow up list. Thanks. It would be a courtesy if you would post back and let us know if the fix worked or not.
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Since the file's full pathname - the filename plus the name(s) of the folder(s) containing it - is too long, try renaming the file's parent folders rather than the file itself.
For example, if the full pathname is:
c:\folder1\folder2\folder3\<yourfilename.doc>rename the folders like this:
c:\a\b\c\<yourfilename.doc>This will shorten the pathname, which should solve the problem. Let us know if it works!
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It sounds like the file is stored on your server. That might be why you are getting the `Map netwprk drive' suggestion. Maybe someone in the Network forum can help with doing that.
You might ask the server operator to copy/move that file to your system.
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iamc & ham30,
Yes.
Or:
subst x: "c:\oh my gosh what an interesting path name\with garbahge and spaces"
M2
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Mechanix2Go, interesting solution.
Is the subst command subject to the same pathname-length limitation as a regular filesystem path?
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iamc,
Don't know. I need to experiment.
I created a dir with a string of x, then below it a string of A ; It quit typing A and this worked:
subst x: C:\temp\-\xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx\AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAThen I wondered if we were at the limit for subst. So I went into the AAAA and tried to create a new folder and got the msg:
Unable to create the file 'AAAA [etc] the filemame or extension is too long.
Interestingly, it says FILE. Which demonstrates once again that with FAT, a directory is simply a type of file.
Moving right along.
I went to the AAAA... dir in cmd prompt and was able to:
md BBBBBB [etc]
Back in explorer, the BBBBBB showed up, but failed delete.
Tentative conclusion:
subst has a limit and it's probably about equal to the path/file limit.
When I first encountered w95 and did a dir and saw c:\progra~1 I knew there was trouble ahead.
Long file names are bset left for a REAL OS.
I'll bet that your shortening solution, above, will work.Mark,
Next time give your doc a name like nephew.doc and in the same directory, make a text file named nephew.txt and IN THERE put whatevr description you need.
M2
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Thank you to everyone who helped me with this problem. iamc, you GENIUS! Renamed all root folders to numbers and it opened fine. Simply too long. But again, thanks to you all! All the best ...
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Not a genius, I just understood the problem. I, for example, know nothing about The Extent To Which Uncles And Aunts Invest In Their Nephews And Nieces ;)
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