Windows backup to ext3 to NTFS & file/path name length limits
By John Thompson
I backup a work laptop to a home Ubuntu server (16.04.3). I backup the server to an external drive which came formatted in ntfs and I didn't change it. At any rate, I've not gotten errors when copying from the Win laptop to Ubuntu. But when removing the external drive and plugging it into another Win PC and attempt to copy that backup back onto Ubuntu, I get an error that the file/path names are too long in some instances.
Why did Ubuntu allow me to copy it without error?
How is it apparently being restored to full length on the backup?
And if Ubuntu allowed me to copy it the first time without error, why is it giving me an error when being restored from the external, ntfs backup drive from a Win PC?
Thanks!
42 Answers
You are encountering this problem because generally Windows limits the whole path of a file to 255 characters, even though the actual limit on Linux is 1024.
I don't think this is really an Ubuntu issue, though.
If you want to backup your data, you should consider using Dejà Dup which ships with Ubuntu and has many useful features.
2I regret that I wasn't able to get back to this post until now. I had a health issue and am just now getting back to my desk! As the limit of ext3 & ext4 partitions is 255 characters, I've decided to begin using a backup utility that will store all the files, compressing them and managing them, in a single file, such as Syncback.
Thanks for your input!
