Web Filenames Too Long

[Douglas Wright]

Many web pages, if saved to disk with MS Internet Explorer
6.06 creatre files that can not be managed with MS Windows
Explorer or other disk utilities that rely on the Windows
API. The error messages are either that the file name is
too long, or the file can not be found. The files can not
even be deleted sometimes, other times that is all that
can be done.

The latest Norton Disk Doctor does not deal with it!!!!
It says the directory structore is okay, and it is not.

Several people I have spoken with are aware of this
problem. I have not found any tool that will deal with
this.

Does anybody know how to deal with this?

I am using Windows 2000. The following link to a book
review, when I saved it to disk, can not be worked with
afterward, not even to delete it.

http://www.dc.com/insights/books/hoc/index.asp

Douglas Wright

 

[Robert Madloch]

Many web pages, if saved to disk with MS Internet Explorer
6.06 creatre files that can not be managed with MS Windows
Explorer or other disk utilities that rely on the Windows
API. The error messages are either that the file name is
too long, or the file can not be found. The files can not
even be deleted sometimes, other times that is all that
can be done.

The latest Norton Disk Doctor does not deal with it!!!!
It says the directory structore is okay, and it is not.

Several people I have spoken with are aware of this
problem. I have not found any tool that will deal with
this.

Does anybody know how to deal with this?

I am using Windows 2000. The following link to a book
review, when I saved it to disk, can not be worked with
afterward, not even to delete it.

http://www.dc.com/insights/books/hoc/index.asp

Douglas Wright

Hello Douglas,

where did you store it (complete path) ?

Robert

 

[Richard J. Otter]

I did a restore of a Documents and Settings folder backup to c:\restore

After moving the desired files, I tried to delete C:\restore and I found the
same problem you describe. There were several files in the Temporary
Internet files folder that would not go away.

My solution was to move the "bad" file out of the c:\restore\documents and
settings.....\temporary internet files folder and into c:\restore. From
there, the delete key had no problem.

Many times, the path to the file is too long, I don't understand why moving
the file was allowed, but deleting it wasn't.

This is something that has bothered my since my switch from the Mac to
WinNT4.0
Very few developers and it seems even Microsoft, use the right win32 api
calls that will deal with long path names. The documentation says full path
names may be up to 32K Unicode characters long. Why are we having so many
problems with this issue after so many years.

 

[Robert Madloch]

Many web pages, if saved to disk with MS Internet Explorer
6.06 creatre files that can not be managed with MS Windows
Explorer or other disk utilities that rely on the Windows
API. The error messages are either that the file name is
too long, or the file can not be found. The files can not
even be deleted sometimes, other times that is all that
can be done.

The latest Norton Disk Doctor does not deal with it!!!!
It says the directory structore is okay, and it is not.

Several people I have spoken with are aware of this
problem. I have not found any tool that will deal with
this.

Does anybody know how to deal with this?

I am using Windows 2000. The following link to a book
review, when I saved it to disk, can not be worked with
afterward, not even to delete it.

http://www.dc.com/insights/books/hoc/index.asp

Douglas Wright

Hello Douglas,

please reply next time only to thew neswgroup.

Can you rename part of the directories, especially the one with ".dir"

What happens if you trnasfer all other files from "My Documents" to an
other folder and then try to delete it ?

Robert

At 09:51 14.07.2003 -0500, you wrote:
Robert,

Thank you for your reply, I was beginning to think no one would.

The Complete path was:

C:\My Documents\HTML.dir\COMPUTERS.dir\SOFTWARE INFO +
REVIEWS.dir\Bullfighter Straight Talk Series\ Straight Talk Series - Home
Deloitte Consulting.htm

That is 153 char including the "C:\".

I went with the defaults, except for the final folder name in which I got
too wordy (too much Mac time), and it is indeed too long for Win2000. If I
shorten the file names and directories, I can save it so it can be read.

My question is, now that Win2000 has created the "Franken-file", how can it
be deleted if MS Explorer and Norton Disk Utilities can't touch it? I have
this piece on junk on my drive that is making it impossible to log the
entire drive, I have to manually the branches to avoid logging the bad
branch, which will cause program, but not system, crashes.

I can't be the only person with this problem. Many, many web pages are
doing it.

I am now restricting my folder names, and using MHT file format so I can
control the name of the only file created. Using "Web Page, complete" mode
grabs more files than the one display in the save as dialogue box, with no
way to control the other file names. That or just a TXT file if I only want
the facts, no fancy gee-gaws.