topic Can't copy long filenames from snapshot back to original location in Ask The Experts

Can't copy long filenames from snapshot back to original location

jimb32 — Wed, 03 Jul 2019 01:16:29 GMT

A user deleted a folder and as a usualy practice, I attempted to copy the folder from a previous copy (shadow copy) back to the original location (this is a Windows environment). However, the copy fails due to long filenames in many of the subfolders. I can't restore the folder as the folder in question is a subfolder of the snapshot folder. My workaround (for now) is to copy many folders a few at a time, but I'm still hit with the message that some files can't be copied due to the long filename.

I've never experienced this before when copying from the Previous Copies - has anyone ever seen this and any suggestions how to copy all of the subfolder contents back to the original location?

Re: Can't copy long filenames from snapshot back to original location

Sergey_Osipov — Wed, 03 Jul 2019 08:27:37 GMT

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/fileio/naming-a-file#fully-qualified-vs-relative-paths

From restore perspective you can try to mount this snapshot as a r\o share and copy\paste needed files from it

Re: Can't copy long filenames from snapshot back to original location

donny_lang — Wed, 03 Jul 2019 13:29:49 GMT

If you right-click on the folder that you want to restore (after selecting your desired shadow copy) and click on "Properties", you'll see a string like "\\localhost\F$\@GMT-2019.07.03-12.00.00\FolderName" in the "Location" field of the file/folder. You can then use Robocopy to restore the folder and its contents.

robocopy \\localhost\F$\@GMT-2019.07.03-12.00.00\FolderName C:\Path\to\RestoreLocation /E /COPYALL

Re: Can't copy long filenames from snapshot back to original location

Tom_Cox — Sat, 04 Apr 2020 15:44:41 GMT

Have you tried ‘Long Path Tool’ ?
it’s very useful in this type of case.