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Viewing DOS filenames

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by oz_media

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I am trying to copy some files from a dead HD to a newer one using DOS before reformatting and installing W2K on the newer drive.

When I dir the contents of the slave (D: drive) i get long filenames that DOS can't show ie: XXXXX~1
the ~1 is the shortened filename but I can't get the entire file name in order to do a copy to the C:\ drive.

Is there a switch or something that will let me see the whole file name??

Thanks in advance,
OM

5 replies

by blitzsonik

If this is DOS 6.22 or earlier formatted FAT 16 or 32, the short answer is NONE THAT I KNOW OF. Dos only allows the 8.3 name format. I suggest waiting until after you have loaded WIN 2k on the newer drive then use windows to copy over the files. Just be sure to choose the right drive when you load Win 2k.

by oz_media

Thanks, XCOPY seems to have helped get the directory contents over. I am currently looking at switches that will copy a file that is oversize by renaming it to a standard 8 character DOS file.

by cptomlly

There is not any way to access long file names from DOS, because they don't really exist in DOS. The "real" filename is short format, and the long format is added within the filesystem.

You may be able to manipulate the files using standard DOS commands (copy, move, xcopy, etc.), but you will likely lose the long filename.

Just out of curiosity, is there a reason why you cannot slave this drive to a Windows box, and extract it to a CD or network share?

Hope this helps.

by oz_media

A little more complicated than the drive swap at this time, as machines can't be taken out of production at this site.

I can do it at home, but I would rather get this done onsite. Right now I have a large drive I am goingto use as a master and the original Win drive is the slave. I am just looking to save a couple of directories from he larger drive to the old Win drive before formatting it for Windoze. Once I have 2K in the large drive, the older drive is set to slave for the big filecopy.

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