[kevs]

Could someone please provide link of invalid character names for files and folders, and also, what is the max size for file folder names. thanks!

[tooki]

: is not allowed, and most open/save dialogs won't let you enter /, either. You cannot start a filename with a period (except via the Terminal). Other than that, anything goes.

Files and folders on HFS+ disks can have names up to 255 characters long.

tooki

[kevs]

that cool. But I keep getting this message saying things wont copy to my exterernal HD because -- I have a folder called icons for example with lot of icons, it wont copy to external HD. How do I get past it, and find out what the issues are, what I can change.

[andreadeca]

try creating an archive of the folder, transfer that, end then unzip it on the external HD.

might work.

andrea

[TETENAL]

Is your external HD FAT/MS-DOS formated?

[westrock]

Symbols would probably be illegal too

; & * ? would cause problems, the first two especially.


Is it only the Icon file? Have you tried other files? Possibly the file is read/write/execute protected. Perhaps the destination is protected. Do you have permission to write to that folder?

[Millennium]

Originally Posted by westrock

Symbols would probably be illegal too

Nope.

; & * ? would cause problems, the first two especially.

They can cause issues if your app is poorly programmed (or if you're not careful when working in the Terminal), but they are legal characters for filenames. If you're in the Terminal and you're working with these kinds of filenames, you need to either quote the filenames or escape the characters, but you can use them.

[kevs]

Someone said it may be directory is screwed up. So I'm gonna try disc warrior and see what happens.

[Chuckit]

How is the external drive formatted? Different formats can have different filename requirements.

[kevs]

I'm ignorant on that. sorry. how is it formatted? when you buy it, and then later, you are reformatting it, as you use disk utility and disc warrior.?