Win 2003 and OS X compatibilty

[Dave Klee]

Hey Marcus, what version of OS X? Leopard Server?

This could be many things, but my first guess is incompatible file names. Possibly Macintosh files have names that are too long for the Windows 2003 file system. Possibly some Macintosh files have names with illegal characters on a Windows system. Depending on how you started the copy, it would go until it hit a file with a name that doesn’t make sense to Windows, and then give you that file not found error. It has happened to me a lot in the past.

I believe these characters are reserved in Windows, and can’t be used in file names. < > : ” / \ | ? *

However, I believe the only character illegal in a Macintosh file name is the colon.

In general, I don’t like doing large copies with the Finder — not enough information, and too many potential problems. I either use terminal or, even easier, a synchronization or copy software tool — my favorite for Mac is ChronoSync ($40). That way you can get detailed logs, and if a copy isn’t successful it will skip the problematic files and keep going — notifying you later of exactly what the problem was. There are a few good options out there, and it’s better than beating your head against a wall.

Here’s a link to info on the Windows naming space that probably isn’t super useful: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365247%28VS.85%29.aspx

ChronoSync: https://www.econtechnologies.com/pages/cs/chrono_overview.html

Another issue I’ve run into a lot on Mac to Windows file copies is FAT. If a Windows drive is formatted as FAT16 (or often FAT32), it has a 4GB file size limitation. On the Mac side, if you’re copying a large file to a FAT drive, the error message is something really not helpful like “unknown error.” I doubt you have FAT in the mix with such a big drive, though.

Good luck!

[Marcus Vasques osorio]

Thanks Dave,

No OS X server, only normal leapord on all our computers. Currently have sucess with a few copies after a bit of tweeking. We will see.

I use another program called deltawalker that does the job, just haven’t had a chance to try that solution.

Interesting informtion about the names, never thought of that, regret not buying my Xserve a bit :-(, but money is always an issue. It also seems that PC uses the whole length including folders etc… In other words info path would be folder+folder+file. Considering I am working with RED files this could be a problem.

Anyway thanks once again, found that NFS works pretty well through finder

FAT is never an issue as my drives are NTFS formatted…

Marcus

[Dave Klee]

Hey Marcus, glad you got things working! Any specific tweaks that made a big difference?

Didn’t know about DeltaWalker — looks cool. And, didn’t realize you were working with RED files. I’ve heard good things about ShotPut Pro to help manage the offload of RED files:

https://www.imagineproducts.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=2

Hope all is well!

Dave

[Marcus Vasques osorio]

I found by opening up NFS and using that I had less problems, I have closed network so security is not that important.

ShotPut is a great program, but my DIT’s and I check through all the material to make sure it is all there manually, and un-corrupt so we avoid copying programs. R3D Data Manager is also pretty good APP which I use once in while.

I a currently copying 2+ TB we will see if this works out 🙂

regards

Marcus