Wednesday, 28 February 2018

Quick Tip - VSS Restore Source Path Too Long Error



Getting this error when trying to restore via VSS?

"The source file name(s) are larger than is supported by the file system. Try moving to a location which has a shorter path name, or try renaming to shorter name(s) before attempting this operation."

In my scenario, a user had accidentally deleted a folder containing 78GB of data. This user was privileged user account. Accidents happen and I guess this is why we do backups.

Not to worry, there is a really simple solution to this.

Right click on the share:
Choose “properties”
Go to “Previous Versions”

Locate the snapshot that contains the missing data and click “open”


Find the folder you want to restore, right click on it and choose “properties”
Copy the “location” to your clipboard. (this is the path to your snapshot)




Firstly, Create a new folder at your restore destination. I created a folder called “GIRVAN” at \\myrestoredestination\share (the same name as the missing folder)

Open Powershell
Type the following:
Subst X: paste your snaphot location\foldername

eg: in this example I pasted
\\myrestorelocation\share\@GMT-2018.02.26-09.00.10\GIRVAN

On the next line type:

Net use v: \\myrestorelocation\share\GIRVAN (Where girvan is your folder name to restore to)

Now lastly type :
Robocopy x: v: /E /COPYALL

Files will then start to copy from the snapshot back to the folder.




7 comments:

  1. Hi,
    Thanks for sharing this post.Whenever I face this problem, I use long path tool. It can delete, copy, move and bulk rename long path files or locked file.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like and suggest you to try LongPathTool program. It is very helpful for copying/deleting or renaming long path files.

    ReplyDelete

  3. hi, you can also try “Long Path Tool” it really works for me. It is free and easy to utilize.

    ReplyDelete
  4. You can try using LongPathTool software. It will help you

    resolve your specific problems regarding File name too long.

    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Most of the user might experience this error(Source path too Long) while trying to delete or copy the files.I used Long Path Tool, Which is really works for me

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks as this help me today restoring from VSS.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Long path tool is very popular software! When cleaning files from a Windows Operating System (OS), you are halted with errors relating to the filename or the file path being too long.
    This is due to a 255/260 character limit on Windows Operating Systems preventing the files in a directory from being removed.
    You can used Long path tool?

    ReplyDelete