Destiantion path is too long

I am using the recovering option of "recovering folder" in trying to recover large amount of files/folders to a created c;\r directory. In the end, there are about 8000 files could not be recovered due to the same reason: "Destination path is too long".

Here is what I found:

Under c:\r directory, RECUVA software added two sub-directories on it's own, and the whole directory then becomes the following

c:\r\$RECYCLE.BIN\S-1-5-21-1580082977-3013210137-4195539877-1000\...

So, obviously, these two added directories by RECUVA caused the destination path too long.

Are there anyways to short or remove these two added sub-directories, and then I can recover these 8000 files?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Welcome to the forum.

You are so very wrong - Recuva added nothing.

All that Recuva has done is EXPOSE to you the normally hidden system folder $Recycle.bin

When I launch CMD.EXE and invoke the special command

C:\Users\Alan>dir c:\$Recycle.Bin\*.* /a /s

I see the following

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]

Copyright © 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Alan>dir c:$Recycle.Bin*.* /a /s

Volume in drive C is C_OCZ_System

Volume Serial Number is 6E59-9E7D

Directory of c:$Recycle.Bin

10/03/2012 11:11 <DIR> .

10/03/2012 11:11 <DIR> …

27/12/2013 12:59 <DIR> S-1-5-21-4077350907-178761674-415728870-1000

10/03/2012 11:11 <DIR> S-1-5-21-4077350907-178761674-415728870-1001

           0 File(s)              0 bytes

Directory of c:$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-21-4077350907-178761674-415728870-1000

27/12/2013 12:59 <DIR> .

27/12/2013 12:59 <DIR> …

10/03/2012 10:28 129 desktop.ini

           1 File(s)            129 bytes

Directory of c:$Recycle.Bin\S-1-5-21-4077350907-178761674-415728870-1001

10/03/2012 11:11 <DIR> .

10/03/2012 11:11 <DIR> …

10/03/2012 11:11 129 desktop.ini

           1 File(s)            129 bytes



 Total Files Listed:

           2 File(s)            258 bytes

           8 Dir(s)  42,780,704,768 bytes free

C:\Users\Alan>

There are only two very old desktop.ini files because Windows automatically sticks them everywhere,

but I almost never delete anything to the recycle bin - and if I do then I quickly decide whether to restore it or purge it.

You are trying to get Recuva to extract files which you have deleted to the recycle bin.

If you really want to retrieve them you could probably use the Desktop icon "Recycle Bin" and restore the contents back to where they were deleted from,

but there again you may have had good reason to delete them to the recycle bin in the first place.

Regards

Alan

If I use Desktop Icon "Recycle Bin", do I have to restore them to where they were located, can I restore them to another drive?

Thanks for your message.

In my limited experience they are automatically restored back to exactly where they came from.

If you deleted an obsolete application before installing an updated version of the application,

then restoring the obsolete version from the recycle bin would probably contaminate the latest installed version.

That would probably be unwise.

You may be better off if you try to save the files only, without restoring the paths they came from.

I will back out of this topic now and leave it to those with more relevant experience to advise you.

If you're recovering to c:\r then you are recovering files from a disk/partition that isn't c:? Doesn't the recycler live on the c drive anyway?

If you are recovering from and to the c drive then you run the risk of the recovering files overwriting other files waiting their turn to be recovered, no matter what directory you are recovering to. I have done this many times with individual files, but 8,000 is chancing it.

I don't know if recovering to the recycler is a goer. Will Windows allow copies to that system folder? I don't know how this will work.

What are the file names? Files in the recycler are renamed, so a recovery would have to be under their renamed form.

You will also need the corresponding index record for each file. Are you on Vista or later? If so each file will start with a $R and each matching index will start with a $I. You must have both of these files. On XP it is more perilous.

Whilst pondering the meaning of whatever my thoughts turned to Sandboxie. If one ran Recuva under Sandboxie then a recovery to the original folder names would be possible. After the recovery the recovered files could be restored to their original folder. One would not need to create a receiving folder for the recoveries, as they are sandboxed. Would this solve the too long path name problem? Sometimes ideas can be dangerous.

I'm also wondering why you are trying to recover files from the recycler. Weren't they deleted by choice in the first place?

Later musings: I've tried to reproduce this but I can't, as the recycler keeps renaming my hugely-long-named file to $Rxxxxxx, so it never comes close to the long path problem.

What happened is that I had cut a few large size of folders (about 160GB) from portable drive A, and pasted them all to portable drive B. They are just a bunch of data/pdf/words, and will only go to c:\r, so, I am not worried mixing or jeopardizing c: drive or any application on c:.

Unfortunately, I lost this portable drive and all pasted data from drive A are gone now. I made full recovery of the portable drive A using Recuva, and restored most part of my files from the drive to c:\r directory which is manually created.

Most of recovered folders seem all go under c:\r\$RECYCLE.BIN\S-1-5-21-1580082977-3013210137-4195539877-1000\...These data under this long path are data that I need. However, there are about 8000 files could not be recovered and the reason is because of "destination path is too long".

I don't know why they all go under $recycle.bin, but, I guess, it maybe resulted by "cut". and "cut" caused data to fall into recycle. That is just my guess.

so, my question is, what do I do to recover all data including these 8000 files? or is there any way to shorten $RECYCLE.BIN\S-1-5-21-1580082977-3013210137-4195539877-1000, since it seems to me this long directory caused the error message.

I don't want to recover them to the original place, drive A, that is why I created c:\r for it.

Hope I made myself more clear this time. Thank you!

The trick here, as is the case for every single case of the "destination path too long" error is found in this simple phrase, which I see here often:

I made full recovery
full recovery is wholly unwise and definitely not what most users want. People tend to forget that Windows uses a manure ton of temporary files, that it stores the contents of drive's deleted files in recycle bin even if the drive ought not support it, and that 99 percent of what is listed in a deleted file scan is useless (stuff that's overwritten, old versions of things, that porn movie that was loaded by a popup spam, those pictures of cats and smiling people you don't know, the jpg contents of a webpage etc etc).Take some time look through the contents of the scan, recover only what you need and you will likely NEVER experience this error (a main reason most of the moderator and many long time users have never seen the error is they tend to know the 1 or 2 files or locations they need recovering).Please don't feel that I'm being harsh, as your post codified my understanding of the error. The data you are trying to recover is, I assume, precious to you (general you as in the recovery software using person); treat it that way and put some time into looking at the results of a scan in a way that will best retrieve your files. The time spent will pay off in the best recovery of your files.In your, specific, case type PDF into the search box and then ignore (uncheck) the recycler folders as that's stuff you deleted with the delete key no cut paste will be there.EDIT

Most of recovered folders seem all go under c:\r\$RECYCLE.BIN\S-1-5-21-1580082977-3013210137-4195539877-1000\...These data under this long path are data that I need.
Ok i'm wrong in my last bit, now striken out. In this case turn off recover to original folder and just recover them to c:\r\As you don't want them in a recycler folder

The VERY FIRST RECOVERY ACTION SHOULD BE

To restore from the $Recycle.Bin to the CORRECT DESTINATION.

BEST CASE SCENARIO :-

Assuming that you have NOT emptied the $Recycle.Bin,

then the files which were in Portable Drive A:\ may still be present and available,

in which case just give your computer the correct destination and you may be lucky with a perfectly common Restore action from the $Recycle.Bin.

No need for Recuva or other third party tools.

If you cannot find the original Portable Drive A:\ then Windows MAY accept as the CORRECT DESTINATION anything else which is allocated the letter A:\.

WARNING :- When you restore something from the Recycle I think this may be a one time action, so restore the least important item and satisfy yourself of success before using this technique for the rest of the files.

WORST CASE SCENARIO :-

There is absolutely nothing there - it was all HIDDEN on the drive you lost.

All that remains are distant memories in the $Recycle of what used to be and what could still be if you find the old drive.

I am ignorant of all the intricacies of Windows,

but UNDERSTOOD that when you delete to Recycle from system partition C:\ then NOTHING is copied or moved from the original sectors,

but the MFT entries are adjusted so that Windows no longer sees that item in the original folder,

but now sees it as living in the $Recycle.Bin.

My computer has C:\ on a small SSD and everything else on a large HDD

I have just used Windows to delete "1 File(s) 14,184,212,082 bytes" from R:\ to recycle,

and then used the C:\ System Desktop "Recycle Bin" to restore that item back to R:\

The DOS command DIR shows that free space on R:\ remained constant at "26,782,760,960 bytes free" :-

before deletion,

whilst deleted,

after restoration.

C:\Users\Alan>CD /D R:\LS-3_3_1\RecoveredData\_E_GPT_E__465.82 GB_NTFS\Images\v5_0_Beta\Broken

R:\LS-3_3_1\RecoveredData_E_GPT_E__465.82 GB_NTFS\Images\v5_0_Beta\Broken>DIR

Volume in drive R is WDC_Rescue

Volume Serial Number is 66FE-5C10

Directory of R:\LS-3_3_1\RecoveredData_E_GPT_E__465.82 GB_NTFS\Images\v5_0_Beta\Broken

01/05/2013 21:08 <DIR> .

01/05/2013 21:08 <DIR> …

20/06/2011 21:05 14,184,212,082 05CA570378B31D56-00-00.mrimg

           1 File(s) 14,184,212,082 bytes

           2 Dir(s)  26,782,760,960 bytes free

R:\LS-3_3_1\RecoveredData_E_GPT_E__465.82 GB_NTFS\Images\v5_0_Beta\Broken>DIR

Volume in drive R is WDC_Rescue

Volume Serial Number is 66FE-5C10

Directory of R:\LS-3_3_1\RecoveredData_E_GPT_E__465.82 GB_NTFS\Images\v5_0_Beta\Broken

13/06/2014 10:02 <DIR> .

13/06/2014 10:02 <DIR> …

           0 File(s)              0 bytes

           2 Dir(s)  26,782,760,960 bytes free

R:\LS-3_3_1\RecoveredData_E_GPT_E__465.82 GB_NTFS\Images\v5_0_Beta\Broken>DIR

Volume in drive R is WDC_Rescue

Volume Serial Number is 66FE-5C10

Directory of R:\LS-3_3_1\RecoveredData_E_GPT_E__465.82 GB_NTFS\Images\v5_0_Beta\Broken

13/06/2014 10:03 <DIR> .

13/06/2014 10:03 <DIR> …

20/06/2011 21:05 14,184,212,082 05CA570378B31D56-00-00.mrimg

           1 File(s) 14,184,212,082 bytes

           2 Dir(s)  26,782,760,960 bytes free

R:\LS-3_3_1\RecoveredData_E_GPT_E__465.82 GB_NTFS\Images\v5_0_Beta\Broken>

I suspect the same may be true of external NTFS devices, and doubt that FAT32 devices would be any luckier.

In my experience Windows is a reluctant servant, but is willing to seize the Whip and deliver punishment.

May you have better luck than I. :)

Well, for what it's worth, I have run a little experiment.

I created a file and folder with such long names that Recuva, recovering to a new folder with Restore Folder Structure checked, failed with the message 'File names are too long to be recovered'

I opened Sandboxie and opened Recuva within SB. I then ran the same recovery only recovering to the c:\ drive. That recovery worked. Under SB's Quick Recovery Folders was the full path and file, which could then be copied out of SB or whatever.

So a fiddly setup but might be of some use. I'm not sure about this case though.

What Windows takes away, Sanboxie gives back - nice one :D

I am sorry, but I am confused...

the $resycle.bin is located on that portable drive, and it can not be viewed, only viewed by using Recuva to scan.

as I said, the directory $RECYCLE.BIN\S-1-5-21-1580082977-3013210137-4195539877-1000\ got added under c:\r by Recuva when I make the recovery from USB portable drive, can anybody please let me know steps in details on how to recover data without seeing the error "destination path is too long"?

Thanks!

Uncheck the option I mentioned, follow my advice and you will not have the error

Hi Nergal,

Thanks for your patience, but where exactly can I locate the option to turn off recover to original folder and just recover them to c:\r\ ? I am recovering from portable drive E:\ to C:\r.

I could not find such option, is this option I can find during the scan, or after scan when all filers are listed?

P.S.

I have to select Restore folder structure, because I have lots of folders, and filers underneath.

I would suggest you to use the Long Path Tool. It should sort out your issue.

their issue is likey long gone

original poster can petition me to unlock this thread.

thread locked to ward off spammers