Weird Problem: DVD File Names Scrambled

Richard

Here's one I have never seen before: All the file names on a photo DVD are scrambled when I read the DVD on my new XP machine. They were written by another XP machine and my daughter's Vista machine reads the names correctly. The files themselves seem to be uncorrupted, as I can open and copy them. But the original file names (e.g., 061115_0123.cr2) have been changed to something like 05C6C2~1.cr2, always six hexadecimal digits followed by ~1 followed by the correct file suffix. The disk itself was written with the same Roxio software that burned other DVDs that have not shown this problem.

Anybody know what's going on?

Thanks,

SloYerRoll

Can you give an exact example Richard?

This doesn't seem like it would be a XP issue. But the problem is there regardless.

Back in the MS-DOS days. The root name of a file longer than 6 decimals was truncated to six characters and then ~1 is added to that for the first instance of that six characters. There are other rules for long filenames in DOS land. But none would fit this problem though.

This is the only thing that jumps out at me. An exact sample would prove this idea right or wrong.

Richard

SloYerRoll wrote:

Can you give an exact example Richard?

This doesn't seem like it would be a XP issue. But the problem is there regardless.

Back in the MS-DOS days. The root name of a file longer than 6 decimals was truncated to six characters and then ~1 is added to that for the first instance of that six characters. There are other rules for long filenames in DOS land. But none would fit this problem though.

This is the only thing that jumps out at me. An exact sample would prove this idea right or wrong.

I'm glad to say the problem has gone away, but I am still scratching my head wondering what the hell happened. When it first occurred, I was copying the contents of a DVD to a new external drive. It was only after the copy had completed that I noticed the scrambled file names. They were scrambled on both the DVD and the hard drive when seen with Explorer, and all the file names (but not the folder names) were scrambled in exactly the same pattern. I tried ejecting the DVD and remounting it, but the names were still scrambled. I copied a number of other DVDs that had filenames in exactly the same format and had no problem.

I figured it had to be a software issue--the correct filenames had to be on the disk, since the Vista machine read them OK. If it were a problem with the DVD drive in the new machine, I would think the disk would simply be unreadable. It did occur to me that the scrambled names were following the old DOS naming convention, so later that evening, I mounted the problem disk and looked at its directory in a MS-DOS window. The filenames were correct! Then I looked at the disk in Explorer and they were also correct there. Not wanting to push my luck, I copied the disk to the hard drive then and there, and the operation worked perfectly.

I have no idea what caused the problem in the first place or what I did that corrected it. The best explanation right now seems to be aliens from the planet Zork.

scratch

cmason

That ~1 convention is how MS handles long file names when there are compatibility issues. An older MS OS would see the truncated names, whereas newer OS see the full 'long name'. A 'long name' is any file name longer than the 8.3 convention for DOS. Oddly I thought XP was fully compliant. In earlier versions, long file names were supported in Windows, but not in command line. Command line now fully supports this. Some older Windows apps (maybe your cd burner software???) dont display long file names.

I am not sure what Windows does, but the names aren't changed, they are just truncated for viewing. So for some reason, your machine was simply displaying the truncated names, it seems to have woken up!

Richard

cmason wrote:

I am not sure what Windows does, but the names aren't changed, they are just truncated for viewing. So for some reason, your machine was simply displaying the truncated names, it seems to have woken up!

The file names were not truncated, or at least not only truncated--the first six characters were completely different from the original file name and were clearly hexadecimal. I believe what I was seeing was some sort of internal representation, perhaps a file table entry. Since my original post, I have copied two dozen DVDs--all burned with the same software--and the problem has not resurfaced. I'm sticking with aliens from the planet Zork.

:s85

ChrisJ

rsinmadrid wrote:

aliens from the planet Zork.

Must have been the grues... did you have the lights turned off?

Richard

ChrisJ wrote:

Must have been the grues... did you have the lights turned off?