Microsoft KB Archive/125386

= SFM Files Lose Long Filenames When Backed Up & Restored =

Article ID: 125386

Article Last Modified on 11/1/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server 3.1
 * Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 3.1
 * Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server 3.1

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This article was previously published under Q125386



SYMPTOMS
Services for Macintosh (SFM) files with names containing characters illegal under Windows NT lose their long names when backed up and restored using Windows NT Backup.



CAUSE
The legal SFM characters, but illegal Windows NT characters, are supported by Services for Macintosh by translating the characters to an unused area of the Unicode character set. Prior to Service Pack 2, Windows NT Backup did not support Unicode. When a version of Windows NT Backup that is not Unicode aware backs one of these files it is unable to record the correct long filename. In instead uses a traditional 8.3 character filename. As a result, the long filename is unrecoverable.

NOTE: Tapes created by Windows NT Backup from Service Pack 2 or later record the long filenames correctly.



RESOLUTION
This problem has been corrected in Windows NT version 3.5 and the most current builds of Windows NT version 3.1. Because the data recorded to the tape from earlier versions of Windows NT Backup does not contain the full file names, there is no way to recover from the loss of this information; the files must be renamed from the Macintosh client to regain their original names.



STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT version 3.1. This problem was corrected in the latest US Service Pack for Windows NT. For information on obtaining this update, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):

  S E R V P A C K



MORE INFORMATION
The following are characters are allowed by SFM but not by Windows NT:

  * /   \    :

Also, Windows NT does not allow filenames with trailing periods or trailing spaces.

Additional query words: 3.10 lfn long name prodnt

Keywords: KB125386

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