What is the longest filename possible in Nero?

[superboyac]

When burning a DVD in Nero, what is the maximum length of a filename possible?  I know there are a few options that can tweaked to get less restrictions on the filename.  Could someone describe the proper settings that will result in the longest filename possible?

i've heard that 255 characters is the longest possible for path+filename characters, but I don't remember where I got that information.

[Wordzilla]

Go to "ISO" tab when you create a new compilation -

File System:  ISO 9660: 1999

Max. length of file name is 207 characters in this mode.

Also in the "relax restrictions" section, check "allow more than 255 characters in path".

These two combined will allow a max. of 255 + 207 characters for path+filename.

[Wordzilla]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_file_systems

UDF

Maximum filename length: 255 bytes
Maximum pathname length:  1023 bytes *

* This restriction might be lifted in newer versions.

Well, if you decide to burn DVD in UDF format instead of ISO. 

[Eóin]

Windows itself has a max of just 260 characters

[mse-ron]

Windows itself has a max of just 260 characters

Well that is a bit ambiguous.  Windows 1,2,3.1,95,98,ME,2K,XP,2003,Vista ?  FAT12,FAT16,FAT32,NTFS ?

Which one are you speaking of generically there?

NTFS supports up to 32,767 bytes for a path, with a limit of 255 Characters per each filename\foldername in the path till you reach 32,767 bytes.

Now if you're talking FAT12 / FAT16 then yes the OLD outdated DOS does have that limitation.  I would guess that all Windows versions running on FAT16 would also have that limitation.  Those on NTFS though do not.

The FAT32 does not appear to have a defined limit though one should not try to test this limit as you will find other software and drivers (even those included with the OS) will not support extremely long paths.
 

[superboyac]

Thanks Mobysaurus, so I guess I don't have to worry about filename lengths if I use either the relaxed restrictions on ISO 9660:1999, or if I just use UDF mode.  When I used to burn mp3 CD's, I remember that I'd always have to cut down the filename.  I'm not going to do that anymore because I don't think any of those files (with path) approaches 200 characters.

To address the file system issue, I use Windows XP with NTFS.  I remember I used to check burning options to ensure maximum compatibility, but I don't do that anymore because I never use my systems on older OS's than my current one, and any future OS should inevitably be compatible with whatever I currently burn to.

[Eóin]

Well that is a bit ambiguous.  Windows 1,2,3.1,95,98,ME,2K,XP,2003,Vista ?  FAT12,FAT16,FAT32,NTFS ?

Which one are you speaking of generically there?

I'd better bite my tongue on that one.

Not sure exactly what versions of Windows suffer from it as I only have access to XP at the mo. If you dig around the PSDK headers you'll find a "#define MAX_PATH 260" crops up in a number of places and I'm sure that limitation extends back to previous windows incarnations, though this post on the subject caught my interest as it suggests the limit wasn't always enforced to the full.

As an experiment anyone can run a quick test. Create a folder in C: or wherever and create a folder of 64 chars in length. Inside that put another, inside that another and finally one more giving 4 nested folders. The last will get truncated to 50 chars. Then fire up notepad and try to save a file with a name 8 chars or more (excluding the added ".txt").

[f0dder]

With some quick tests (XP SP2 / NTFS), I wasn't able to create a folder with more than 244 chars in it's name (xPlorer^2 as well as cmd.exe) - might be a different story if you use the APIs directly, and use the unicode version... and perhaps you even have to do the "\\?\" prefix trick.

Also, inside the 244-char folder, I wasn't able to create a new folder, and the longest filename I was able to create was 11 bytes... that'd be 244 + 11 + 4 +1 bytes total (4 bytes for "C:\" and the "\" between path and filename, and 1 byte for the 0-trailer). Guess what that adds up to?

Notepad++ isn't able to open that file, by the way, heh.