Saving Files Please?

Hello everyone, me yet again! can someone answer me this please?

I am trying to save My Current Working MSTS With some addional Routes & Rolling Stock To my External Hard Drive.

Drive C:MSTS Contains 327,627 Files 1,941 Folders.

External Hard Drive Contains 321,890 FILES 1,646 Folders.

I have copied this Three Times now with the same result! Surely they should be Identical.

No answer to this.

Thank.

Paul

Hi Paul,
Yes, they should  be identical.

I'm assuming that you right-clicked folder  MSTS  on drive C:\, then selected 'Copy'.
After that, right-click a blank space in the Explorer display of the external drive and select 'Paste'.
This will copy folder MSTS from drive C: into your external drive.
If you want to put MSTS into a specific folder on the external drive, instead of right-clicking a blank space, right-click the folder you want to add it to.  In this case, if your selected folder contains files with identical paths to those in C:\MSTS, you will see a message that some files already exist and giving the option to overwrite of skip those files, but that won't make any difference to the total number of folders and files..

If the above doesn't help, please tell us exactly how you copied C:\MSTS.  Maybe you selected the files/folders within C:\MSTS to be copied.  Did you use Ctrl+A to select all files and folders or did you select each individually?  If the latter, then, maybe, you missed some?

There's always a possibility that your external drive is faulty.

Cheers,
Ged

Hi Ged, thanks for reply,

I have been Copying & Pasting for some Years Now without any Issues. Everything copied as you have said.

Including the Default Routes, the Routes Folder contains 23 Routes, while the Trainset Contains 450 Trains and 1,044 Consists.

Could It be the Folder Is to Large? I have no other explanation for this.

Thanks

Paul.

Hi Paul,

Could It be the Folder Is to Large?

No, mate.
If there wasn't space on the external drive, you'd get a message to that effect..

With respect, I keep asking questions, but don't get proper answers!
HOW did you copy C:\MSTS on to your external drive - what EXACTLY did you do?

There are almost 300 folders missing, so it looks as if, maybe, one route hasn't been copied - only you know why that should be!.

Cheers,
Ged

As said In previous Post, everything done as you Said.

The Folder in Question Is my 1MSTS Folder containing MSTS.

Open 1MSTS,  Right Click on MSTS,  and COPY.

Open External Hard Drive, containing Nothing,  Right Click, Paste.

File copies to External Hard drive until Completion.  At this Stage The External Hard drive is approximately 2/3rd's Full. Does take a while.

Thanks

Paul.

Hi Paul,
In that case, sorry, but I have no idea!
I have heard from another user who reported that sometimes 'Copy' doesn't seem to copy everything, but as I've never experienced it myself, can't offer any suggestions.

If you could identify which folders/files are missing you may then be able to find out why they weren't copied.

However, one thing you could try is to copy your 1MSTS folder into a different drive, (which has sufficient space); it may be an internal or external drive.


Cheers,
Ged

I wonder if you try to copy a few folders at a time. Checking each time to see if anything is missing.
Garry

Hi Paul

This is just a stab in the dark, but...

Do you have any file paths that are too long? If the file is longer than 260 characters long then the file will not copy. There are a number of ways to get around this.

FIRST check to see if there are any files more than 260 characters long. The quickest way to do this is to use the command prompt, in admin mode. Go to your root msts directory and then do a directory listing and save the results to a text file. c:\1msts dir /b/s >myfiles.txt. I then loaded the file into excel and calculated the length of each path, and used the max function to get the longest path - in my case 130 characters in about 30000 files.

The longest path was c:\1msts\ROUTES\Backup\TS-22-Jul-2023-0930\TS\textures\TextureBackup\PlatformTiling8mx8mCompleteNewBin2OneYellowStripe_512x512.ace.

If you are not familiar with using DOS commands then you will need to look using explorer. The longest paths will be those with the longest filenames, and long filenames are long because the author tried to use a meaningful file name, Try textures, services and shapes first.

Alternatively open two screens with file explorer, on for your original files and one for your copy, get them side by side and look for what is missing.

Another alternative is to copy the sub-folders separately.

Another way is to change the maximum length of path. I've never done it myself but I'm sure Dr Google can help you with that.

Hope this gets you going,

Regards

Tony

Hello Ged, Gary and Tony, thanks for all replies.

Have tried Deleting THe Mega MSTS File and recopying, but, best result so far, Copying MSTS in Blocks of Four Files To my Extenal Hard drive resulting in Diference Of only Two Files.

Doesn't sound much of a Big Deal, But guess problem would Occur when Copying the MSTS File back to Main Computer?

Many thanks

Paul.

Hi Paul,
Two files or two folders??  Either way, you could be in trouble!

As you're having this problem, you should really be copying a block at a time, as you have, but then checking the Properties of that block against the properties of the block you've copied from. if there's any difference in the numbers of files, folders and size, it required further investigation.

Cheers,
Ged

Hi Paul
Another thought - are you copying to the root directory? If you aren't then the length of the path will be the length of the msts path plus the length of the path to which you are copying.

Have you had a look at the couple of files that didn't copy? How long are their paths?

Regards

Tony

Hi everybody, another question please regarding Copying.

Hope I can explain this well enough?

When copying a file from one Computer to another with large content Onto a Flashdrive/Dongle and getting the message "the file is to large you need XXXX times more Space.

Is It OK to copy what you have to the New Computer and when coming back to the file and copying the rest over would they join together OK or would splitting the File create a Problem.

Thanks

Paul.

Hi Paul,
As you describe it, it's NOT something I would do because you don't know exactly what has been copied on to the dongle.
It's better to :
(a) know what your dongle can hold - note that the dongle might be described as 16GB but it doesn't mean that you can copy 16GB on to it!  Maybe it will hold maximum of 14GB.
(b) Select a group of files and folders you want to copy, get the size of the group using Properties and, if lower than the maximum the dongle will hold, copy them into the dongle, then copy to your new computer.
(c) repeat (b) as many times as required.

To avoid this sort of problem, you'd do better to get an external disk drive of 2TB or 4TB.

I believe another option, if both PCs are on the same network, is to copy data directly from one to the other, but it's not something I've ever done! Maybe others can help with this option?

Cheers,
Ged

Hi Ged, Thanks.

I have both, a 2 & 4 TB But one Is full of MSFS while the other has Silent Hunter Wolves of the Pacific on It.

Not keen on mixing Simulators?

Thanks

Paul.

Hi Paul and Ged,

It is true that copying of files from one computer to another via a network is very convenient. I have four computers so linked through our home modem. Three desktops are hardwired into the modem with one lap top connected wirelessly. The three desktops also have external storage drives of 2TB each attached.
It is possible to move files from any of the drives internal or external ( eight in total ) to any of the other drives no matter where located on the network.
However setting up a network can be frought with difficulties as each computer has to be set so that it can "See" and be "Seen" by all other computers on the network. When that is accomplished permissions have to be set within each drive file hierarchy so that each computer can gain access to the files that you may want to copy or work with on another computer or external drive. All in all quite a time consuming option.
I am not an expert on the subject and would not presume to advise others as to whether or not they should adopt networking.
Copying and pasting to a Flash Drive seems to be a simpler option with at least 64gb available for not a lot of cash.

Good Luck!!

Terry W.

Hi Terry & Paul,
@ Terry : Thanks for the explanation. I was under the (possibly mistaken) impression that each PC has to have a designated folder for sharing with the other PCs.

@ Paul : I may be wrong, but I doubt very much if you have a dongle for 2TB or 4TB!  They are more likely to be 2GB or 4GB.  Of course, you could have external hard drives with those capacities.

Cheers,
Ged

Hi Ged

I have posted a screen shot of "My PC" page, trouble is i'm not sure if I have done it correctly. So fingers crossed and here goes.

TW

Hello Again Ged
Guess I got that wrong as it posted as a downlodable attachment and not a picture. Are you able to advise me on the correct procedure for displaying a picture in the posts PLEASE???
TW

Hi Terry,
You can include an image, like .jpg, into a post by clicking the 'Host an image' button :

In the resulting box,

Click 'Select File' - navigate to the file and double click it to select it
Click 'Send All'

Click 'Insert All' - A link will be placed at the cursor position in the post.
Click anywhere in the white-space area of the post to close the box

You can move the link to wherever you wish in the post.

I don't know of a way to display a .txt or .docx file.

Cheers,
Ged

slipperman12 wrote:Hi Terry & Paul,
@ Terry : Thanks for the explanation. I was under the (possibly mistaken) impression that each PC has to have a designated folder for sharing with the other PCs.

@ Paul : I may be wrong, but I doubt very much if you have a dongle for 2TB or 4TB!  They are more likely to be 2GB or 4GB.  Of course, you could have external hard drives with those capacities.

Cheers,
Ged

Hi Ged, apologies! I was referring To the 2 & 4 TB External Hard Drives That I possess, not the dongle/flashdrive that I was Using.

Many thanks

Paul.

Good Afternoon Ged,
Thank you for the image "Mini-Tutorial". It will be most useful if I ever need to post another picture on the forum.
Thanks again.

Cheers for now

Terry.