Windows 10: How do I set an external/portable hard drive NTFS to accept long file paths?

I want to manually duplicate the folders and files from Desktop to a portable hard drive but at ~ 95% mark, I have issues with folder and file path lengths. I have modified the LongPathsEnabled FileSystem key and still have the above issue.If there is not way to set the NTFS portable hard drive to accept long paths, do I need to install PowerShell 7 and change even more settings?If the above is inadequate to achieve that which I desire, is there a command or native Windows OS tool to list and locate all file paths exceeding the 260-character constraint as a batch list listing their respective

:)

 

External hard drive is NTFS but Xbox pc wont recognise it...

Dear Mothcat182,

Welcome to the Microsoft Community



Thank you for reaching out regarding the issue with your Xbox app not recognizing your external hard drive as an NTFS device. It sounds frustrating, but I'm here to help you troubleshoot this problem. Here are a few steps you can follow:

1. Verify NTFS Format and Sector Size: First, let's ensure that your external hard drive is formatted to NTFS and check the sector size, as this might be the cause of the issue:
   
   • Open Command Prompt by typing cmd in the search bar, right-clicking on it, and selecting 'Run as administrator'.
     
   • Enter the following command: fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo D: (replace 'D' with your drive letter). This will display the NTFS volume information.
     
   • Look for the “Bytes Per Sector” and “Bytes Per Physical Sector” in the output. For compatibility with the Xbox app, these should ideally be 4096 bytes or less.
     
2. Reformat the Drive with Correct Sector Size: If your sector size is not 4096 bytes or less, you may need to reformat the drive with the correct sector size. Note that reformatting will erase all data on the drive, so make sure to back up your files first.
   
   • Back up all important data from your external hard drive.
     
   • Right-click the drive in 'This PC' or 'File Explorer' and select 'Format'.
     
   • Choose NTFS as the file system and set the 'Allocation unit size' to ‘4096 bytes’.
     
   • Check 'Quick Format' and click 'Start'.
     
   • This will erase all data on the drive, so make sure to back up any important files before proceeding.
     
3. Use another hard drive: If you cannot reformat the hard drive or the hard drive is still not recognized after formatting, it is likely that there is a compatibility problem with the hard drive. Please try using another hard drive to complete the installation.
   

I hope these steps help you get your drive recognized and allow you to reinstall your games. If there are any more questions or if you need further assistance, please don’t hesitate to ask.



Best Regards,

Martin | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

 

Reformatting external hard drive from FAt32 to NTFS

To reformat your WD Passport external hard drive from FAT32 to NTFS, you need to ensure that the drive is properly recognized by your PC. Since it's visible in Disk Management but not in "This PC," you can use Disk Management to format the drive. Here are the steps to do this:

Step-by-Step Guide to Reformatting Using Disk Management

Open Disk Management:

Press Win + X and select Disk Management from the menu.

Identify Your External Drive:

In the Disk Management window, locate your WD Passport drive. It should be listed as one of the disks, but without a drive letter.

Assign a Drive Letter (If Necessary):

If your drive doesn’t have a drive letter, right-click on the partition of the external drive and select Change Drive Letter and Paths....

Click Add, then select a drive letter from the dropdown menu and click OK.

Format the Drive:

Once the drive has a letter assigned, right-click on the partition and choose Format....

In the Format dialog box, select NTFS from the File System dropdown.

You can also name the drive under Volume label.

Make sure the Perform a quick format option is checked, then click OK to start the formatting process.

Using Command Prompt with Diskpart

If Disk Management does not provide the format option, you can use the Command Prompt with diskpart to format the drive:

Open Command Prompt as Administrator:

Press Win + X and select Command Prompt (Admin) or Windows PowerShell (Admin).

Run Diskpart:

Type diskpart and press Enter.

List Disks:

Type list disk and press Enter. This will show all the disks connected to your computer.

Select Your Disk:

Identify your WD Passport drive from the list. Be very careful to select the correct disk.

Type select disk X (replace X with the disk number of your WD Passport) and press Enter.

Clean the Disk (Optional):

Type clean and press Enter. This step will remove all partitions and data on the disk.

Create a New Partition:

Type create partition primary and press Enter.

Format the Partition:

Type format fs=ntfs quick and press Enter.

Assign a Drive Letter:

Type assign letter=Y (replace Y with the desired drive letter) and press Enter.

Exit Diskpart:

Type exit and press Enter.

Troubleshooting

If you still encounter issues, ensure the following:

The drive is properly connected and receiving power.

The USB port is functioning correctly by testing another device.

The external drive is not write-protected.

If none of these steps work, there might be an issue with the drive itself. In that case, consider testing the drive on another computer to rule out hardware problems.

 

Folder contents disappear from portable hard drive

Hi

I am transferring files from a couple of computers (-all WIN 10, 1803 build) to a portable NTFS hard drive. I have regularly done this before, so its not new and I have not had issues.

But on 2 recent occasions, after a cut and paste from an internal computer hard drive, a duplicate folder has appeared in the hard portable drive, and the contents of the original folder on that portable hard drive have disappeared: the message is the "folder
is empty". However, when I right click and open "properties" of that original folder, the number of files and the data is definitely not zero and is comparable to all of the prior contents.

I have read up about NTFS folder/file ownership and permissions and have re-assigned both in case I had stuffed this up at another time (The files were coming from different 'owners'). But no help: I cannot access nor even list the missing files.

I have run anti-virus : no issues.

Any suggestions to recover these files would be much appreciated.