problems writing to usb stick

[spurty]

Are there are limits to the number of files you can store on a disk, or the lengths of the filenames? Any help welcome!

I am trying to write some files to a 512mb usb thumb drive / memory stick. The drive is a little over half full but still has over 240mb free, plenty of room for the files. When I try to save a file I get a terse message advising it cannot save the file. I have tried saving direct from MS Word, also copying the file thru windows explorer and directory opus.

If I delete a folder containing 100+ files, I can then save a file onto the disk, but only if it has a short filename, eg I can save file.doc, but if I rename the file to mycomputerfile.doc I get the same error message again. However the computer will let me put the folder back on the disk, 100+ files and all, but then the original problem is back...even short filenames like file.doc won't save.

The stick has a total of 1600+ files in various directories. Many of the files are small, and most files and folders have very long names (I have saved web pages on there, so there are many gifs, jpegs etc. with long filenames).

I believe when a file is written, an entry relating to it is stored in the file allocation table. Is it possible there is room for the data itself, but no room left in the index for the meta-data about the file?????

[Nelson37]

Most of these use the FAT filing system, SFAIK. They may still adhere to the 512 entry limit in the root directory. Shortening the filenames would not hurt.

[Bjs]

Why not convert it to ntfs or fat32 , would sort the problem of fat restriction / limitations .

Some problems show up where the devices true actual storage is missrepresented .

Insert device , then right click on my computer , choose manage .
Storage > disk management , sellect usb memory device .
Right click on the device , and choose format , ntfs or fat32 , not fat .

[Krispy Kritter]

Aside from the name issue which is a FAT issue, it sounds like the drive is full or corrupted.

[aedipuss]

fat/fat16 typically only allow 512 entries in the root directory, so yes if you reach that limit there will be empty space on the drive you can't use. if you copy off the files and then select format from a right click of the drive icon you can choose to reformat it to fat32 which will get rid of that problem.

[jagabo]

Or, rather than reformatting, just put all your files in a subdirectory. Subdirectories have no limits on the number of files they can hold.

[spurty]

thanks for all your help, I knew usb sticks were fat16 and that had limitations but just didn't occur to me that i'd finally encountered one! Would be nice if windows xp error messages gave you some idea what the problem is, rather than "computer says no" every time (uk tv reference) leaving you to search the internet blindly, avoiding (of course) microsoft.com like the plague.

Sorry went off on one there, thanks for the help another pc problem solved!!