I have a few USB portable NTFS drives that have also been used on Mac and Linux systems, via fuse and other native OS accommodations. When I reconnect a portable drive to a Windows system, I discover that the Mac and Linux systems did not fully follow the rules for NTFS filenames. While copying the files from the portable drive to another local drive on Windows, I often see the error: "The file name you specified is not valid or too long". Can anyone recommend tools to identify these filenames on the Mac/Linux systems so that they can be corrected...or tools to fix them on the Windows side? As the filenames are invalid on Windows, I cannot rename them in Windows Explorer.
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Sanitizing illegal filenames on NTFS volumes
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I've apparently never crafted the proper google query in the past 25 years that I've fought this issue. It looks like I can resolve this with detox.
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Adding another option if one cannot go back to the Linux or Mac system... On Windows, you can use the free version of Recuva, a file restoration utility. One of the features of this program is to sanitize filenames while copying from a "bad" drive to a good drive.
In the Recuva preferences, check the box for "Scan for non-deleted files (for recovery from damaged or reformatted disks)" and then scan the portable drive. Also make sure that "Restore folder structure" is enabled. When you copy the files to the new drive, Recuva will make sure the new drive stores the files with proper filenames. This process can take time so it is still best to correct the filenames on the Mac or Linux system with detox.
In the Recuva preferences, check the box for "Scan for non-deleted files (for recovery from damaged or reformatted disks)" and then scan the portable drive. Also make sure that "Restore folder structure" is enabled. When you copy the files to the new drive, Recuva will make sure the new drive stores the files with proper filenames. This process can take time so it is still best to correct the filenames on the Mac or Linux system with detox.
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