How to recreate short file names

[Phenomic]

I have an installation where "Program Files" and "Documents and Settings" have no short filenames. I know how the short filenames were destroyed but don't know how to recreate them. A running OS won't let you rename them, so I renamed them in Recovery console, but still no SFNs. Any ideas?

[jaclaz]

I have an installation where "Program Files" and "Documents and Settings" have no short filenames. I know how the short filenames were destroyed but don't know how to recreate them. A running OS won't let you rename them, so I renamed them in Recovery console, but still no SFNs. Any ideas?

What is the output of

DIR /X

?

Is it a NTFS filesystem?

What is the content of HKLM\\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem\NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation (if any?)

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/210638/en-us

jaclaz

[Phenomic]

Dir /x shows no SFNs, NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation = 0

[jaclaz]

Dir /x shows no SFNs, NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation = 0

Hmmm.

1. What EXACTLY have you attempted in the RC?
   
2. Can you try with a more "complete" environment such as a PE?
   
3. Have you tried renaming including a "forbidden" char in the filename?
   http://support.microsoft.com/kb/142982/en-us
   
4. Have you tried using Unlocker (or a similar tool) to allow the renaming in the "fully booted" OS? (beware, risk of crash )
   http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Miscellaneous/Unlocker.shtml
   
5. How EXACTLY were the filenames destroyed?
   
6. Do the short filenames appear for newly made files/directories in the running system?
   

In the worst case you can still manually hex-write them with a tool like DMDE. (you will need to know where your towel is )

jaclaz

Edited November 26, 2012 by jaclaz

[Phenomic]

I have 2 storage dirs, one has all the files needed by W7 and the other Win2k. I move one OS out to storage and the other one in, and vice versa, so I share the partition between 2 OSes, follow? I do the moving in Linux, that’s how the SFNs get destroyed.

I thought renaming to something else and back would re-create the SFNs.

[jaclaz]

I edited the previous post, numbering the questions.

Right now we have ONLY 1/6th of the answers (not counting the unanswered questions in the previous post) :

5. I have 2 storage dirs, one has all the files needed by W7 and the other Win2k. I move one OS out to storage and the other one in, and vice versa, so I share the partition between 2 OSes, follow? I do the moving in Linux, that’s how the SFNs get destroyed.

jaclaz

Edited November 26, 2012 by jaclaz

[Phenomic]

lol, I was hoping somebody would give me answers, like some utility that re-generates SFNs.

I don't have PE, new SFNs work fine now, I'm just surprised that chkdsk doesn't fix it.

[Phenomic]

I edited the previous post, numbering the questions.

Right now we have ONLY 1/6th of the answers (not counting the unanswered questions in the previous post) :

5. I have 2 storage dirs, one has all the files needed by W7 and the other Win2k. I move one OS out to storage and the other one in, and vice versa, so I share the partition between 2 OSes, follow? I do the moving in Linux, that's how the SFNs get destroyed.

jaclaz

I ran the following batch in recovery console. So renaming doesn't generate SFNs!?

set AllowAllPaths = True

ren "Documents and Settings" "Documents and Settings1"
ren "Program Files" "Program Files1"
ren "Documents and Settings1" "Documents and Settings"
ren "Program Files1" "Program Files"

[jaclaz]

lol, I was hoping somebody would give me answers, like some utility that re-generates SFNs.

But you didn't ask for answers or tools, you asked for ideas instead:

I have an installation where "Program Files" and "Documents and Settings" have no short filenames. I know how the short filenames were destroyed but don't know how to recreate them. A running OS won't let you rename them, so I renamed them in Recovery console, but still no SFNs. Any ideas?

anyway a suitable tool has been suggested, DMDE:

http://softdm.com/

(and yes, I know that next post will be asking an "automagic" tool capable of fixing those names )

Maybe fsutil would do:

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/fsutil_file.mspx?mfr=true

To set the short name for the file longfilename.txt on drive C to longfile.txt, type:

fsutil file setshortname C:\longfilename.txt longfile.txt

cannot say if it works on dirctories as well

jaclaz

[Phenomic]

fsutil is giving me "access denied"

fsutil file setshortname "C:\Program Files" C:\PROGRA~1

Error: Access is denied.

[Phenomic]

sudo fsutil biatch

[RamonUn]

Sorry to bump this thread up, but I encountered the same problem, and I thought someone else might have it.

I ended up writing a simple command line program that re-generate the short-names automatically for a files and folder.

See https://github.com/RamonUnch/ssname/

If you want binary/source.

It is not following the exact same convention than windows but it is convenient to fix ntfs-3g copied files so that they have a short name that can be used later...

It will not reproduce the same short-name than what windows did because it would be impossible anyway.

For special names such as "Program Files" you should do it manually.