Copying descript.ion file fails

[pizzaman]

For some reason unknown to me, using COPY to copy a DESCRIPT.ION file fails unless the hidden attribute is removed.

*copy /h descript.ion newfile.txt

gives no error message, but reports "0 files copied," which is correct -- the file is not copied. I can copy other hidden files using the /h option, but not DESCRIPT.ION, so I'm scratching my head.

 

[rconn]

WAD -- COPY makes a special exception for DESCRIPT.ION, to prevent you from inadvertently overwriting a DESCRIPT.ION in the target directory. If you remove the hidden attribute, COPY treats it s an ordinary file.

(If you're on an NTFS drive, DESCRIPT.ION is obsolete.)

 

[Steve Fabian]

I use USB drives to copy and move described files very frequently. These devices default to non-NTFS formats; so do optical drives (CDs and DVDs). Such devices make the benefit of embedding descriptions in NTFS streams more a hindrance than help. Furthermore, there are occasions when browsing, and even editing a single DESCRIPT.ION file very much outweigh the integration of the NTFS streams. Please do not consider the traditional method obsolete!

 

[rconn]

I haven't seen a non-NTFS USB drive for years. CD's are waaaay obsolete, and there's no reason why you would need to format a DVD with FAT (unless you really wanted to waste most of the disk space).

 

[Charles Dye]

I haven't seen a non-NTFS USB drive for years. CD's are waaaay obsolete, and there's no reason why you would need to format a DVD with FAT (unless you really wanted to waste most of the disk space).

Hard drives often come formatted NTFS, but flash sticks are usually FAT32.

 

[rconn]

I buy one or two USB thumb drives a month, and I haven't seen one FAT32 formatted for years. Maybe they only do that for the small sizes? A 32 or 64Gb FAT32 thumb drive would be really dumb!

 

[Steve Fabian]

I have a 6GB Seagate (actual disk drive), an 8GB Kingston SD card, and a 16GB USB stick. They are far more than I ever need, and all of them are FAT32. Note that due to many large files, which on the NTFS sources are hard linked, they use substantially more space, but still they still have excess capacity. So no, I don't need NTFS' larger capacity. If my requirements matched yours, with resources to match, that would be a different story.

Returning to TCC's handling of DESCRIPT.ION files, it is so seamless already I cannot thinlk of an improvement.

 

[jabelli]

My “main” flash drive (64GB) is NTFS, but it came FAT32. I have a bunch of 2GB ones that are FAT32. The bigger ones are exFAT because my phone will read exFAT natively.

I was just playing with things and if you turn on NTFS descriptions, then copying a file from NTFS to FAT32 copies the description, but moving does not.

 

[mfarah]

I buy one or two USB thumb drives a month, and I haven't seen one FAT32 formatted for years. Maybe they only do that for the small sizes? A 32 or 64Gb FAT32 thumb drive would be really dumb!

USB pendrives and SD cards sold here use FAT32. Perhaps this will change when 64GB models become commonplace, but I can't be sure about that.