Issues copying between Windows and Linux??

[oxf]

Are there fundamental problems copying between windows and linux and windows? I didn't think there were as such. But... A couple of problems have popped up recently.

First I got this ".Trash-1000" folder issue on my flash drive and was unable to empty it. Googling around revealed this is a fairly common problem and I resorted to reformatting the flash.

Today I was trying to back up some files from my HD (from my desktop which still has Ubuntu 9.04 on it) and copy them to a flash drive. Some files would not copy and gave me an error. more details described it as a "problem with the file name" These files, all PDF's were (I think) saved on Windows PC at on of the libraries I use. I've never had trouble copying PDF's before though.

Anyway closer investigation in Properties>File Name revealed a strange box like symbol between a couple of the words of the file name. When I deleted this I can copy the file just fine. So I have to assume this is some remnant/incompatibility from Windows. The flash was formatted FAT32 and the PC EXT3. I'm wondering if this would improve under EXT4. So now I'm in the process of taking the box thingy out of name file by file...sigh....!

Anyway any thoughts on this issue?

[bigtomrodney]

Windows gets upset if you use certain reserved characters. Although the FAT filesystems and NTFS can handle the characters, Windows itself doesn't like them to be used. Some examples are slashes and colons and there are others too.

Interestingly you can't make folders or files called CON, PRN or SYS on Windows. Just try doing it! I think you can work around it on the command line but it's not possible within Explorer.

[oxf]

Windows gets upset if you use certain reserved characters. Although the FAT filesystems and NTFS can handle the characters, Windows itself doesn't like them to be used. Some examples are slashes and colons and there are others too.

Interestingly you can't make folders or files called CON, PRN or SYS on Windows. Just try doing it! I think you can work around it on the command line but it's not possible within Explorer.

yes this is sort of the reverse. I saved the files on a windows machine and then brought them home and opened them in Ubuntu, saved them on my HD with a proper file name. All was fine until tried to back them up to a flash. I guess the windows pc left some remnant in the name just to be pesky (in the form of the weird character I found)