#are no more useful than the useless fucking microsoft forums

[cantsayidont]

I don't know which is more suffocatingly upsetting and utterly infuriating: Microsoft's data-breach-spyware-cum-OS parade, or the stupid smug motherfuckers saying, "Just use Linux! Learn to program all your own software! You can save so much more money if you make your own insulin in the fucking garage! Cut some lumber and make your own furniture! It's no problem if U R L33T!"

[swrx-rant]

Error 0x80070052

(bear with me folks, I have the REAL CAUSE and WORKAROUND for the majority of cases, and I’ll get to that as soon as I press home just how FUCKTARDED Microsoft is... if you’re in a hurry, start from the bottom of this post.)

Microsoft, CONGRATULATIONS! You’re first.

Let me begin by asking, “What the fuck is you’re problem, FAT32 dev-team?” (yes, I know this is an ANCIENT file system, but its still far too common because of greedy licensing schemes... this was the last OPEN-SOURCE version of FAT-- ExFAT and NTFS are highly proprietary, and that’s why many devices don’t support them)

“Error 0x80070052: The directory or file cannot be created.” - this has to be one of the LEAST HELPFUL ERROR MESSAGES I’VE EVER SEEN!

The least you ASSHOLES could do when we’re copying HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF FILES TO AN EXTERNAL DRIVE is to tell us WHICH GODDAMNED FOLDER/PATH THIS HAPPENED IN. Only telling us the NAME OF THE FILE is pretty fucking useless.

This problem exists in ALL 32 & 64 bit VERSIONS OF WINDOWS, and likely existed in the 16 bit versions as well. THAT’S OVER TWENTY YEARS OF NOT FIXING OR GIVING A FUCK ABOUT YOUR CUSTOMERS.

Present in Windows 95(v4, or more honestly DOS6 with a pretty shell), 98/SE(v4 - the first real Windows OS, not just a UI-Shell over DOS), NT(v4), ME(v4), XP(v5), NT2000(v5), Vista(v6), Windows 7(fuck you its v6.1 you liars!), Windows 8(still can’t tell the truth Windows 6.2??), 8.1(v6.3), 8.2(v6.4 with a pseudo-start menu restored), Windows 10(haven’t looked, but I’m betting its 6.5 ... cause lets face it, these fucktards can’t count... and in reality its just been 15 years of Windows LONGHORN not multiple different OS’s -- of course it comes with with an update policy akin to most asshole mobile device custom android hacks, as in: WE’RE GOING TO INSTALL WHATEVER THE FUCK WE WANT, WHENEVER THE FUCK WE WANT, USING AS MUCH FUCKING BANDWIDTH AND SYSTEM RESOURCES AS WE WANT, AND THE ONLY WAY TO STOP US IS TO GO INTO AIRPLANE MODE - AND FUCK YOU FOR THINKING YOU CAN USE YOUR COMPUTER FOR ANYTHING OTHER THAN INSTALLING MORE OF OUR USELESS SHIT... can you tell I own a Nook? Apple may be assholes, but at least they don’t try to foist a bunch of Samsung or Barns&Noble crapware on us... their bundled apps are actually USEFUL and simple, not some freakshow that tries to hijack our search or homescreen, or crashes our lockscreen so we can’t UNLOCK, or tries to SYNC our EMPTY FUCKING LIBRARY EVERY 30 FUCKING SECONDS SERIOUSLY WRECKING STABILITY AND RAM)

What this STUPID FUCKING ERROR MESSAGE ACTUALLY MEANS: There is not enough Address-Space in the CURRENT FOLDER (not just ROOT you asshats that answer on the microsoft forum). Put simply, TOO MANY FUCKING FILES FOR FAT32 AND/OR THE NAMES ARE TOO FUCKING LONG.

That’s right, LONG FILENAMES TAKE UP MULTIPLE ADDRESSES IN FAT32 Tables. THERE IS A HARD LIMIT ON HOW MANY FILE-ADDRESSES CAN EXIST IN A SINGLE FOLDER.

This is why the error occurs at seemingly random intervals, with one folder allowing over 30,000 files and another running out of room with less than 8,000.

THIS VERY LIKELY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE INTEGRITY OF THE DRIVE OR FILE SYSTEM. REFORMATTING WON’T DO A FUCKING THING TO FIX IT (UNLESS YOU ARE GOING TO NTFS OR ANOTHER SYSTEM WITHOUT THIS STUPID ADDRESSING LIMITATION)

THE PROBLEM OCCURS WHEN COPYING FROM A NEWER/SMARTER FILE SYSTEM LIKE NTFS TO AN OLDER/DUMBER FILE SYSTEM LIKE FAT16, FAT32, and yes, even ExFAT.

You can prevent this problem ahead of time by splitting up folders with high file counts and/or long file names. (Also, shorten/truncate the damned names... just because some asshole on the web decided to give something a 100+ letter filename so they could advertise several dozen tag-words doesn’t mean you need to keep their shitty filename)

If you are backing up files to multiple drives, let me also STRONGLY RECOMMEND zipping/archiving small folders with high file counts. The THROUGHPUT limit on copying is twofold. Not only is it limited by BIT-RATE, but more importantly there is a FILE-PER-SECOND limitation that greatly slows most transfers with high file-counts, especially on faster devices. It takes far longer to copy 100,000 1-KB files (100 MB) than it does to copy 100 100-MB files (10 GB). Every 100,000 files you can lower this count by will likely save you MORE THAN AN HOUR OF COPY TIME. (funny how Microsoft and the External HDD companies forget to tell us this little gem)

But, if you’re seeing this rant, then it is almost certainly too late for that method. So, how can you resume your copy when you don’t even know where the problem happened? Well, its annoying, but you can track down where the copy stalled by comparing the source and destination directory structures.

Once you’ve identified which folder FAILED to complete copying, you can either try to rename that folder (if windows will let you), OR move all the files into a new split-folder (I suggest appending a number on each so you can recombine them later in NTFS, such as folder-1, -2, etc.)

After you have moved the BLOCKED FOLDER/FILES out of the way, the copy should resume by simply clicking “Try Again” (you probably want to check do this for all current items for all the TENS OF THOUSANDS OF FILES THAT ARE BACKLOGGED BY THIS ERROR)

And of course, errors like this can also be from insufficient space on the drive, but, UNLIKE MICROSOFT TECH SUPPORT, I will assume you are not an idiot and that was the first thing you checked.