Having trouble backing up my AM project

[Peter Pauze]

Hello all.

I'm working on a huge project (over 5000 frames so far). Needless to say, I regularly back up my work on an external USB hard drive.

On my most recent attempt to back up, however, I got the (generic and uninformative) error message "Cannot Move File or Folder - The Directory or File Cannot be Created."

It seems to hang up when transferring files to the FramesData folder--which is, admittedly, getting very big...more than 21,000 files in it.

Does anyone know why this is happening?
Does anyone have a suggestion for a solution?

Thanks!

Peter

[Mystery]

Hmmm, seems to be a Windows issue. Are you on XP or Vista?

This is what I've found for XP, maybe you could try that:
http://www.ehow.com/how_5467107_fix-dir ... eated.html

Let us know if this helps

[Peter Pauze]

Thanks for your reply, Mystery.

I'm on XP. Thanks for the link; I found that article too, and others like it.

I have plenty of space left (nearly 20G), so that's not it.

I can't do the "just create a new folder" trick because, of course, AM wants its files in certain folders (and who can blame it). So I have to back up the, for example, frame data files to the FrameData folder. No choice.

Besides, I've tried "tricking" it by backing up, say, the frame data files to a temp folder with the intention of renaming it FrameData when done--but no luck, got the same error message.

Like you, I'm sure this is a Windows issue, not an AM issue--and I apologize if that makes the question off topic, but I was wondering if anyone had encountered this problem while backing up their AM project.

At the moment I'm looking into how my external HD is formatted (FAT vs. NTFS and so forth)--maybe that's it.

If I find a solution I'll report back, just in case others have a similar problem in the future and do a topic search.

PP

[Mystery]

I see, sorry my post didn't help.

No worries, you are free to ask technical questions that hinder you using AM (or backing up your projects), and we try to help as good as we can.

Another idea:
What if you zipped up the AM project folder and backed it up as a .zip file?
Have you tried that already? Maybe it will accept it that way.

[Peter Pauze]

SOLUTION

Here's the solution to this problem, for anyone who encounters a similar issue.

The problem (it turns out) is that my external HD was formatted using the FAT32 system (FAT stands for File Allocation Table), which is apparently how most external hard drives are shipped, despite the fact that there is a newer and better system now used by most computers. (They want the HDs to be compatible with older computers and devices.)

Trouble is, the FAT32 system has a limit on how many files can be in a single folder, and my Adventure Maker folders were exceeding that limit.

The newer file system is called NTFS (New Technology File System) and while it too has a limit on how many files can be in a folder, it's much, much, much bigger.

Fortunately, you can convert your HD from FAT32 to NTFS without losing the data already stored on the HD. To do so:

Open the command prompt (Start>Programs>Accessories>Command Prompt).

At the command prompt type:

CONVERT X: /fs:ntfs

where X is the letter of the drive you want to convert.

Worked like a charm for me. Didn't harm a hair on the head of the data already on the hard drive, and all my AM files can now be copied to the drive without a problem.

PP

[Mystery]

Great to hear that you've been able to fix the issue, and thanks for posting the solution for others who might run into this problem, too

[Suicune]

wow over 5000 frames!?!... thats incredible, and here i was thinking my upcoming game having 700+ frames was huge... LOL

mine clocks in at about 3 months used up... i can only imagine how much time yours took! i doubt i could ever make a game THAT large, my current project has drained me to the point im quitting game making after im finished it lol.

anyways GL with it!

[Peter Pauze]

Yeah, it's a monster. A MYST-like first-person adventure with many (too many) possible paths you can take and lots of random-number-generated sub-paths within 'em so it feels like a new adventure each time you play. It's kind of gotten away from me. Also, I could have been more efficient and used fewer frames, but that would also be more time-consuming to create--it was faster and easier to just create yet another frame. But lordy, they do add up.

I've been working on it--just part time, y'know--for a year and a half. I think I'm close to being done, however.