macrium reflect free restore a file from an image backup

mck · Saturday at 7:01 AM

Running Win11, 24H2 and Macrium Reflect Free 8.0.7783 (the latest free version).

I did an image backup of my entire C SSD.
Then in the real C drive SSD (not in the backup), I renamed the Firefox profile by adding -xxx to it.

Then as a test, I restored the Firefox profile from the image backup to Firefox's profile folder.
At the end of the restore, got a "Destination Path Too Long" error but the Firefox profile was restored to the profile folder.
I opened Firefox and it opened correctly with all of my bookmarks in it.

Has anyone else experienced a "Destination Path Too Long" error when restoring a large file from a Macrium Reflect image backup?
Or, anyone know why there was a "Destination Path Too Long" error after the file restore but the restored file appears to be fine?

If anyone wants to test if your copy of MRF has the same error when restoring the Firefox profile, the path to Firefox's profile is:
C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\92sqwste.default-release
(where 92sqwste.default-release is the name of my Firefox profile)

glasskuter · Saturday at 12:11 PM

mck said:
Then as a test, I restored the Firefox profile from the image backup to Firefox's profile folder.

The "Destination path too long" error in Windows occurs when the combined length of the file path being copied or moved exceeds the system's limit, typically 260 characters. I do not think this has anything to do with Macrium, per se. I am assuming you mounted the image and copied your profile. So basically this was NOT a restore. It was a copy and paste.

C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\92sqwste.default-release is a not a file. It's a folder. Inside that folder are approximately 20 sub folders. Some of those folders have sub-sub folders. You have to consider the length of the entire file path for files within these sub and sub-sub folders. If any file path exceeds 260 characters, Windows will not copy it.

The reason Firefox is working is that the COPY function copied your profile and everything in it except the one file that exceeded the limits. All of the data necessary for FF to function was copied. The problematic file may have been nothing no more than a bookmark.

When this error is found when copying from within WINDOWS, the solution is to shorten the file path by renaming, but even if you can find the one missing file out of the folder in your image, you are prohibited from re-naming a file within an image.

Topgundcp · Saturday at 12:14 PM

This has nothing to do with MR. It's a windows message. Tweak the registry to allow long file path:

How to Enable Long Paths in Windows 11: Step-by-Step Guide

Discover how to enable long paths in Windows 11 with our step-by-step guide. Simplify file management by overcoming the 260-character limit.

www.supportyourtech.com

glasskuter · Saturday at 12:24 PM

Topgundcp said:
Tweak the registry to allow long file path:

Yes, that would work, but since you have no idea which file in your profile folder was not copied and it would be too difficult to find it amongst possibly thousands, you would have to start over and copy the entire folder again.

Topgundcp · Saturday at 1:26 PM

glasskuter said:
Yes, that would work, but since you have no idea which file in your profile folder was not copied and it would be too difficult to find it amongst possibly thousands, you would have to start over and copy the entire folder again.

By default, Windows limit for a long file path is 260 character long so if a file path exceeds that limit, Windows will complain and perhap it might fail copying.
To allow file path longer than 260, you would have to increase the buffer.
I have this entry in my answer file (unattend.xml) when I do a fresh Windows Installation:
reg.exe add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem" /v LongPathsEnabled /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
This has nothing to do with identifying which file is not copied.
When you mount MR image to selectively restore some files then you should know which one to restore.

glasskuter · Saturday at 1:59 PM

Topgundcp said:
o selectively restore some files then you should know which one to restore

True, whe dealing with only files. But in his case he was restoring a folder with sub folders and sub-sub folders. So he wouldn't know which exact file wasn't copied unless he opened each of the sub folders and compared what was in Macrium too what was in windows.

mck · Saturday at 2:44 PM

glasskuter said:
The "Destination path too long" error in Windows occurs when the combined length of the file path being copied or moved exceeds the system's limit, typically 260 characters. I do not think this has anything to do with Macrium, per se. I am assuming you mounted the image and copied your profile. So basically this was NOT a restore. It was a copy and paste.

C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\92sqwste.default-release is a not a file. It's a folder. Inside that folder are approximately 20 sub folders. Some of those folders have sub-sub folders. You have to consider the length of the entire file path for files within these sub and sub-sub folders. If any file path exceeds 260 characters, Windows will not copy it.

The reason Firefox is working is that the COPY function copied your profile and everything in it except the one file that exceeded the limits. All of the data necessary for FF to function was copied. The problematic file may have been nothing no more than a bookmark.

When this error is found when copying from within WINDOWS, the solution is to shorten the file path by renaming, but even if you can find the one missing file out of the folder in your image, you are prohibited from re-naming a file within an image.

Thank you VERY MUCH glasskuter for explaining what happened. Your explanation makes total sense. I will "like" your response as the answer to why the "Destination path too long" error occurred.

Though I did refer to the 92sqwste.default-release as a file, that was a typo as I've opened that folder several times before and saw many files and sub-folders in it. Thunderbird's profile is an even more humongous folder at about 25 GB in size on my PCs.

mck · Saturday at 2:47 PM

Topgundcp said:
This has nothing to do with MR. It's a windows message. Tweak the registry to allow long file path:

How to Enable Long Paths in Windows 11: Step-by-Step Guide

Discover how to enable long paths in Windows 11 with our step-by-step guide. Simplify file management by overcoming the 260-character limit.

www.supportyourtech.com

Great info Topgundcp. I will do the registry mod to allow long file paths. I'll also like your response.

mck · Saturday at 8:53 PM

mck said:
Great info Topgundcp. I will do the registry mod to allow long file paths. I'll also like your response.

I did Win11's registry change for long path names from 0 to 1.
Copied the Firefox profile from the Macrium Reflect Free's image backup again.
Got the same "Destination path too long" error at the end of the copy.
The FF profile was copied successfully again though.

In summary, no change from the original symptoms.

Steve C · Sunday at 2:37 AM

I use this tool to find and fix long file paths Download TLPD - MajorGeeks

mck · Sunday at 1:52 PM

Steve C said:
I use this tool to find and fix long file paths Download TLPD - MajorGeeks

Thanks for the suggestion. Not sure if modifying a long path in the Firefox profile will cause problems. Wish the registry mod to allow long path names worked, but unfortunately it didn't make a difference.

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