# From Windows 7 filesystem to FreeBSD



## mastermax (Dec 15, 2013)

Hello.

I want to migrate from the Windows 7 desktop to a fbsd FreeBSD desktop. I have a big collection of ebooks on my NTFS 2 TB USB disk, and *I* often get errors like "file name is too long" (roughly translated from Russian)*.* I am really pissed off and fed up with this crap. So, *I*'m thinking about installing FreeBSD as my desktop OS, but *I* wanted to be sure before *I* do it, does freebsd FreeBSD's file system have better long file names support or will *I* encounter similar errors with it?


----------



## trh411 (Dec 15, 2013)

The two most prevalent filesystems on FreeBSD are UFS and ZFS. Both have a maximum file name of 255 bytes. You might find http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_file_systems interesting.


----------



## throAU (Jan 13, 2014)

The big difference is that Windows has a 255 character limit for the entire path, not just the filename*.  As I understand it, there's no real limit to the actual path length inherent to the file system on FreeBSD with either UFS or ZFS. 

Individual applications may vary.


edit:
* on further review, it looks like the NTFS files ystem doesn't have that limit but most Windows applications seem to.  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_file_systems


----------



## aliceten (Feb 16, 2014)

Well, difference can be removed with the help of Long Path Tool as well.


----------

