app to replace characters not allowed by windows XP with NTFS and FAT file systems

On Fri, 11 Jan 2013 12:19:29 -0800 (PST), DJW put
finger to keyboard and composed:

Is there a windows XP application to find file or folder names that have characters not allowed and either delete those characters or replace them? I have about a thousand files with question marks in the file name on my hard drive that were moved over from a Mac. When I try to sync my files with SyncBack from one hard drive to another within my windows network. I get an error that those files with the question mark can not be copied. Why and how can I even have them existing on my windows formatted hard drives containing question marks in the file names? I have both NTFS and FAT file systems on different internal and external hard drives that I am trying to copy to and fro from.

Are they in just a few directories, or are they all over the disk?

I have an idea for creating a batch file, but it would be very tedious
if there were too many directories.

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

On Mon, 21 Jan 2013 21:04:24 +1100, Franc Zabkar wrote:

On Fri, 11 Jan 2013 12:19:29 -0800 (PST), DJW put
finger to keyboard and composed:

Is there a windows XP application to find file or folder names that have characters not allowed and either delete those characters or replace them? I have about a thousand files with question marks in the file name on my hard drive that were moved over from a Mac. When I try to sync my files with SyncBack from one hard drive to another within my windows network. I get an error that those files with the question mark can not be copied. Why and how can I even have them existing on my windows formatted hard drives containing question marks in the file names? I have both NTFS and FAT file systems on different internal and external hard drives that I am trying to copy to and fro from.

Are they in just a few directories, or are they all over the disk?

I have an idea for creating a batch file, but it would be very tedious
if there were too many directories.

Maybe boot into, for example, Knoppix (or some other Live CD) and run
the rename in the GNU/Linux environment?

Grant.

On Tue, 22 Jan 2013 10:13:47 +1100, Grant put finger
to keyboard and composed:

On Mon, 21 Jan 2013 21:04:24 +1100, Franc Zabkar wrote:

I have an idea for creating a batch file, but it would be very tedious
if there were too many directories.

Maybe boot into, for example, Knoppix (or some other Live CD) and run
the rename in the GNU/Linux environment?

My suggestion would be something like this:

Type the following at a command prompt:

dir | find "?" qmarks.bat

I'm assuming that qmarks.bat would then contain lines such as the
following:

LONGFI~1 EXT 36 01-21-13 8:38p longfilenamewith?.ext

Now open the qmarks.bat file in a text editor and replace all
occurrences of "?" with something else, eg "_".

Import these columnar data into an Excel spreadsheet and manipulate
the columns so that you create columns of the form ...

ren LONGFI~1 EXT "longfilenamewith_.ext"

Then apply a formula to add periods and quotes where necessary and
export the data.

You should then have an executable BATch file which will do the
renaming for you. It should consist of lines such as ...

ren LONGFI~1.EXT "longfilenamewith_.ext"

The quotes are necessary to account for spaces in filenames.

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.