Symptom
When using Japanese characters to rename a file or folder located on a Mac OS Standard (HFS) volume, you may see an alert with a message such as this:
Note: In the alert message, "Konichiwa" would appear in Japanese characters.
If you copy an existing folder or file with Japanese characters to a Mac OS Standard volume, you will see an alert box with this message:
Solution
Mac OS Extended (HFS Plus) format improves efficiency over the earlier Mac OS Standard (HFS) format, but some situations may require you to continue using HFS. An example of such a situation is when the volume in question must be capable of starting up a computer with system software earlier than Mac OS 8.1.
If the volume you are using must be HFS format, then use Roman characters for folder names.
To copy an existing file with Japanese characters in the filename to an HFS volume, you must rename the item. In the case of a folder you could copy the contents of the folder to a new folder on the Mac OS Standard format hard drive.
To use Japanese characters in a folder name instead of Roman characters the drive must be reformatted using HFS Plus with the Disk Utility or Drive Setup applications.
Note: This will affect also other double-byte languages including Chinese and Korean.
Related documents
When using Japanese characters to rename a file or folder located on a Mac OS Standard (HFS) volume, you may see an alert with a message such as this:
- "The name Konichiwa cannot be used. Try using another name, with fewer characters, or no punctuation marks."
Note: In the alert message, "Konichiwa" would appear in Japanese characters.
If you copy an existing folder or file with Japanese characters to a Mac OS Standard volume, you will see an alert box with this message:
- "Sorry, the operation could not be completed because an unexpected error occurred (Error code -50)"
Solution
Mac OS Extended (HFS Plus) format improves efficiency over the earlier Mac OS Standard (HFS) format, but some situations may require you to continue using HFS. An example of such a situation is when the volume in question must be capable of starting up a computer with system software earlier than Mac OS 8.1.
If the volume you are using must be HFS format, then use Roman characters for folder names.
To copy an existing file with Japanese characters in the filename to an HFS volume, you must rename the item. In the case of a folder you could copy the contents of the folder to a new folder on the Mac OS Standard format hard drive.
To use Japanese characters in a folder name instead of Roman characters the drive must be reformatted using HFS Plus with the Disk Utility or Drive Setup applications.
Note: This will affect also other double-byte languages including Chinese and Korean.
Related documents