Cannot Access Files or Folders Whose Names Contain Lowercase DBCS Latin Characters Created in MS-DOS

When you attempt to gain access to files or folders whose names contain lowercase double-byte character set (DBCS) characters that are created by MS-DOS, you cannot access the files or folders, and the following error message may appear:

All characters in the MS-DOS character set must be in uppercase letters in accordance with the 8.3 file naming convention. However, the Japanese version of MS-DOS does not distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters. The Windows 2000 FAT file system supports long file names that are recorded in Unicode and short file names that are compatible with MS-DOS. Windows 2000 follows the 8.3 file name format; therefore, Windows 2000 may not be able to handle file names that contain lowercase DBCS characters that are created by the Japanese version of MS-DOS.

Use one of the following workarounds to access these files or folders:

• Rename the files or folders with uppercase letters in MS-DOS.
• Share the files or folders across a network from a computer that is running Microsoft Windows 95 or Microsoft Windows 98.

This behavior does not occur in Windows 95 or Windows 98. Windows NT and Windows 2000 include case tables that map the wide-Latin alphabetical characters, in compliance with the Unicode specification. Windows 95 and Windows 98 do not.

For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: