"Invalid argument"s when attemping to create files with certain characters in filename on external drive

[Danny Colligan]

Hello all,

I want to create a backup of my music library onto an external hard drive.
I have one that is mounted (see below) over a IEEE1394 aka firewire
connection.  When I try to copy everything over using cp, every time certain
characters (notably a colon : or question mark ?) show up in a file name, an
"Invalid argument" is throws and the file fails to copy over.  Files without
these characters get copied over fine.  Here's a brief sample run:

dannyc at washington:~/Desktop$ df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
...
/dev/sdb1             150G   52G   98G  35% /media/FAT32

dannyc at washington:~/Desktop$ cp -R Musical /media/FAT32/
...
cp: cannot create regular file `/media/FAT32/Musical/Music/Ween/Dude, Wheres
my Car Sndtrack/Dude, Where\'s My Car?-06-Ween-Voodoo Lady.mp3': Invalid
argument
cp: cannot create regular file `/media/FAT32/Musical/Music/Ween/God Ween
Satan - The Oneness/GodWeenSatan: The Oneness-22-Birthday Boy.mp3': Invalid
argument
cp: cannot create regular file `/media/FAT32/Musical/Music/Mothers of
Invention/We\'re Only in It for the Money/We\'re Only in It for the
Money-08-What\'s the Ugliest Part of Your Body?.mp3': Invalid argument
cp: cannot create regular file `/media/FAT32/Musical/Music/Dream
Theater/Awake/Awake-01-6:00.mp3': Invalid argument
cp: cannot create regular file `/media/FAT32/Musical/Music/Dream
Theater/Images & Words/Images and Words-05-Metropolis, Part I: The Miracle
and the Sleeper.mp3': Invalid argument
cp: cannot create regular file `/media/FAT32/Musical/Music/Bob
Marley/Unknown Album/Classic Cuts 16: Reggae-05-Bob Marley & The Wailers-One
Love.mp3': Invalid argument
cp: cannot create regular file `/media/FAT32/Musical/Music/Yes/Close To The
Edge/Close to the Edge-01-Close to the Edge: I. The Solid Time of Change -
II. Total Mass Retain - III. I Get Up I Get Down - IV. Seasons of Man.mp3':
Invalid argument
...

It seems that it is impossible to create _any_ file on this drive with a
question mark or colon in the name (this might not be an exhaustive list of
prohibited characters...), no matter what utility is used, eliminating the
potential of it being just a problem with cp:

dannyc at washington:/media/FAT32$ touch \?
touch: setting times of `?': No such file or directory

Does anyone know why this is happening?  Seems quite strange that certain
characters would be absolutely outlawed on a file system...

Thanks in advance,

Danny Colligan
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