os.rename error - The system cannot move the file to a different disk

Question

I am creating a GUI for the program that renames all the files numerically (eg. 1, 2, 3, etc) in python 3.10, Visual Studio 2022. I am receiving this error on os.rename() in the for loop -

[WinError 17] The system cannot move the file to a different disk

Here's my whole code -

from tkinter import *
import tkinter.filedialog
import os
import pathlib

window=Tk()
window.title('Hello Python')
window.geometry("300x200+10+10")
window.resizable(False, False)
window.configure(bg='white')

brackets = False

def rename():
    fileNumber = 1
    folderPath = tkinter.filedialog.askdirectory(parent=window, initialdir='Documents', title='Please select a folder')
    for filename in os.listdir(folderPath):
        fileExt = pathlib.Path(filename).suffix
        filePath = folderPath + '/' + filename
        if (fileExt != '.py') :
            if (brackets):
                os.rename(filePath, str(fileNumber) + ')' + fileExt)
            else:
                os.rename(filePath, str(fileNumber) + fileExt)
            fileNumber += 1

lbl=Label(window, text="Welcome to rename it!", fg='black', bg='white', font=("Helvetica", 20))
lbl.place(relx = 0.5, y = 25, anchor=CENTER)

btn=Button(window, text="Rename", fg='blue', command=rename)
btn.place(x=80, y=100)

window.mainloop()

I don't want to move the files, I just want to rename them. Any help would be appreciated.

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 13 '22 at 09:46

0

based on: https://stackoverflow.com/a/21116654/14681307

os.rename can't move data. It only renames files. in this way, your can't rename a file to another drive.

Moving between drives is copying it first, and then deleting the source file. you can use the shutil.move() method which does it when you trying to transfer files between two drives

import shutil
shutil.move(src,dest)

Of course, in this case, you do not move files between the drivers, but using shutil may help you

edited Jun 13 '22 at 09:46

Ninad Kulkarni

61
1
11

answered Jun 11 '22 at 15:05

mmdbalkhi

29
1
9

No, I don't want to move the files, I just want to rename, that's it. – Ninad Kulkarni Jun 11 '22 at 16:21
right, but this error is used for this. Did you use `shuttle`? – mmdbalkhi Jun 12 '22 at 18:19
No, I didn't as you can see in the code. I just want to rename using os.rename but it is showing me that error – Ninad Kulkarni Jun 13 '22 at 02:15

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 07 '22 at 14:58

I was doing trial and error on this code to find the solution, and this was the problem -

os.rename(filePath, str(fileNumber) + fileExt)

Suppose this is the path - D:\file.png and I want to rename it to D:\1.png. In the os.rename command I renamed D:\file.png to 1.png. I forgot the path behind the file, which, in this case, was D:\. So the os.rename command needs to be like this -

os.rename(filePath, os.path.dirname(filePath) + "//" + str(fileNumber) + fileExt)

os.rename error - The system cannot move the file to a different disk

2 Answers2