Hi, my problem is that XP uses a different algorithm when it chooses how to
sort files in a folder and the order when copying and pasting - and it
doesn't preserve the order of the original folder when copying from within
it.

This can be shown very easily, just create a folder, create a new Next
Document, don't change the name. Now make a bunch of copies of this, it will
start to name them names such as 'Copy (2) of New Text Document.txt' and
'Copy (10) of New Text Document.txt' (in that order). Now create a second
folder somewhere, and select all these files and either Drag and Drop them
over, or copy and paste them. You'll notice that in this second folder, the
order is different - especially noticable because the order of Copy (2) and
Copy (10) is now different.

The order of the original folder doesn't matter, Windows chooses to copy the
files over always based on the resulting ordering you see in the second
folder. This may be based on the underlying Directory Structure of the
folder, but it is terribly annoying.

But, if you copy the entire folder, it is all in the correct order
(confirmed by copying large files to an MP3 Player, see below).

I'm using Windows XP Pro SP2. The issue is especially troubling for me
because I like to copy files to my MP3 Player in order, and for it to stop
copying when it runs out of space. Because of this issue, my file sare often
out of order, and it takes extra time to delete the ones that don't fit, go
back and start copying different earlier files, etc... It mostly bugs me when
I'm copying parts of CDs or audiobooks to the player, when I already have
part of the content copied into a folder. I've been frustraited by this issue
for a very long time, but thought it was due to some other program I had
installed, such as antivirus or antispyware software, but it still happens on
a fresh install of XP SP2, on multiple computers.

If anyone has a fix for this or any suggestions it would be greatly
appreciated.

Thanks,
Peter

Additional Comment: It also copies in a more random order, which I haven't
been able to figure out being based on any sort of ordering system, when
copying from CDs or to and from the MP3 Player. (Note that I did post this to
XP Basics, but based on the reply there I'm thinking here is a better spot -
I'm new here though, so if you think this is the wrong place as well, let me
know - thnx)