[G4] Folder names shortened - unexplained

[Dale Hoffman]

>I just installed OSX 10.2.8 on a computer which has Firewire drives 
>attached. While booting from OS9, the names of folders on the drives 
>are as they should be. When booting from OSX, some of the folder 
>names are shortened. What could be causing this?
>DaleH

I should add further observations:

The folder names can be long or short (one folder 24 characters, another 13).

"Get Info" on folder shows full length name in "Name & Extension".

Drives verified OK with Disk Utility.

Effected folders begin with letters "Rec".

Searching by full name with Sherlock successfully finds folders with 
shortened name.

I searched Apple Support and found only mention of incident where 
very long names present a problem.