As I google this, I see that I should mention the last ISO I used was OSR 2.5 but the disc was formatted with the previous win95 OG install.
I'll re-partition and format at FAT32 and see if that helps.

If you copy files to the target disk in DOS-mode, and specifically using an older version of DOS than the one with Windows 95, those file names will truncate (say, if you use a DOS 6 boot disk to launch the Windows 95 installer). This is a "feature".

Can you explain in a bit more detail where the files are from, where they are ending up, and what the last step of the process is where you observe them with their full length names?

Thanks for reply - I have no idea why but re-partitioning\formatting the destination drive on an XP machine fixed the truncated file issue.
I had been formatting on a Win11 machine as FAT but that failed as I said.
I got the install to work (I've used my win11 machine to create a bootable disc from an iso I got off internet archive) - but on both test machines, now it's complaining of not enough memory when I try to boot.
I do get the win95 startup screen, and it attempts to load but says to check memory settings, I haven't googled that yet.
EDIT: I see you have a guide thing in your sig, I'll be checking that out - I bet all my answers are in there! Thanks!

Okay dokey.

Well if any other questions come up, ask away - but be a bit more wordy in explaining what it is that you're trying to do and what you did so far so that we can better help you out.

p.s. Also, once a question is answered (such as it appears in this case) - edit the thread title to included [SOLVED] in the title so people browsing the forum know the case is closed! 😀