At the windows command line
fsutil behavior set disable8dot3 0
should enable creation of 8.3 names.
The problem is not strictly due to spaces in the name, but that does not help. The same problem can occur if any component of the file name is more than 8 characters.
If you have a directory or file name that has a space and you have 8.3 disabled then the risk of error becomes fairly high. If you do not have a space and you are lucky that in context all names are unique in their first 8 characters then it just might happen to work for you, maybe.