maximum number of folders in one parent folder

[Paul]

Is there a limit on the number of folders you can create in a single parent
folder?

I would like to put 3,000 to 4,000 folders, each containing an average of
about 1 megabyte worth of files, under a single parent folder. We're using
Windows XP Professional. Is there any reason this cannot be done?

Thanks in advance,

Paul

 

[Paul]

I should have added that these folders would be on a network server.

 

[John John - MVP]

It depends on the file system being used. Assuming NTFS, you can stick
more than 4.2 billion objects on an NTFS volume and you can stuff them
in folders as you please. Read here for NTFS performance tips with
folder nesting or when a large nummber of files is stored in a folder:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457112.aspx#EGAA

John

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I should have added that these folders would be on a network server.

We'll need better clarification. In your original post, you mentioned
WinXP, but your second post mentioned a network server. Which is it?
WinXP is purely a workstation (i.e., client) OS.

In general, though, there's no numerical limit to the number of
sub-folders a folder can have. I would expect, however, that if you do
indeed place thousands of sub-folders within a single folder, your users
might have problems finding things. I think a bit more organization
would be advisable.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:


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killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

 

[Paul]

Thanks for your reply, Bruce.

The folders will be stored on the network server - we're running WinXP on
our client machines. I actually don't know what version of Windows they're
running on the server, but we have about 5,000 users, so it would have to be
able to accommodate that kind of a workload.

The users will won't generally be getting at the folders by navigating
through Win Explorer. They'll be using the front end of an Access database
which has hyperlinks pointing to the different folders.

 

[Paul]

Thanks for the TechNet reference, John. I'll check it out.

Paul

 

[JS]

Ran into a similar issue a while back
with an application that used an Oracle database.

Nesting the folders too deep would slow database
access down on the server. For us the solution was
to create more folders located at the root level and
fewer nested folders.

 

[Tim Slattery]

Is there a limit on the number of folders you can create in a single parent
folder?

In the FAT file systems, there's a limit of 65,536 entries in a
directory. Each file or subdirectory tapes from 2 to 13 entries. In
NTFS there is, practically speaking, no limit. (I believe another
poster supplied the astronomical number.)

I would like to put 3,000 to 4,000 folders, each containing an average of
about 1 megabyte worth of files, under a single parent folder. We're using
Windows XP Professional. Is there any reason this cannot be done?

That should work in either file system.

Note that the size of the files in the directory makes no difference
in any file system, it's the number of entries that matters.

 

[Paul]

That's my plan, also.

Thanks for the info, JS.

Ran into a similar issue a while back
with an application that used an Oracle database.

Nesting the folders too deep would slow database
access down on the server. For us the solution was
to create more folders located at the root level and
fewer nested folders.

 

[JS]

That's my plan, also.

Thanks for the info, JS.

You're welcome.