Is there a limit on the number of subdirectories in XP?

[Guest]

Hi,
My collection of MP3 files has been really growing. I have them in
subdirectories on an NTFS disk by artist. I'm concerned that this structure
will become very "wide", i.e. large number of parallel subdirectories. Is
there a limit in NTFS on the number of subdirectories I need to be worried
about? I know there are problems when directory structures get too "deep"
vertically. Thanks.

 

[Guest]

FYI,

There is in FAT 32 - at 32000 *entries* for any folder, with all files
having even notionally long names taking an extra entry for every
thirteen characters. an NTFS partition has no limit at all.

Luke

 

[Tim Slattery]

FYI,

There is in FAT 32 - at 32000 *entries* for any folder,

I believe that's 65,536 (2**16) entries in a FAT32 folder. Other than
that, you're dead on. FAT32 folders will commonly max out at around
20,000 files or subdirectories, but there's no limit on how many files
or subfolders an NTFS directory can contain. There is a limit on files
per partition in NTFS, which is 4,294,967,295 (2**32 - 1). See
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/core/fncc_fil_tvjq.mspx?mfr=true

I have seen posts from people complaining about their computer taking
a long time to open an NTFS directory containing something 20,000
files. (I take "open" in this case to mean displaying the files
contained in the directory in Windows Explorer or an Open/Save dialog
box.) NTFS directories have a b-tree organization which makes it much
faster to find a particular file, but may make it slower to read the
entire contents.

 

[dobey]

I believe that's 65,536 (2**16) entries in a FAT32 folder. Other than
that, you're dead on. FAT32 folders will commonly max out at around
20,000 files or subdirectories, but there's no limit on how many files
or subfolders an NTFS directory can contain. There is a limit on files
per partition in NTFS, which is 4,294,967,295 (2**32 - 1). See
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/core/fncc_fil_tvjq.mspx?mfr=true

I have seen posts from people complaining about their computer taking
a long time to open an NTFS directory containing something 20,000
files. (I take "open" in this case to mean displaying the files
contained in the directory in Windows Explorer or an Open/Save dialog
box.) NTFS directories have a b-tree organization which makes it much
faster to find a particular file, but may make it slower to read the
entire contents.

Also, if you have media files, columns in the window like duration,
dimensions and track number etc information displayed, it takes
significantly longer to display the list of files.

 

[Tim Slattery]

Also, if you have media files, columns in the window like duration,
dimensions and track number etc information displayed, it takes
significantly longer to display the list of files.

Interesting....I expect it has to open each file and read that
information out. That would certainly slow it down.