Max # of files in a folder?

  • Thread starter Thread starter S_Nyaya
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S_Nyaya

Hi,

Is there a limit on how many files there can be within a folder (not
including sub-folders)?

Recently I was helped in recategorization and archiving data on one machine
and some folders would really take an exceedingly long time to even open up
and reveal their contents - some of these folders contained over 2500 files
(mostly Word documents, HTMLs and MHTMLs).

Even selecting sequential multiple files would take minutes just for all the
highlighting to appear! It seemed to take ages just to redistribute a great
many files in new folders after a re-categorization.

That PC is exceedingly fast otherwise and reverted back to shape after the
archival operation was over. The job was done okay but it just had me
wondering. I work with a great many files too often but these are archived
on a regular basis so have not encountered this phenomenon before.

Regards and thanks in advance for any illumination.

Satyanyaya
 
Is there a limit on how many files there can be within a folder (not
including sub-folders)?
Click to expand...

NTFS no limit except maximum files per volume (4,294,967,295)
FAT (65,534) less if long file names are used.

Kerry Brown
KDB Systems
 
In
S_Nyaya said:
Is there a limit on how many files there can be within a folder
(not
including sub-folders)?
Click to expand...


FAT32 has a 64K limit on the number of entries. That's *entries*,
not files and folders, because files and folders with long file
names take multiple entries.

There's no limit for NTFS.
 
Ken said:
FAT32 has a 64K limit on the number of entries. That's *entries*,
not files and folders, because files and folders with long file
names take multiple entries.
Click to expand...

Out of curiousity: How many entries will a long file name take? Two? More,
depending on the length of the filename?

I actually stumbled across this limitation just the other week, and I
couldn't get more than 65534 files (all short filenames) in a folder.
 
S_Nyaya said:
Is there a limit on how many files there can be within a folder (not
including sub-folders)?
Click to expand...

A FAT32 directory is limited to 32K *entries*. A file or subfolder uses
at least one, and if there is an even notionally long file name an
additional entry for each 13 characters of that
 
In
André Gulliksen said:
Out of curiousity: How many entries will a long file name take?
Two?
More, depending on the length of the filename?
Click to expand...


At least two, but it depends upon the length of the filename.
 
Alex said:
A FAT32 directory is limited to 32K *entries*.
Click to expand...

Sure it's not 64K? I hit my head in the roof here the other day with 65534
short name files in a folder on a FAT32 volume.
 
André Gulliksen said:
Out of curiosity: How many entries will a long file name take? Two? More,
depending on the length of the filename?
Click to expand...

From two to thirteen, depending on the length of the filename.
I actually stumbled across this limitation just the other week, and I
couldn't get more than 65534 files (all short filenames) in a folder.
Click to expand...

Those files must all have had names fitting the DOS 8.3 spec. In that
case they take only a single directory entry.

BTW: An earlier post in this thread said that NTFS has no
files-per-folder limit. That's true, but there is a limit of
4,294,967,295 files per volume. See
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prkc_fil_tdrn.asp
for FAT32 and NTFS limits.
 
André Gulliksen said:
Sure it's not 64K? I hit my head in the roof here the other day with 65534
short name files in a folder on a FAT32 volume.
Click to expand...

It is 64K. Look at the page I referenced earlier.
 
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