NTFS Folder Limitations

[Sean]

I believe in the MS-DOS/FAT world there were specific file
quantity limitations, but I do not know if that is the
case in NTFS. I have a need to theoretically create well
over 100,000 folders + 100,000 small text files within a
single NTFS folder on Windows 2000. The number could even
be as high as 500,000 for each.

Other than disk space limits is there a specific ceiling I
am going to hit within NTFS? Each file will be ~1K and
the folders will average at <2K.

Thanks in advance,
Sean

 

[Leonard Severt [MSFT]]

I believe in the MS-DOS/FAT world there were specific file
quantity limitations, but I do not know if that is the
case in NTFS. I have a need to theoretically create well
over 100,000 folders + 100,000 small text files within a
single NTFS folder on Windows 2000. The number could even
be as high as 500,000 for each.

Other than disk space limits is there a specific ceiling I
am going to hit within NTFS? Each file will be ~1K and
the folders will average at <2K.

Thanks in advance,
Sean

You will not run into any limits with those as NTFS supports many many
more than that and has been tested with millions of files and folders.
However one thing you may want to do is turn off 8.3 file name creation
to increase performance.

Leonard Severt

Windows 2000 Server Setup Team

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Sean.

See this page from the online version of the Win2K Pro Resource Kit:
File Systems
http://www.microsoft.com/windows200...techinfo/reskit/en-us/prork/prdf_fls_pxjh.asp

The limits depend more on file system than on Windows version, so you might
also want to see the WinXP version:
Size Limitations in NTFS and FAT File Systems
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tr...prodtechnol/winxppro/reskit/prkc_fil_tdrn.asp

Ever since about MS-DOS 6.x, a folder has been "just another file" in most
respects, so the only practical limit is the size of the HD volume itself.
And, since one HD can hold multiple volumes...

RC

 

[Alex]

hi

You will not run into any limits with those as NTFS supports many many
more than that and has been tested with millions of files and folders.
However one thing you may want to do is turn off 8.3 file name creation
to increase performance.

i've got a webserver with about 600.000 files today - growing... and we
have ONE top level folder containing about 60.000 subdirs... and in the
60.000 dirs are some pictures...

now - if i try to open this top-level directory - explorer will *hang*
about 10 minutes or something like this to display the folders! why is
this such slow?


Alex

 

[Leonard Severt [MSFT]]

hi


i've got a webserver with about 600.000 files today - growing... and we
have ONE top level folder containing about 60.000 subdirs... and in the
60.000 dirs are some pictures...

now - if i try to open this top-level directory - explorer will *hang*
about 10 minutes or something like this to display the folders! why is
this such slow?


Alex

Explorer is very slow at dealing with large numbers of files or folders
in a single directory. It has to read size and metadata info on all the
files. That is not a function of the file system, just limits in
Explorer. I don't know of anyway to make Explorer more efficient.

Leonard Severt

Windows 2000 Server Setup Team