Number of files?

[Alan Truism]

What is the maximum number of files you can place in directory on MS
Servers?

I would like to know if there is a difference with regard to this, on
NT4, 2000, and 2003.

 

[John John]

What's with the crosspost to the alt.religion.dake-bonoism group? I'm
not crossposting there.

The amount of files that can be stored in a directory is dependent of
the file system used. The different NT versions will all have the same
limitations except that NT4 cannot read FAT32.

For FAT32 volumes the maximun number of files that can be stored in a
folder is 65,534. If you use long file names that number can be
reduced significantly, I've quite often seen FAT32 folders conk out at
20 to 25 thousand files.

If you are using NTFS file system the number of files that you can jam
in a folder is practically unlimited, if you're a stickler for exact
numbers you can stick 4,294,967,295 files on an NTFS Volume and they can
be stuffed in folders as you please.

John

 

[James]

What's with the crosspost to the alt.religion.dake-bonoism group? I'm
not crossposting there.

The amount of files that can be stored in a directory is dependent of
the file system used. The different NT versions will all have the same
limitations except that NT4 cannot read FAT32.

For FAT32 volumes the maximun number of files that can be stored in a
folder is 65,534. If you use long file names that number can be
reduced significantly, I've quite often seen FAT32 folders conk out at
20 to 25 thousand files.

If you are using NTFS file system the number of files that you can jam
in a folder is practically unlimited, if you're a stickler for exact
numbers you can stick 4,294,967,295 files on an NTFS Volume and they can
be stuffed in folders as you please.

John

For drill you loose one entry for every 13 characters in a long
filename. There also are fewer folders/entries available at the root
level than can be placed in an individual folder.

James

 

[Edwin vMierlo]

James,

can you point us to the documentation where you found that ?

( that = "you loose one entry for every 13 characters in a long filename"
and "There also are fewer folders/entries available at the root" )

thanks,
Edwin.

 

[John John]

For the folder entries at the root he's probably thinking of FAT16 which
has a limit of 512 directory entries in the root folder. NTFS and FAT32
do not have this limitation and can contain the same maximum number
files as other folders in the root folder. I should add however that it
is not recommended or advisable to store large number of files in the
root folder as it can cause problems with the system boot files.

As for the "every 13 characters" reference he is only partly right.
Files with 13 or more characters will use 3 (three) or more directory
entries, this applies to FAT16 or FAT32, but not NTFS.

John

 

[Edwin vMierlo]

thanks John.... I thought that was the case

For the folder entries at the root he's probably thinking of FAT16 which
has a limit of 512 directory entries in the root folder. NTFS and FAT32
do not have this limitation and can contain the same maximum number
files as other folders in the root folder. I should add however that it
is not recommended or advisable to store large number of files in the
root folder as it can cause problems with the system boot files.

As for the "every 13 characters" reference he is only partly right.
Files with 13 or more characters will use 3 (three) or more directory
entries, this applies to FAT16 or FAT32, but not NTFS.

John

 

[James]

thanks John.... I thought that was the case

That is one of the problems with being from the valve days,
pre-transistor. Yes it was from the early fat days. Sorry about the
neuron glitch to the past.

James