Max # of files in a folder?

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

There is a number......but can't quote it at the moment. Check with David
Candy.

--
All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP)

Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com


"S_Nyaya" wrote in message
...
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)?


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

Hi,

Thanks for the pointers. I appreciate it a lot.

Regards.

Satyanyaya


"S_Nyaya" wrote in message
...
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

In ,
S_Nyaya typed:

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


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 Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup

Ken Blake wrote:
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.

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.

In ,
André Gulliksen typed:

Ken Blake wrote:
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.

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


At least two, but it depends upon the length of the filename.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup



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.

"André Gulliksen" wrote:

Ken Blake wrote:
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.

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

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.

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/d...c_fil_tdrn.asp
for FAT32 and NTFS limits.

--
Tim Slattery
MS MVP(DTS)

Tim Slattery wrote:
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.

Those files must all have had names fitting the DOS 8.3 spec.

That's what I meant with short filenames, yes.