Back in the DOS days when all we had was FAT12/FAT16, there was and still is a restriction on how many root entries there can be - 512 root entries in FAT16 according to Microsoft. Also, the volume label consumes one of those 512 32-byte root entries.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/library/TechR ef/50cd4ffc-1389-423d-9d02-1a898b2eb39f.mspx What I didn't know until I read the info in the above link is that using long filenames reduces the total number of root entries because long filenames span multiple root entries. I was definitely using long filenames on that Cruzer, but I have another 256MB Cruzer with 107 root entries consisting of 20 files and 87 folders. 73 of the root entries are long filenames. This is ~234MB used out of 249MB total formatted capacity. Apparently, I'm not the first person to run into the limitations of FAT16 on the Cruzer. Cruzer drives come formatted as FAT, which is FAT16. I couldn't find any restrictions on the number of root entries in FAT32. I plan to reformat my "flaky Cruzer" to FAT32 and then copy my FAT16 "good Cruzer" over to it. Nothing to lose by trying. If it works, I can make the flaky one read only and use the older one for R/W. I might try formatting the Cruzer to NTFS as well - WTH. _jim -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Analyst Sent: Sunday, June 12, 2005 9:49 AM To: The Hardware List Subject: RE: [H] Crashing Cruzer Mini On 11 Jun 2005 at 13:17, nobozoz wrote: > Well, guess what. > > I was able to pull most of the important stuff off the Cruzer by > repeatedly mounting the drive in WINXP and copying one root-based > folder at a time. About 20 of the 34 or so root folders managed to make > it to the HDD intact Not too shabby. > the rest were lost because they couldn't be read at all - even > partially. Ouch. Jim, Now that you listed the number of folders you had on the drive, it reminded me that my brother mentioned that a corporate IT guy where he works told him that the jump drives do not play well if they have too many files contained within too few folders. Something you might want to investigate. Does this make any sense to anyone ? Vince
