I have a Win 2003 Server where one folder has close to 19,000 files in it. All small (about 7K or so each)
I think there was a limit in earlier versions. I know there was a limit for the root folder in DOS - that was 254 files (or 255). I have not run into any limitation issues with the number of files in a folder in W2K, XP, or Server 2003. What you might run into is how long it takes for the system to enumerate all of the files when you are viewing the folder in Explorer or anything else that uses that folder. What I've done to help this is to ZIP up older files (let's say all of last year's files) into a file called "_Archive-2008" and then delete the 2008 files. If a lot of files are generated in a short time you can go as far as ZIP them every quarter which I have done as well. It all depends on the situation and whether those files are OK being offline in a ZIP file. I use the _ underscore in the filename so the archive file will appear at the top of the list (provided the folder is sorted by filename). John G. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Matt Slay Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 2009 15:00 To: [email protected] Subject: Maximum number of files in a single folder? Is there any limit (OS or best practice) on the maximum number of files to have in one single folder? I seem to recall that there was a limit, or at least a point at which it could become problematic. I am running Windows Server 2003 as our primary file store on a 12-user LAN. It has multiple folders, but one in particular has grown to about 8,000 files. Each file is very small (1 - 5KB), but there are a lot of them. The files are stored on the server in a shared folder, that is hosted in a DFS tree, and users access this DFS tree from a mapped letter on their XP machines on the LAN. [excessive quoting removed by server] _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/016f01c9921c$ada597a0$08f0c6...@net ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
