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limit on number of files in a directory
Name: John Wright Date: September 25, 2001 at 11:05:58 Pacific
Comment:
Running Win98 SE, I have a FAT32 partition with a directory containing 16733 files. I cannot move or copy any more files into this directory or make a subdirectory ("cannot make directory entry", etc.). All the files have filenames 30 char long.
Is there limit in Win 9x on the number of files in a directory or on the total size of a directory. I hadnt heard of such a thing. What else could be the cause of this condition? Many thanks.
Name: Al Date: September 25, 2001 at 15:30:32 Pacific
Reply:
The only limit is in the Root directory of the drive. The root dir is limited to 256 files. Al
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Response Number 2
Name: Eh? Date: September 25, 2001 at 17:44:55 Pacific
Reply:
What Al forgot to mention, was this limit applies to FAT16 NOT Fat32!!!
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Response Number 3
Name: John Wright Date: September 26, 2001 at 09:07:11 Pacific
Reply:
Right, so why can't I add any more files or subdirs to this directory. There's lots of room in the partition.
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Response Number 4
Name: WhitPhil Date: September 26, 2001 at 11:44:24 Pacific
Reply:
Not sure what limitation you are bumping into?
How big is the partition in question?
If you restart to DOS, can you copy a file to the directory?
While in DOS, do a Scandisk /Checkonly and see if any errors are detected.
The directory is a "main" directory? Ie: C:\ThisIsIt as opposed to C:\Data\ThisIsIt
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Response Number 5
Name: chrstphr Date: September 27, 2001 at 14:55:25 Pacific
Reply:
1. FYI, there are some hard limits to the disk structures in w98 becuase the underlying programs are 16-bit. This would only apply, normally, to the newer monster disks that are bigger than 64GB. For ecample, if the *total* size of the FAT is too big (a combination of all directories and their entries), then explorer will crash. I think the size is a very large number (16MB-64K seems to ring a bell), but it may be happening. Anyway look in the Microsoft Knowledge Base for several discussions of this.
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Response Number 6
Name: Eh? Date: September 27, 2001 at 17:18:04 Pacific
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