maximum number of folders in one parent folder

Paul · External Since: Aug 31, 2009 Posts: 2

Is there a limit on the number of folders you can create in a single parent
folder?

I would like to put 3,000 to 4,000 folders, each containing an average of
about 1 megabyte worth of files, under a single parent folder. We're using
Windows XP Professional. Is there any reason this cannot be done?

Thanks in advance,

Paul

Paul · External Since: Aug 31, 2009 Posts: 2

I should have added that these folders would be on a network server.

> Is there a limit on the number of folders you can create in a single
> parent folder?
>
> I would like to put 3,000 to 4,000 folders, each containing an average of
> about 1 megabyte worth of files, under a single parent folder. We're
> using Windows XP Professional. Is there any reason this cannot be done?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Paul
>

Bruce Chambers · External Since: Jun 26, 2005 Posts: 6836

Paul wrote:
> I should have added that these folders would be on a network server.
>
>
>> Is there a limit on the number of folders you can create in a single
>> parent folder?
>>
>> I would like to put 3,000 to 4,000 folders, each containing an average of
>> about 1 megabyte worth of files, under a single parent folder. We're
>> using Windows XP Professional. Is there any reason this cannot be done?
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>>
>> Paul
>>
>
>

We'll need better clarification. In your original post, you mentioned
WinXP, but your second post mentioned a network server. Which is it?
WinXP is purely a workstation (i.e., client) OS.

In general, though, there's no numerical limit to the number of
sub-folders a folder can have. I would expect, however, that if you do
indeed place thousands of sub-folders within a single folder, your users
might have problems finding things. I think a bit more organization
would be advisable.

--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

John John - MVP · External Since: Mar 06, 2009 Posts: 24

It depends on the file system being used. Assuming NTFS, you can stick
more than 4.2 billion objects on an NTFS volume and you can stuff them
in folders as you please. Read here for NTFS performance tips with
folder nesting or when a large nummber of files is stored in a folder:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457112.aspx#EGAA

John

Paul wrote:
> Is there a limit on the number of folders you can create in a single parent
> folder?
>
> I would like to put 3,000 to 4,000 folders, each containing an average of
> about 1 megabyte worth of files, under a single parent folder. We're using
> Windows XP Professional. Is there any reason this cannot be done?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Paul
>
>

Paul · External Since: Aug 31, 2009 Posts: 3

Thanks for your reply, Bruce.

The folders will be stored on the network server - we're running WinXP on
our client machines. I actually don't know what version of Windows they're
running on the server, but we have about 5,000 users, so it would have to be
able to accommodate that kind of a workload.

The users will won't generally be getting at the folders by navigating
through Win Explorer. They'll be using the front end of an Access database
which has hyperlinks pointing to the different folders.

"Bruce Chambers" <bchambers.DeleteThis@cable0ne.n3t> wrote in message
news:OoFYPLqKKHA.4820@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Paul wrote:
>> I should have added that these folders would be on a network server.
>>
>>
>>> Is there a limit on the number of folders you can create in a single
>>> parent folder?
>>>
>>> I would like to put 3,000 to 4,000 folders, each containing an average
>>> of about 1 megabyte worth of files, under a single parent folder. We're
>>> using Windows XP Professional. Is there any reason this cannot be done?
>>>
>>> Thanks in advance,
>>>
>>> Paul
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
> We'll need better clarification. In your original post, you mentioned
> WinXP, but your second post mentioned a network server. Which is it?
> WinXP is purely a workstation (i.e., client) OS.
>
> In general, though, there's no numerical limit to the number of
> sub-folders a folder can have. I would expect, however, that if you do
> indeed place thousands of sub-folders within a single folder, your users
> might have problems finding things. I think a bit more organization would
> be advisable.
>
>
> --
>
> Bruce Chambers
>
> Help us help you:
> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
>
> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375
>
> They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
> safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin
>
> Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand
> Russell
>
> The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
> killed a great many philosophers.
> ~ Denis Diderot

Paul · External Since: Aug 31, 2009 Posts: 3

Thanks for the TechNet reference, John. I'll check it out.

Paul

"John John - MVP" <audetweld.TakeThisOut@nbnet.nb.ca> wrote in message
news:%23P5PEEqKKHA.4316@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> It depends on the file system being used. Assuming NTFS, you can stick
> more than 4.2 billion objects on an NTFS volume and you can stuff them in
> folders as you please. Read here for NTFS performance tips with folder
> nesting or when a large nummber of files is stored in a folder:
> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457112.aspx#EGAA
>
> John
>
> Paul wrote:
>> Is there a limit on the number of folders you can create in a single
>> parent folder?
>>
>> I would like to put 3,000 to 4,000 folders, each containing an average of
>> about 1 megabyte worth of files, under a single parent folder. We're
>> using Windows XP Professional. Is there any reason this cannot be done?
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>>
>> Paul

JS · External Since: Jun 11, 2006 Posts: 2346

Ran into a similar issue a while back
with an application that used an Oracle database.

Nesting the folders too deep would slow database
access down on the server. For us the solution was
to create more folders located at the root level and
fewer nested folders.

--
JS
http://www.pagestart.com

"Paul" <begone.RemoveThis@spam.com> wrote in message
news:O%236YFssKKHA.4928@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> Thanks for your reply, Bruce.
>
> The folders will be stored on the network server - we're running WinXP on
> our client machines. I actually don't know what version of Windows
> they're running on the server, but we have about 5,000 users, so it would
> have to be able to accommodate that kind of a workload.
>
> The users will won't generally be getting at the folders by navigating
> through Win Explorer. They'll be using the front end of an Access
> database which has hyperlinks pointing to the different folders.
>
>
> "Bruce Chambers" <bchambers.RemoveThis@cable0ne.n3t> wrote in message
> news:OoFYPLqKKHA.4820@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>> Paul wrote:
>>> I should have added that these folders would be on a network server.
>>>
>>>
>>>> Is there a limit on the number of folders you can create in a single
>>>> parent folder?
>>>>
>>>> I would like to put 3,000 to 4,000 folders, each containing an average
>>>> of about 1 megabyte worth of files, under a single parent folder.
>>>> We're using Windows XP Professional. Is there any reason this cannot
>>>> be done?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks in advance,
>>>>
>>>> Paul
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> We'll need better clarification. In your original post, you mentioned
>> WinXP, but your second post mentioned a network server. Which is it?
>> WinXP is purely a workstation (i.e., client) OS.
>>
>> In general, though, there's no numerical limit to the number of
>> sub-folders a folder can have. I would expect, however, that if you do
>> indeed place thousands of sub-folders within a single folder, your users
>> might have problems finding things. I think a bit more organization
>> would be advisable.
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Bruce Chambers
>>
>> Help us help you:
>> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
>>
>> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375
>>
>> They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
>> safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin
>>
>> Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand
>> Russell
>>
>> The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
>> killed a great many philosophers.
>> ~ Denis Diderot
>
>

Tim Slattery · External Since: Jun 14, 2004 Posts: 1081

"Paul" <BegoneSpam.RemoveThis@forever.com> wrote:

>Is there a limit on the number of folders you can create in a single parent
>folder?

In the FAT file systems, there's a limit of 65,536 entries in a
directory. Each file or subdirectory tapes from 2 to 13 entries. In
NTFS there is, practically speaking, no limit. (I believe another
poster supplied the astronomical number.)

>I would like to put 3,000 to 4,000 folders, each containing an average of
>about 1 megabyte worth of files, under a single parent folder. We're using
>Windows XP Professional. Is there any reason this cannot be done?

That should work in either file system.

Note that the size of the files in the directory makes no difference
in any file system, it's the number of entries that matters.

--
Tim Slattery
MS MVP(Shell/User)
Slattery_T.RemoveThis@bls.gov
http://members.cox.net/slatteryt

Paul · External Since: Aug 31, 2009 Posts: 3

That's my plan, also.

Thanks for the info, JS.

"JS" <@> wrote in message news:%231Jwu5vKKHA.1252@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Ran into a similar issue a while back
> with an application that used an Oracle database.
>
> Nesting the folders too deep would slow database
> access down on the server. For us the solution was
> to create more folders located at the root level and
> fewer nested folders.
>
> --
> JS
> http://www.pagestart.com
>
>
>
> "Paul" <begone DeleteThis @spam.com> wrote in message
> news:O%236YFssKKHA.4928@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>> Thanks for your reply, Bruce.
>>
>> The folders will be stored on the network server - we're running WinXP on
>> our client machines. I actually don't know what version of Windows
>> they're running on the server, but we have about 5,000 users, so it would
>> have to be able to accommodate that kind of a workload.
>>
>> The users will won't generally be getting at the folders by navigating
>> through Win Explorer. They'll be using the front end of an Access
>> database which has hyperlinks pointing to the different folders.
>>
>>
>> "Bruce Chambers" <bchambers DeleteThis @cable0ne.n3t> wrote in message
>> news:OoFYPLqKKHA.4820@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>>> Paul wrote:
>>>> I should have added that these folders would be on a network server.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Is there a limit on the number of folders you can create in a single
>>>>> parent folder?
>>>>>
>>>>> I would like to put 3,000 to 4,000 folders, each containing an average
>>>>> of about 1 megabyte worth of files, under a single parent folder.
>>>>> We're using Windows XP Professional. Is there any reason this cannot
>>>>> be done?
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks in advance,
>>>>>
>>>>> Paul
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> We'll need better clarification. In your original post, you mentioned
>>> WinXP, but your second post mentioned a network server. Which is it?
>>> WinXP is purely a workstation (i.e., client) OS.
>>>
>>> In general, though, there's no numerical limit to the number of
>>> sub-folders a folder can have. I would expect, however, that if you do
>>> indeed place thousands of sub-folders within a single folder, your users
>>> might have problems finding things. I think a bit more organization
>>> would be advisable.
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>> Bruce Chambers
>>>
>>> Help us help you:
>>> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
>>>
>>> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375
>>>
>>> They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
>>> safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin
>>>
>>> Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand
>>> Russell
>>>
>>> The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
>>> killed a great many philosophers.
>>> ~ Denis Diderot
>>
>>
>
>

JS · External Since: Jun 11, 2006 Posts: 2346

"Paul" <begone.RemoveThis@spam.com> wrote in message
news:ue1uP2DLKHA.6016@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> That's my plan, also.
>
> Thanks for the info, JS.
>
>

You're welcome.

--
JS
http://www.pagestart.com