File / Folder Limits

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From the resource kit;

Table 3.10 FAT16 Size Limits

Description Limit
Maximum file size 2^32 - 1 bytes
Maximum volume size 4 GB
Files per volume 2^16


Maximum Sizes on FAT32 Volumes
The FAT32 volume must have at least 65,527 clusters. The maximum number of
clusters on a FAT32 volume is 4,177,918. Windows 2000 creates volumes up to
32 GB, but you can use larger volumes created by other operating systems
such as Windows 98. Table 3.11 lists FAT32 size limits.

Table 3.11 FAT32 Size Limits

Description Limit
Maximum file size 2^32 - 1 bytes
Maximum volume size 32 GB (This is due to the Windows 2000 format utility.
The maximum volume size that Windows 98 can create is 127.53 GB).
Files per volume Approximately 4 million



Important

Windows 2000 can format new FAT32 volumes up to 32 GB in size but can mount
larger volumes (for example, up to 127.53 GB and 4,177,918 clusters from a
volume formatted with the limits of Windows 98). It is possible to mount
volumes that exceed these limits, but doing so has not been tested and is
not recommended.

Maximum Sizes on NTFS Volumes
In theory, the maximum NTFS volume size is 2^32 clusters. However, even if
there were hardware available to supply a logical volume of that capacity,
there are other limitations to the maximum size of a volume.

One of these limitations is partition tables. By industry standards,
partition tables are limited to 2^32 sectors. Sector size, another
limitation, is a function of hardware and industry standards, and is
typically 512 bytes. While sector sizes might increase in the future, the
current size puts a limit on a single volume of 2 terabytes (2^32 * 512
bytes, or 241 bytes).

For now, 2 terabytes should be considered the practical limit for both
physical and logical volumes using NTFS.

The maximum number of files on an NTFS volume is 2^32 - 1. Table 3.12 lists
NTFS size limits.

Table 3.12 NTFS Size Limits

Description Limit
Maximum file size 264 bytes - 1 KB (On disk format)
244 bytes - 64 KB (Implementation)

Maximum volume size 264 allocation units (On disk format)
2^32 allocation units (Implementation)

Files per volume 2^32 - 1

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| All,
|
| Does anyone know how many files can be in one folder?
 
It depends on the file system that you are using. If you are using
FAT32 the maximum number of files or folders that can be within a folder
is 65,534. If you use long file names that number can be reduced
significantly, I've quite often seen FAT32 folders conk out at 20 to 25
thousand files.

If you are using NTFS file system the number of files that you can jam
in a folder is practically unlimited, if you're a stickler for exact
numbers you can stick 4,294,967,295 files on an NTFS Volume and they can
be stuffed in folders as you please. You should be aware that all is
not as rosy as it seems. FAT32 is faster than NTFS. NTFS folders are
slow to open when large number of files and folders are contained within.

John
 
To qualify John's statement a little: Accessing a folder with
5,000 files on an NTFS volume takes about twice as long
as on a FAT32 volume. As you increase the number of files,
access time goes up exponentially.
 
All,

Does anyone know how many files can be in one folder?
Click to expand...


Everyone else has pointed out that under NTFS there is a huge number of
files that you can put in a single directory. However performance will
drop as you get very large numbers. You can do things like turn off 8.3
name creation and last access date updating to speed things up. On a
server with a very fast disk subsystem (fast SCSI hardware RAID) you
will get ok performance with 100,000's but I would keep it to smaller
numbers. I have seen several million in a directory.

Leonard Severt

Microsoft Enterprise Support
 
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