large number of files - Explorer hangs for 20-30 secs.

[Chuck French]

I have a network directory with 10000+ files in it.
Whenever explorer looks at this directory and I try to
scroll thought it, the computer hangs for 15-30 secs. I
assume it is caching all the file info, but I am not sure.

My windows 98 mahines don't have a problem with it. But
the new P4's with Windows XP PRO do!

Anybody know a setting I can adjust to alleviate this
problem?

 

[davetest]

I have a network directory with 10000+ files in it.
Whenever explorer looks at this directory and I try to
scroll thought it, the computer hangs for 15-30 secs. I
assume it is caching all the file info, but I am not sure.

My windows 98 mahines don't have a problem with it. But
the new P4's with Windows XP PRO do!

Anybody know a setting I can adjust to alleviate this
problem?

I have seen symptoms of this when the folder contained a
large zip file. Simply moving this file to another folder
alleviated the problem.
Beyond that having 10,000 files in a folder is probably too many
anyway.
Dave

 

[Tim Slattery]

I have a network directory with 10000+ files in it.
Whenever explorer looks at this directory and I try to
scroll thought it, the computer hangs for 15-30 secs. I
assume it is caching all the file info, but I am not sure.

Since you can see this directory with Win98, it must be on a FAT32
file system. Directories in FAT32 must be searched sequentially, and
10,000 files is a lot to search through sequentially. I'm not
surprised that it takes a long time. Bear in mind that nearly all
files will occupy at least two directory entries and as many as
thirteen for very long file names, and you'll realize that the
computer has a *lot* of work to do to find any single file in that
pile. NTFS has a more efficient way of storing and searching filenames
in a directory.

My windows 98 mahines don't have a problem with it. But
the new P4's with Windows XP PRO do!

I don't understand that. This is quite a full directory, and I'd
expect both OSs to have problems with it.

 

[Chuck French]

-----Original Message-----
sure.

Since you can see this directory with Win98, it must be on a FAT32
file system. Directories in FAT32 must be searched sequentially, and
10,000 files is a lot to search through sequentially. I'm not
surprised that it takes a long time. Bear in mind that nearly all
files will occupy at least two directory entries and as many as
thirteen for very long file names, and you'll realize that the
computer has a *lot* of work to do to find any single file in that
pile. NTFS has a more efficient way of storing and searching filenames
in a directory.


I don't understand that. This is quite a full directory, and I'd
expect both OSs to have problems with it.

--
Tim Slattery
MS MVP(DTS)
(e-mail address removed)
.

Network volume is on a NTFS partition (windows 2k server).