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From: jm21@prism.gatech.EDU (Jim Marks)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc
Subject: Re: Limit on number of files per directory
Summary: There is such a limit for the ROOT directory
Message-ID: <11862@hydra.gatech.EDU>
Date: 26 Jul 90 22:09:32 GMT
References: <19528@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU>
Distribution: na
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology
Lines: 29

In article <19528@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU> duvalj@bionette.cgrb.orst.edu (Joe Duval - Entomology) writes:
>Is there a limit on files in DOS?  Is there a certain number that I should
>start worrying if I go above?
>
...
>
>Could the number of files be a problem
>

I had this problem once upon a time.  I believe it is more of a problem for
floppy drives, but can be for hard drives also.

According to my DOS manual (Dell 3.30), you can have up to 112 files in the
root directory of a 5-1/4 DSDD disk or 224 entries for a 3-1/2 HD (1.44M)
disk.  It doesn't say how many for a hard drive.

I'm pretty sure that this is because of how the disk is formatted.  The
root directory is in a fixed location on the disk, and its size is determined
when you format.  Subdirectories, on the other hand, are treated like files
and can be anywhere; in particular, they can be extended, so that you aren't
limited on how many files you can have in them.

>-Joe


-- 
Jim Marks   		   | Georgia Tech Research Institute
Compuserve: 72310,2410     | Concepts Analysis Laboratory
Internet:   jm21@prism.gatech.edu -or- jmarks@gtri01.gatech.edu