Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
Hard disks continue to increase in size, as does what we're storing on them. There are limits, but not limits that most people need to worry about.
Could you tell me if there is a size limit on a single folder? For example a folder with movies or music in it could end up with quite a few gigabytes! Is there a limit?
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There are limits, of course. The limit most people run into first is the size of their hard disk, but assuming that you have a big enough disk for everything, then other limits can come into play.
I will say this right away though: the size of the files in a single folder is not one of them.
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There's no practical limit on the combined sizes of all the files in a folder, though there may be limits on the number of files in a folder. More importantly, there are limits on individual file size that depend on what filesystem you're using on your hard disk. (The "filesystem" is nothing more than the specification of exactly how files are store on disk.)
Let's break this down by file system:
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FAT aka FAT16
FAT, for File Allocation Table, is the successor to the original FAT12 filesystem that shipped with MS-DOS many, many years ago.
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Maximum disk size: 4 gigabytes
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Maximum file size: 4 gigabytes
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Maximum number of files on disk: 65,517
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Maximum number of files in a single folder: 512 (if I recall correctly, the root folder "/" had a lower limit of 128).
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FAT32
"There's no practical limit on the combined sizes of all the files in a folder, though there may be limits on the number of files in a folder."FAT32 was introduced to overcome some of the limitations of FAT16.
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Maximum disk size: 2 terabytes
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Maximum file size: 4 gigabytes
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Maximum number of files on disk: 268,435,437
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Maximum number of files in a single folder: 65,534
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NTFS
NTFS, or "New Technology File System" introduced with Windows NT, is a completely redesigned file system.
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Maximum disk size: 256 terabytes
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Maximum file size: 256 terabytes
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Maximum number of files on disk: 4,294,967,295
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Maximum number of files in a single folder: 4,294,967,295
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Note that when I say "disk" above, I'm really talking about "logical" disks, not necessarily physical. No one makes a 256 terabyte disk drive, but using NTFS you can treat an array of disk drives as a single logical disk. Presumably if you have enough of them, you can build a huge logical drive.
Also note that the NTFS's 256 terabyte limitation may well simply be an implementation restriction - I've read that the NTFS format can support disks up to 16 exabytes (16 times 1,152,921,504,606,846,976 bytes).
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So there are two important take-aways from all that data as it relates to the original question:
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Nowhere was there a limit of the size of the contents of a folder. Limits on the number of files, yes, but nothing size related.
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You probably want to make sure your disk is formatted NTFS. FAT32's 4 gigabytes for a single file just isn't enough any more, especially if you're collecting video or other storage-intensive media.
Article C3024 - May 14, 2007 « »
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
July 6, 2010 11:16 AM
On a related matter, there are limits on the length of the full location of a file for some operations (I now forget which). So if you have a file which is
C:\folder A\subfolder B\very long subfolder name C\ ....\some long file name as well.docx
then there can be a limit of (128 or?) 256 characters for certain operations (like opening it in Word?). Very frustrating until you work out what the problem is. But some of the people commenting above may then hit this issue if they create lots of nested subfolders.
November 28, 2010 4:53 PM
By the way, the limit to the number of files in a single directory is, if I'm remembering correctly, 2^4080, approx 1.5936e+1228 (in other words, you'd have to exhaust 255 characters of 16-bit unicode text in order to run out of space in a single directory).
March 24, 2011 8:39 AM
It seems that the max number of files per folder in fat32 depends on the size of the clusters.
In fat32, on my micro sdhc card, the max number of files within the root of a single folder is 21844.
And I found this: "under FAT 32 provided partition with 4-kB-Clusters permits "only" max.
21844 files per path"
Source: http://www.staff.uni-marburg.de/~naeser/oe.htm
Do you have more information about this phenomenon ? I didn't find any.
Thanks
July 12, 2011 8:08 AM
That can't be right for FAT. I have a 2GB usb flash drive, it has folder which has over 25,000 files in total, and over 13,000 in its root. So the "maximum number of files in single folder" is not right. Well, at least when I look drive properties there stands FAT. If the numbers presented are right, seems more like my drive had FAT32...
April 7, 2012 4:09 PM
Well, we just watched a 2GB thumb drive frustrate my wife all afternoon, until we (a) found this thread here, and (b) verified 129 total items in the root level (2 folders, 127 files). Created a new subfolder, moved the files, and it's back in business.
Next thing you know, I'll have to remember my 8 inch floppy single / double density formatting rules...
thanks Leo!!