Upper Limit on Subdirectories in DOS.

Thread View: comp.os.msdos.misc

3 messages

[T] Back to Threads [V] Tree View [G] Group Articles

3 total messages Started by sevay Mon, 04 Jan 1993 23:28

#3566

Author: sevay
Date: Mon, 04 Jan 1993 23:28

14 lines
793 bytes

Hi,

I have two quick questions, and I hope I chose the right place to post them:

o  Is there an upper limit on how many subdirectories and files one can create 
   under the root directory in both MSDOS 3.3 and MSDOS 5.0? 
o  Is there an upper limit on how many subdirectories and files one can create 
   under any other subdirectory in both MSDOS 3.3 and MSDOS 5.0?


Thanks,

Huseyin Sevay,
University of Kansas.

Re: Upper Limit on Subdirectories in DOS.

#3693

Author: Leonard Erickson
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 22:52

22 lines
1505 bytes

sevay@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu writes:

>I have two quick questions, and I hope I chose the right place to post them:

>o  Is there an upper limit on how many subdirectories and files one can create 
>   under the root directory in both MSDOS 3.3 and MSDOS 5.0? 

Yes. The limit varies according to the size of the disk (floppies), but
seems to be a constant at 512 for hard drives. 

>o  Is there an upper limit on how many subdirectories and files one can create 
>   under any other subdirectory in both MSDOS 3.3 and MSDOS 5.0?

Not really, except that sooner or later you'll run out of space for adding
extension blocks to the directory. Also, performance takes a *major* hit
every time DOS has to search for the next cluster of the directory.

-- 
Leonard Erickson		      leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com
CIS: [70465,203]			 70465.203@compuserve.com
FIDO:   1:105/51	 Leonard.Erickson@f51.n105.z1.fidonet.org
(The CIS & Fido addresses are preferred)

Re: Upper Limit on Subdirectories in DOS.

#3698

Author: kraai4712
Date: Wed, 13 Jan 1993 05:17

14 lines
1057 bytes

>>o  Is there an upper limit on how many subdirectories and files one can create 
>>   under the root directory in both MSDOS 3.3 and MSDOS 5.0? 
> 
> Yes. The limit varies according to the size of the disk (floppies), but
> seems to be a constant at 512 for hard drives. 

I've run into 20 meg hard drives that have a limit of 112 files in the root
directory.

Related side issue:  Which DOS program decides the limit?  The only program
that I can think of that might have anything to do with it is FORMAT.COM.  Any
other wisdom out there?

--jim

Thread Navigation

This is a paginated view of messages in the thread with full content displayed inline.

Messages are displayed in chronological order, with the original post highlighted in green.

Use pagination controls to navigate through all messages in large threads.

Back to All Threads