Recommended max number of files in a folder 1

[ddrafts]

I have been looking on Microsoft’s site for Windows 2003 to find the Recommended Max number of files to a folder so that I will not lose performance. I’m looking because the Co that is doing a project is going to store a lot of WAV files in one directory. We need to keep the files for more than 5 years. So I’m expecting about 300,000 a year. I’m trying to get them to create a directory for each date but they are stating that it will be no problem.

Thanks for the help.

 

[dberg35]

Check this out.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc781134(WS.10).aspx

If you are concerned about storage then you should look at a NAS.

 

[ddrafts]

That was a great link. Thanks.

What I'm concerned about is the performance when there is over 100,000 files. Is it going to take more time for the Application to pull back the file in question? Is so is it going to get slower the more files that are in their?

 

[strongm]

Microsoft seem to consider 300,000 to be the number of files that might effect performance, but simply suggest that turning off shortname support can alleviate this (the way the shortnames are worked out is the cause of the performance hit).

Trouble is that it isn't generally NTFS that is the bottleneck: it is the shell. Explorer can grind to a halt with more than a few thousand files, but I've never found any definitive figures for this. Applications that are not browsing the folder should not be adversely affected.