Too Many Root Directory Entries

[Benn]

I am installing a new HDD (Maxtor 15.3 ATA100 7200RPM) and I want to copy over the partition which contains NT4 from my old drive (essentially the whole drive but partitioned to keep the cluster size at 16k, Maxtor 71084A, 1 Gig drive)

MaxBlast copy fails to start stating too many directory entries.
DriveCopy appears to work but will not boot or partially boots stating that ntoskernel.exe is missing or corrupt. It also reports that the partition at sector 1 on the source is unsafe and that it created the new partition at sector 63.

The old drive (FAT16) has 544 entries in the root and the new partitions (FAT16) must be restricted to 512. It was partitioned with Partition Magic and I suspect it to be the source of the 544 !
I need to reduce this 544. I have tried reducing the number of directories running off C: and also shortening file names and then defragging but the 544 remains.

Can anybody help ?

Many thanks for the helpful contributions. If anyone has any ideas on how to reduce the root directory size from 544 to 512 without destroying the partition it would be great to hear from you
Benn

[This message has been edited by Benn (edited 02-21-2001).]

[Fingers]

I'm not sure if this applies to your situation, but Windows 95/98 limits the number of files that can be located in the root directory of any drive. I'm not sure what the actual number is, but 512 sounds about right. There is no way around it in Win95/98, you have to move some of those files into other directories.


I first became aware of this limitation when trying to use a zip disk to transfer a large number of small image files from one PC to another one. I'd select about 90MB worth of files and drag them onto the Zip disk, but the copy process would halt when about 40-60MB had been copied with the message "Cannot copy filename: The directory or file cannot be created." I deleted the files from the Zip and re-copied them into a "Temp" directory on the Zip disk and that solved the problem.

There is no limit to the number of files that can be any given directory (folder) within the root, but there is a limit on how many files can actually occupy a "root" directory.


[This message has been edited by Fingers (edited 02-20-2001).]

[stylin19]

The 512 entries is a restriction in FAT16. It's not a restriction in FAT32.

The problem can get expanded with FAT16 & Win95.

Go here for a decent explanation: directory limit (http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q120/1/38.asp)

good luck

[This message has been edited by stylin19 (edited 02-20-2001).]

[2Fast2C]

The real answer is that u can only have 255 entries in the root directory in Win98. With the path u can have 260. That is for windows 98 but I'm not sure of windows nt. Why not make some new directories? That should fix the problem.