hirayama@suvax1.UUCP (Pat Hirayama) (12/30/87)
Hello out there in Net-land. I was wondering if anyone knows of a way around PC/MS-DOS maximum number of files=112. Is there a way around this, or do I have to use two floppys? Thanks in advance. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - Pat Hirayama - Seattle University E-Mail: ...!dataio!suvax1!hirayama USNail: 28625-47th Place South, Auburn, WA 98001-1140 <This space reserved for witticisms and quotes which are newsgroup-dependent!> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
tim@j.cc.purdue.edu (Timothy Lange) (12/30/87)
The file limit being hit is due to the size of the root directory table. It is a fixed size, so only 112 files on floppies. To store more files (up to the limit of disk space), use sub directories. Sub directories are actual files so they may be as large as disk space permits. The size of the root directory will vary with the total capacity of the drive (hard or floppy). But it is a fixed size that one can exceed before filling up the disk. Not likely on a floppy but definitely on a hard disk. Tim. -- Timothy Lange / PC Learning Resource Center / Mathmatical Sciences Bldg. Purdue University Computing Center / West Lafayette, IN 47907 317-494-1787 / tim@j.cc.purdue.edu
bcw@rti.UUCP (Bruce Wright) (12/31/87)
In article <862@suvax1.UUCP>, hirayama@suvax1.UUCP (Pat Hirayama) writes: > Hello out there in Net-land. I was wondering if anyone knows of a way around > PC/MS-DOS maximum number of files=112. Is there a way around this, or do I > have to use two floppys? > As someone else posted, the easiest (read: least cost, in $ and time) method is probably to use subdirectories. But subdirectories are slower to search than a root directory (especially if they are in fragmented clusters), and tend to take more space (since you still have the root directory floating around with all of its space preallocated, and since the use of the FAT to map the subdirectory is not entirely free). But there are alternatives if you are determined, for one reason or another. There are a number of utilities out there for modifying the FAT sizes of disks and so forth. Some are commercial, others are public domain. Even the commercial packages aren't very expensive, maybe $30-70. One commercial package we have used with reasonable success is MCFORMAT - this allows the use of 1K or 2K clusters on a 10-MB disk drive, or 1K clusters on a 20MB disk drive (an easy way to get a couple of extra megs out of a nearly full drive). It also allows you to modify the number of entries in the root directory. There is a table in the disk boot record which gives information like this which the OS should interpret, the problem is that MessyDos just ignores it and uses the values it "knows" must be correct. The biggest problem with using something like this is that you need to install a device driver ... and the non-standard format means that only systems with a compatible device driver can recognize the floppies (or the hard disk either for that matter, if you re-formatted that). Still, if you can control your environment sufficiently that this is not a problem, then a package like this is worthwhile. It is still quite possible to generate a floppy which is compatible with standard MessyDos - it's just an administrative hassle to keep track of several different kinds of floppies. Good luck. Bruce C. Wright
dave@westmark.UUCP (Dave Levenson) (01/02/88)
In article <862@suvax1.UUCP>, hirayama@suvax1.UUCP writes: > Hello out there in Net-land. I was wondering if anyone knows of a way around > PC/MS-DOS maximum number of files=112. Is there a way around this, or do I > have to use two floppys? Create a subdirectory on your floppy. The number of entries in the root directory is limited, but the size of a subdirectory is not. (Of course, the subdirectory and your files still must *fit* on the floppy!) -- Dave Levenson Westmark, Inc. The man in the Mooney. Warren, NJ USA {rutgers | clyde | mtune | ihnp4}!westmark!dave
hirayama@suvax1.UUCP (Pat Hirayama) (01/02/88)
In article <862@suvax1.UUCP>, hirayama@suvax1.UUCP (Pat Hirayama) writes: > Hello out there in Net-land. I was wondering if anyone knows of a way around > PC/MS-DOS maximum number of files=112. Is there a way around this, or do I > have to use two floppys? > Well, thanks so much for the responses. A subdirectory will work perfectly for this particular problem. Since my mailer has been annoying me lately (MAILER DAEMON -- undelivered mail, etc) and since I wish to consider the discussion on this topic closed, I am posting my thanks here to: ...uw-apl!rgale (Ryan Gale) ...uw-apl!paul (Paul Palacios) ...uw-apl!kent (Kent K Kuriyama) ...cornell!batcomputer!wilker (Clarence W Wilkerson Jr) ...ukma!ukecc!agollum ...EDDIE.MIT.EDU!genrad!jpn (John P Nelson) ...onecom!zeus!sjk (Scott K Kamin) ...mtune!homxc!jaynec (James H King) and the one or two others who also sent in their responses to me (I hope my e-mailed thanks got to all of you!) Apologies for any typos in the above. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - Pat Hirayama - Seattle University E-Mail: ...!dataio!suvax1!hirayama USNail: 28625-47th Place South, Auburn, WA 98001-1140 Kirk: "You can't run a society based on . . . *comedy routines.*" Flyter: "You can't? I thought it was rather a common thing. Not under that name, of course." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------