Server Speed

Too Many Files

[yowza]

I have what may be a stupid question.

Would it slow the server down to have too many files in one folder?

I have a website with all of my product images in two folders. There are currently about 5,000 images in each folder. I notice that sometimes the server will hang when trying to load an image; however, most of the time the photos load quickly. I plan to eventually have over 15,000 photos.

I know that the larger the database, the slower the query. Is it the same with folders?

[py9jmas]

Would it slow the server down to have too many files in one folder?

Yes. However, "too many" depends on what OS you're using, what filesystem you're using, how much memory the server has etc.

I know that the larger the database, the slower the query. Is it the same with folders?

The filesystem is a database.

15,000 files sounds fine for modern OS/filesystems/hardware to me.

[killroy]

I had a server, Win XP Pro with NTFS, and a folder of 40,000 files... kept hanging until I reduced the number of files (those were split log segments).

Be carefull. Splitting into a few folders will be enough.

SN

PS: It is absolutely pathetic that modern OS like WinXP with an "advanced" filessystem like NTFS cannot deal with 40,000 files. And I'm not even talking about displaying them in explorer, but accessing them through the API.