>Is there any limit (OS or best practice) on the maximum number of files to have in one single folder?
>
>I seem to recall that there was a limit, or at least a point at which it could become problematic.
>
>I am running Windows Server 2003 as our primary file store on a 12-user LAN. It has multiple folders, but one in particular has grown to about 8,000 files. Each file is very small (1 - 5KB), but there are a lot of them.
>
>The files are stored on the server in a shared folder, that is hosted in a DFS tree, and users access this DFS tree from a mapped letter on their XP machines on the LAN.

I assume this is NTFS. So no limit on files per folder. Files per volume limit is, apparently, 4,294,967,295 <vbg>
I've also no idea at what point the number of files in a folder becomes problematic but 8000 in one folder doesn't sound good!
You might glean something from this (if you have a week to spare):http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc781134.aspx
Best,
Viv