Windows 98 large file-count tests on large volume (500 gb hard drive)

File copy test - Windows 98

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Hardware Details:

Motherboard: ASRock Dual VSTA:
http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.as...l=775Dual-vsta
CPU: Intel Celeron 3.46 ghz
Chipset: VIA PT880 Pro/Ultra Chipset
Driver download (VIA Hyperion Pro Driver Package):
http://www.viaarena.com/Driver/VIA_H...nPro_V512A.zip
Onboard lan: Via Rhine II / Lan driver: fetnd5av.sys
http://www.viaarena.com/Driver/VT610...1v44FVIA.z ip
Installed memory: 512 mb, DDR
USB 2.0 Root Hub (driver: usbhub20.sys)
VIA PCI to USB Enhanced Host Controller (driver: usbehci.sys)
http://www.viaarena.com/Driver/VIA_USB2_V270p1-L-M.zip

Hard drive: Western Digital WD5000KS (500 gb) SATA
Hard drive is controlled by on-board VIA VT8237A Raid controller
(viamraid.mpd, ios.vxd, viamvsd.vxd)
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Windows-98se CD was copied to it's own directory on the hard drive,
and all cab files were unpacked into their own separate subdirectory.
In addition to the unpacked cabs, I copied all files in my win-98
system and system32 directories. So this sub-directory has 2000 files
(129 mb). The over-all size of the win-CD directory is therefore 767
mb (5565 files, 366 folders).

I replicated that directory 541 times in a tree as follows:

c:\file test (root test directory)

\Super-1
\Super-2
\Super-3

In each of the above three directories, 10 subdirectories (0001
through 0010). In each of those 10 directories, 18 subdirectories
(000A through 000R). In each of those, a copy of the above-described
win98-CD source files.

The file-properties dialog box for c:\file test takes 10 to 15 minutes
to arrive at a final tally, which is:

Size: 405 gb (435,633,783 bytes) 441,899,741,184
Contains: 3,010,665 Files, 199,119 Folder

Screen capture of file-properties dialog box:

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/5/.../file-test.jpg

Based on the size (135 gb) and time-stamps of the Super-x directories,
I calculated that the file-copy rate was effectively 11.5 mb per
second (it took 3.5 hours to copy the contents of Super-1 to Super-2).

chkdsk c:

487,431,968 kilobytes total disk space
52,323,392 kilobytes free

4096 bytes in each allocation unit
121,857,992 total allocation units on disk
13,080,848 available allocation units on disk

I re-started the computer in DOS and ran DOS-scandisk. I left it
running, will check back in a few hours to see how it finished.

Conclusion / Comments:

Well, basically, I almost filled a 500 gb hard drive with a replicated
set of files that range in size from a few bytes to a few mb in size.
A grand total of over 3 million files spread across almost 200,000
directories. Windows was functional during and after this file-copy
process, and the system continues to boot and function normally.

If anyone out there is not satisfied that my test methodology was not
sufficient to correctly test win-98 for a file-count limitation or a
directory-size limitation that may arise given current modern large
hard drives available today, please speak up and describe an alternate
test method.

As a comment, I don't believe that creating a set of zero-byte files
will necessarily accomplish or test windows-98 with the same level of
"stress" as the test I describe here.