Directory Size

In downloading picture files (.jpg) to a memory chip or a memory stick, for playing in a picture display unit (COBY), I have discovered that only a finite number of pictures, depending on the length of the file names, can be downloaded on the removable storage device, regardless of it's storage capacity. I suspect this is because the directory size is fixed, and if you have a lot of little files, you can run out of directory space on the removable device long before you run out of mass storage space.

With long file names, I could only get 200 pictures on a 2 GB SD Memory chip. The actual mass storage space taken up on the chip is less than 1/20th of it's total capacity. When I shortened all the file names to 8 characters or less, I could get 361 picture files on the chip. I tried shortening the file names further by calling them 1 through whatever, and now I can put more than 361 files on the chip. I don't know yet how many more.

I've been using this SD memory chip and a 1/2 GB Lexar memory stick, and download capicity is exactly the same on each device. They become 'full' before their capacities are reached at exactly the same number of pictures.

Is there any way to expand the directory size to eliminate this problem?

Skip Gwyer

 

I am not positive, but aren't most thumb drives and memory sticks formatted FAT which is limited when it comes to file name size? Possibly format the memory stick as FAT32 to solve the issue? I also don't know if phones, cameras and etc. can read FAT32.