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Q72043: Byte Total Returned by DIR Less Than Bytes Used

Article: Q72043
Product(s): Microsoft Disk Operating System
Version(s): MS-DOS:5.x,6.0,6.2,6.21,6.22
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): 
Last Modified: 17-DEC-2000

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft MS-DOS operating system versions 5.0, 5.0a, 6.0, 6.2, 6.21, 6.22 
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SUMMARY
=======

A directory listing using the DIR command under Microsoft MS-DOS version 5.0 or
later reports the total number of bytes in the files for that specific
directory. The disk space occupied by these files can be much greater than the
byte total reported by DIR, depending on the disk's allocation unit size. This
difference may cause confusion when calculating disk space requirements for
copying files.

NOTE: File storage is handled the same under all versions of MS-DOS; the 5.0 DIR
command is the first MS-DOS command to list the number of bytes stored in a
particular directory.

MORE INFORMATION
================

The minimum storage space on an MS-DOS disk is one allocation unit. Each
allocation unit contains one or more sectors, depending on the disk size and
capacity. Sectors can also vary in size but are usually 512 bytes.

Since files seldom fill a single allocation unit entirely, a number of bytes are
left unused. These bytes are unavailable to MS-DOS for any other file storage.
For example, if the allocation unit size is 1024 bytes, a file of 1000 bytes
occupies one allocation unit, leaving 24 bytes unused and unavailable to MS-DOS
for storage of other files.

Calculating Disk Space Requirements
-----------------------------------

PC utility programs like Norton Utilities and PCTools determine the number of
bytes in a particular directory as well as the number of bytes occupied on the
current disk. If you do not have one of these programs, you can estimate disk
space requirements.

To estimate the number of bytes occupied by the files in a particular directory,
you must determine the allocation unit size for the disk. CHKDSK return the
allocation units for a MS-DOS disk.

The following equation is based on the law of averages that dictates that
one-half of an allocation unit will be unused for each file stored on a disk.
The more files you have in a particular directory, the closer the estimate will
be. If you have just a few small files, this formula is not accurate.

     disk space occupied = (number of files in directory *

                           allocation unit size in bytes * .5) +
                           file size total reported by DIR

Use the following method to estimate the disk space required to copy the files in
a directory to a disk. Use CHKDSK to determine the allocation unit size of the
destination disk. Use the same equation as above, substituting the allocation
unit size of the disk for the allocation unit size in bytes.

For more information on allocation unit sizes, query on the following words here
in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  "allocation" (without the quotation marks) and "unit" (without the quotation
  marks) and "fat" (without the quotation marks) and "disk" (without the
  quotation marks)

REFERENCES
==========

More information on this topic can be found in "The MS-DOS Encyclopedia,"
"Advanced MS-DOS Programming," or "The NEW Peter Norton Programmer's Guide to
the IBM PC & PS/2," which are published by Microsoft Press.

Additional query words: 6.22 5.00 5.00a 6.00 6.20 6.21

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Keywords          :  
Technology        : kbMSDOSSearch kbMSDOS621 kbMSDOS622 kbMSDOS620 kbMSDOS600 kbMSDOS500 kbMSDOS500a
Version           : MS-DOS:5.x,6.0,6.2,6.21,6.22

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