Episode #109


Vista Limits

Is it true that Vista has a limit as to how many files you can copy at one time, 16,383 files, before rebooting? I had a problem just like this when I had Kaspersky v6 (for Vista) installed, and as soon as I uninstalled Kaspersky, I had no more “out of memory” errors. But now I’m being told that this is a file handling problem within Vista. The forum I posted to where I found this answer is at: https://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1263544&SiteID=1 I had this problem for a couple of months, did lots of searching online and couldn’t find anything, and even reformatted and reinstalled Vista in the hopes I could solve this problem. Further, I emailed Kaspersky that I wanted a complete refund, since they knew about this problem and did not bother to notify me. I’ve heard that it still exists in their latest version, too. Kaspersky has flatly refused to give me a refund and I am filing a dispute with Visa. I need to copy thousands of files to external hard drives to do my backups. I want to make sure, using copy and paste, that I get everything. I do not want to use any type of backup program. So have you heard anything about this being a Vista file handling problem? Does Vista handle files differently than xp did? I also never had this problem in xp. Thanks for a great show, I am a long time fan and hope to see you in the U.S. soon!

Marilyn, Fort Meyers, FL



I have heard of strange limits when copying large numbers of files on Vista. It’s interesting that the problem goes away when you remove Kaspersky. It’s likely that there’s a memory issue, but copy and paste is not the way to efficiently copy tens of thousands of files. I’d suggest using Microsoft’s SyncToy or the like to make sure you are creating reliable file copies - it likely will avoid this problem.