The present invention can provide an OS independent system for storing data within a storage system. The invention can provide a directory system which is designed dynamically to adapt based upon the caching memory available for searching directories. Received files can be stored in a current directory until a predetermined limit is reached. In parallel, a database can be created to record which files are stored in which directory. This database can be designed to be kept in physical memory to minimize file access latency. This arrangement provides that a data storage system can store data in a simple order of receipt manner while also managing the storage structure to limit the number of data objects in any given container, thus preventing a search function analysing any given container from needing to access an excessive number of data objects and thus slow down the search to an unacceptable level.