what is the max. amount of hard drive memmory can windows xp suppo

[Guest]

what is the max. amount of hard drive memmory can windows xp support?

 

[Squire]

Up to two Terrabytes,

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Up to two Terrabytes,

No, this isn't correct. First, the two terabyte (note the correct spelling)
limit is a FAT32 limit, not a Windows XP one. Second, that limit is per
volume, not for the entire operating system

The NTFS limit in Windows XP is 16 terabytes minus 4KB. See
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prkc_fil_tdrn.asp
or http://tinyurl.com/2ozuo

Multiply that limit by the maximum number of drives you can install.

 

[Squire]

Ken, if the XP system is formatted using fat32 instead of ntfs,

doesn't it have a two terabyte limit ?

Jerry

 

[Tim Slattery]

Ken, if the XP system is formatted using fat32 instead of ntfs,
doesn't it have a two terabyte limit ?

No. FAT32 can theoretically support partitions as large as 32TB, but
has nothing do with the maximum size of the entire disk. You can have
many partitions on a physical disc, and many physical disks connected
to your computer.

 

[Squire]

Thanks, Tim,

I just didn't understand the relationship between formatting and size.

Jerry

 

[Yves Leclerc]

No. FAT32 can theoretically support partitions as large as 32TB, but
has nothing do with the maximum size of the entire disk. You can have
many partitions on a physical disc, and many physical disks connected
to your computer.

Microsoft has purposely "lamed" FAT32 formatting in XP. Your can only
successfully format FAT32 partitions/disk up to 32GB. This is "forcing" NTFS
as the new "default" formatting standard.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Microsoft has purposely "lamed" FAT32 formatting in XP. Your can only
successfully format FAT32 partitions/disk up to 32GB. This is
"forcing" NTFS as the new "default" formatting standard.

Not quite. Even though XP itself can't create a FAT32 partition larger than
32, you can do it very simply by first using FDISK from an older boot
diskette. Although NTFS is normally the better choice and I don't recommend
FAT32 except for dual-booting situations, it's easy enough to make large
FAT32 partitions and XP will happily use them if they already exist.

 

[Ron Martell]

what is the max. amount of hard drive memmory can windows xp support?

See
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prkc_fil_tdrn.asp

*****
In theory, the maximum NTFS volume size is 2^64 clusters minus 1
cluster. However, the maximum NTFS volume size as implemented in
Windows XP Professional is 2^32 clusters minus 1 cluster. For example,
using 64-KB clusters, the maximum NTFS volume size is 256 terabytes
minus 64 KB. Using the default cluster size of 4 KB, the maximum NTFS
volume size is 16 terabytes minus 4 KB.

Because partition tables on master boot record (MBR) disks only
support partition sizes up to 2 terabytes, you must use dynamic
volumes to create NTFS volumes over 2 terabytes. Windows XP
Professional manages dynamic volumes in a special database instead of
in the partition table, so dynamic volumes are not subject to the
2-terabyte physical limit imposed by the partition table. Therefore,
dynamic NTFS volumes can be as large as the maximum volume size
supported by NTFS. Itanium-based computers that use GUID partition
table (GPT) disks also support NTFS volumes larger than 2 terabytes.

*****

So the largest single disk that can be supported is 2 terabytes (2048
gigabytes) which is substantially larger than anything currently on
the market (but maybe next month?)

By using multiple hard drives and dynamic volumes you could, at least
in theory, get up to 16 terabytes of hard drive space to appear as a
single drive in XP.

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada

 

[Plato]

Not quite. Even though XP itself can't create a FAT32 partition larger than
32, you can do it very simply by first using FDISK from an older boot
diskette. Although NTFS is normally the better choice and I don't recommend
FAT32 except for dual-booting situations, it's easy enough to make large
FAT32 partitions and XP will happily use them if they already exist.

My beef with NTFS was that there was no easy/cheap way to access [read
and write] to an NTFS vol. from a DOS boot to do emergency repairs if XP
couldn't boot standard or safe mode. Now of course there are free
drivers one can add to a bootdisk to do so.

http://www.datapol.de/dpe/freeware/

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Not quite. Even though XP itself can't create a FAT32 partition
larger than 32, you can do it very simply by first using FDISK from
an older boot diskette. Although NTFS is normally the better choice
and I don't recommend FAT32 except for dual-booting situations, it's
easy enough to make large FAT32 partitions and XP will happily use
them if they already exist.

My beef with NTFS was that there was no easy/cheap way to access [read
and write] to an NTFS vol. from a DOS boot to do emergency repairs if
XP couldn't boot standard or safe mode. Now of course there are free
drivers one can add to a bootdisk to do so.

http://www.datapol.de/dpe/freeware/

I agree with you. I wish Microsoft had provided such a tool built-in.