Hard disk limits windows xp

You will thank yourself for taking the time to do this. Create a smaller partition for XP, and then install SP2. After that, you can use a partitioner to expand the original XP partition to include the whole disk. But I wouldn't follow this route, frankly. Well I likely got the date wrong. Also the hard drive originally installed Gbytes was partitioned with a recovery partition.

The boot partition was about GBytes, the remainder was the recovery partition. So you have likely solved my problem. It stalls and then restarts continually until I shut it off manually. It also tries to partition the big drive for a GByte boot sector but seems to fail at this.

It remains unallocated when I look at its properties using XP disk manager tools when the PC is then booted with the original GByte drive.

When booted from the original drive this big drive can be formatted and it will recover its full size, I just cannot make it the boot drive. Also I did try to pre-partition the big drive with the same result; installation seems complete but won't boot and continually restarts. So I agree with your advice; don't try this.

I think you are making the right decision. It's really hard to predict what an installer will do under all circumstances when it misreads the disk size. But the results are bound not to be good ones. Interesting link, thanks Favu! Repo Man Member. Quote: What is bit LBA? The original design specification for the ATA interface only provided bits with which to address the devices.

This meant that a hard disk could only have a maximum of ,, sectors of bytes of data thus limiting the ATA interface to a maximum of With bit addressing the limit is petabytes ,, gigabytes. Are there any major issues with bit LBA?

Unfortunately, yes. Some versions of Microsoft Windows do not support hard drives greater than GB at all, other versions do but it may be necessary to update the operating system with the latest Service Pack and a parameter may need to be defined and set properly in the Windows registry. There's also an issue with the BIOS where it may be necessary to install a BIOS upgrade for your system in order for the system to work properly with the new hard drive. In many cases the average user may find that installing their new large hard drive is not as simple as just plugging it in and it just works.

If you've reached this site then it may be that you've found that to be the case. This site is devoted to providing you the help you need for making your new hard drive work with your system. If EnableBigLba needs to be set, the tool does not do it automatically.

It will give you the option to set it manually with a button. DaveBC Member. Join Date: January Posts: Posting Rules. Similar Threads. GPT disks allow for growth. The GPT disk partition format is well defined and fully self-identifying. Data critical to platform operation is located in partitions and not in unpartitioned or "hidden" sectors. GPT disks use primary and backup partition tables for redundancy and CRC32 fields for improved partition data structure integrity.

The GPT partition format uses version number and size fields for future expansion. Each GPT partition has a unique identification GUID and a partition content type, so no coordination is necessary to prevent partition identifier collision.

Each GPT partition has a character Unicode name. This means that any software can present a human-readable name for the partition without any additional understanding of the partition.

Basic disks are the most commonly used storage types with Windows. The GPT header defines the range of logical block addresses that are usable by partition entries. The byte partition type GUID, which is similar to a System ID in the partition table of an MBR disk, identifies the type of data that the partition contains and identifies how the partition is used, for example, whether it is a basic disk or a dynamic disk. Note that each GUID partition entry has a backup copy. For more information about basic disks, see Basic and Dynamic Disks.

Dynamic disks were first introduced with Windows and provide features that basic disks don't, such as the ability to create volumes that span multiple disks spanned and striped volumes and the ability to create fault-tolerant volumes mirrored and RAID-5 volumes. For more information about dynamic disks, see Basic and Dynamic Disks.

GPT disks are self-identifying. All the information needed to interpret the partitioning scheme of a GPT disk is completely contained in structures in specified locations on the physical media. Logical blocks are commonly bytes in size. The maximum partition and disk size depends on the operating system version. Windows XP and the original release of Windows Server have a limit of 2TB per physical disk, including all partitions.

Windows file systems currently are limited to terabytes each. The specification allows an almost unlimited number of partitions. However, the Windows implementation restricts this to partitions. The number of partitions is limited by the amount of space reserved for partition entries in the GPT.

These tools will view a GPT disk as having a single encompassing possibly unrecognized partition by interpreting the Protected MBR, rather than mistaking the disk for one that is unpartitioned.

For more information, see the following sections:. The bit version will see only the Protective MBR. The EE partition will not be mounted or otherwise exposed to application software.

Booting is only supported for bit editions on Itanium-based systems. Yes, all versions can use GPT partitioned disks for data. Booting is only supported for bit editions on UEFI-based systems. You can move, or migrate, data-only GPT disks to other systems that are running Windows XP bit edition only or later versions of the operating system or bit editions.

You can migrate data-only GPT disks after the system has been shutdown or after the safe removal of the disk. However, you must be aware of the following restrictions:. The entire media is treated as a single partition. The media manufacturer performs any MBR partitioning of removable media. If the media has an MBR, only one partition is supported.

There is little user-discernible difference between MBR-partitioned media and superfloppies. Archived Forums. Sign in to vote. What's the scoop on hard drive size limits? I have heard there is a 2TB limit. Does that apply only to the system drive? I can write to, read from and access files on this drive. So where is this 2TB limit? Thursday, August 11, PM. Evans 2. Hi, You heard correct in relation to the 2TB limit.

Kind Regards, Martin If you find my information useful, please rate it. Proposed as answer by Martin G.