| Published: |  |
5/15/2002 |
| Last Updated: | |
6/6/2002 |
| Article Type: | |
INFO |
Although the Fat-32 file system has a maximum accessible limit of 2.2 terabytes, there are still some limitations that occur with hard drives of today's large capacities.
Fat-32 4GB file size limit
The largest file size that be saved to a hard drive is 4GB. The Fat-32
access table cannot store the file pointers for a file larger than 4GB. If a
file larger than 4GB has to be stored on the drive, Microsoft suggests changing
the file system to NTFS (where possible).
Windows XP and 2000 format limitation within Windows using Fat-32.
If a slave hard drive is added to a system, you can format the drive using
Fat-32 file system within Windows (formatting a drive within Windows is very
fast - 90 seconds or less). The formatting program built into these versions of
Windows has a drive size limitation of 32GB. If you format a drive larger than
32GB in Windows, after the format, only 32GB will be available. This is a
limitation of the Windows format component. If you use a boot disk and format
with the DOS format utility, the full capacity of the drive will be utilized. To
overcome this limitation within Windows XP or 2000, Microsoft suggests changing
the file system to NTFS.
Windows 98 Fdisk 64GB drive size display problem
The Fdisk program that ships with Windows 98 has a drive size calculation
problem. If you look at a drive larger than 64GB inside the Fdisk program, the
drive size calculation will roll over at the 64GB mark and display the drive
size minus 64GB. For example, if the physical drive is 70.3 GB (75,484,122,112
bytes) in size, Fdisk reports the drive as being 6.3 GB (6,764,579,840 bytes) in
size. Microsoft has a file download to fix this problem. You can find the
information and download in Microsoft KB doc Fdisk
Does Not Recognize Full Size of Hard Disks Larger than 64 GB (Q263044)
Windows 98/ME Fdisk maximum drive size limit
The Fdisk program that is included with Windows 98 and ME has a maximum
drive size limit of 512GB. Microsoft suggests that Fdisk not be used to
partition hard drives larger than 512GB and that a third-party program be used
instead, such as Gdisk, a partitioning program that is included with Symantec's
Ghost program.
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