Hard Disk Drives Capacity Limits
Summary of All Limitations
Contents
We provided you tons of information about all size barriers you may face when trying to format a hard disk drive to its full capacity. In order to make you life easier, we compiled the quick reference table below containing all limits we described in this tutorial. If you want to know more about any one of them just go back to the text. Under “limit” we listed both notation systems, using the “right” definition of MB, GB and TB and using the “wrong” definition of these units (shown in parenthesis).
| Limit | Operating System | Solution |
| 128 PB (144 PB) | All | None so far, as this limit is far from being reached, but probably a BIOS upgrade. |
| 256 TB | Windows 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista using NTFS | This is the 32-bit NTFS file system limit. No solution so far, but probably a new NTFS version using more than 32 bits to address the clusters. |
| 16 TB | Windows 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista using NTFS | Use a partitioning utility or the command Format c: /a:xxxx to increase the size of the clusters allowing partitions up to 256 TB (see page 4 for more details). |
| 2 TB | Windows ME, 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista using FAT32 | Change file system to NTFS. |
| 2 TB | Windows 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista using NTFS | These operating systems don’t allow the boot partition to be larger than 2 TB. There are two solutions: create a bootable partition with 2 TB and create a second partition with the rest of your hard drive’s capacity or if you want a single partition create a dynamic volume. |
| 128 GB (137 GB) | Windows 98 | No solution. Upgrade your OS with at least Windows ME and execute the procedures described below. |
| 128 GB (137 GB) | Windows ME, NT, 2000 and XP without any SP installed. | BIOS upgrade AND running a utility. |
| 32 GB | Windows 95 | No solution. Upgrade your OS with at least Windows 98 (keep in mind that Windows 98 has its own 128 GB limit). |
| 7.84 GB (8 GB) | All but MS-DOS | BIOS upgrade. Besides that Windows NT can’t boot from partitions larger than 7.84 GB, you will need to create a bootable 7.84 GB partition and put the rest of the hard disk drive available space on one or more extra partitions. |
| 7.84 GB (8 GB) | MS-DOS 6.x | No solution. Upgrade your OS with at least Windows 95 AND upgrade your BIOS. |
| 2 GB | All | This is the FAT-16 limit. You can divide your hard disk drive into several 2 GB partitions or use an operating system that supports FAT-32 or NTFS to access your entire hard disk drive into a single partition. |
| 512 MB | MS-DOS 5.0 | Upgrade your operating system. |
| 504 MB (528 M) | All | BIOS upgrade. |
| 128 MB | MS-DOS 4.0 | Upgrade your operating system. |
| 32 MB | MS-DOS 3.x | Upgrade your operating system. |
| 16 MB | MS-DOS below 3.0 | Upgrade your operating system. |
Update and Frequently Asked Questions
Since this article was originally written, hard drives have been slowly living alongside SSDs and, sooner or later, they might be entirely replaced by them. However, that doesn’t mean that classic hard drives are completely irrelevant anymore, and we have still found notable questions about them online. Here we go:
Computers can be booted over a network, through a USB drive, or even off of a CD or DVD. When you attempt to run a computer without a hard drive, you will often be asked for a boot device. From there, you can select to boot from an optical drive or a USB storage drive. If you’re planning on running a live system, things will be pretty easy.
For example, you can use Rufus to make a portable version of Windows for your on-the-go needs, thus circumventing any necessity for hard drive installation. There are also tons of versions of Linux, with the most popular one being Ubuntu, which comes by default as a live version of the OS so you can use it without installing it at all. In short, yes, it is entirely possible to use a computer without a hard drive.
As of today, no. Some of them only come with an SSD. Others come with a smaller SSD and a bigger HDD to compensate for the otherwise small memory of the SSD. But, if you’re referring to storage in general, then yes, all laptops come with some form of storage for the simple reason that not many people would be able to run a live OS due to the fact that they don’t know how to do that. The only exception to this rule is Chromebooks, which have everything built for the cloud from the ground up.
Base 2 SHOULD be mention as Ki, Mi, Gi, …… (ISO).
So a 250GB disk is a 232 GiB disk…..
Disk manufacturers hate get their dimensions & maths right otherwise there would be no [SH]DD.s
Excellent detail and history. What is the total storage space per OS given that multiple drives (partitions)? Is it 26x the per disk limit given every letter of the alphabet can be assigned?