Hard Disk Drives Capacity Limits

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.