Ultra ATA Drive Guidelines and Features
4.5 Drive Capacities
The combination of the file system and the operating system used in the computer determines the maximum usable size of a drive partition. A drive partition is the largest segment of a drive that may be properly accessed by the operating system. A single hard drive may therefore be subdivided into a number of unique drive partitions in order to make use of all of its space. The table that follows identifies the capabilities and restrictions imposed on the computer by the combinations of file and operating systems.
Microsoft to Drive Manufacturer Size Conversion Table*
Drive Size as Identified by | Drive Size as Identified by | |
Microsoft Operating System | Drive Manufacturers | |
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2 | GB | 2.1 GB |
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4 | GB | 4.3 GB |
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32 GB | 34.4 GB | |
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64 GB | 68.7 GB | |
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128 GB | 137 GB | |
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2 | TB | 2.199 TB |
*Drive size calculations by drive manufacturers are bytes to the base 10 while calculations by Microsoft are bytes to the base 2.
Drive/Partition Capacity Limits
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File | Controller |
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System | Type | Operating System | Partition | Drive | |
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FAT 16 | ATA or SCSI | DOS/Windows 95 | 2 | GB | 128 GB |
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FAT 16 | ATA or SCSI | Windows NT | 4 | GB | 128 GB |
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FAT 32 | ATA or SCSI | Windows 98/SE | 64 GB | 128 GB | |
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FAT 32 | ATA | Windows 98/SE with | 128 GB | 128 GB | |
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| QFE* and Windows ME |
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FAT 32 | SCSI | Windows 98/SE with | 2 | TB | 2 TB |
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| QFE* and Windows ME |
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FAT 32 | ATA | Windows 2000/ XP | 32 GB | 128 GB | |
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FAT 32 | SCSI | Windows 2000/ XP | 32 GB | 2 TB | |
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NTFS | ATA | Windows NT/2000/XP | 128 GB | 128 GB | |
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NTFS | SCSI | Windows NT/2000/XP | 2TB | 2TB | |
*For Windows 98/SE with QFE see www.microsoft.com, search for Q263044 for details on how to expand partition size.
| Service Reference Guide |
