OT: Is Windows 2000 limited to 2 Gb partitions? (DAW question)

[Wiggum]

Hey all,

 

I apologize in advance for asking a simple computer question, but it does pertain to hard disk recording.

 

From my understanding, Windows NT is limited to 2Gb hard drive partitions. Windows 2000 is based heavily on NT technology, so does it share this limitation?

 

I am starting to think about next year's system, and a dual proc mobo may be on the list. However, considering the size of the current hard drives, I just can't imagine partitioning my audio drive into segments of 2 Gb. I don't even know if there are enough drive letters for such a system (!)

 

If anyone knows the answer, I would appreciate clarification.

 

All the best,

 

Wiggum

[D.Triny]

Originally posted by Wiggum:

Hey all,

 

I apologize in advance for asking a simple computer question, but it does pertain to hard disk recording.

 

From my understanding, Windows NT is limited to 2Gb hard drive partitions. Windows 2000 is based heavily on NT technology, so does it share this limitation?

 

I am starting to think about next year's system, and a dual proc mobo may be on the list. However, considering the size of the current hard drives, I just can't imagine partitioning my audio drive into segments of 2 Gb. I don't even know if there are enough drive letters for such a system (!)

 

If anyone knows the answer, I would appreciate clarification.

 

All the best,

 

Wiggum

 

Hi Wiggum,

 

if you use FAT16 the maximum partition size is 4GB the for DOS compatibility reasons you should only format 2GB, if you use FAT32 the maximum partition size is 2TB (2 terabytes) but I believe the OS will only let yet format up to 32GB

 

recommendation: use FAT32

 

-david abraham

 

 

 

 

This message has been edited by David Abraham Fenton on 06-18-2001 at 12:37 AM

[D.Triny]

here's a link that goes more in depth

 

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/file/partCluster-c.html

 

-david abrham

 

 

This message has been edited by David Abraham Fenton on 06-18-2001 at 01:02 AM

[Roland Genske]

Originally posted by Wiggum:

From my understanding, Windows NT is limited to 2Gb hard drive partitions

 

No, it is definitely not (see below). If you have NT4 without any service pack installed, the maximum size of your system partition (usually C:) could be limited to 2GB (the system wouldn't boot with a larger system partition), but you could have additional partitions which wouldn't be limited like that. However, this was fixed with one of the service packs long ago and does not affect Windows 2000 at all.

 

Originally posted by David Abraham Fenton:

recommendation: use FAT32

 

With Windows 2000, use NTFS! As a true 64bit file system, it is much more reliable than FAT and much faster, too.

 

The maximum partition and file size (!) is 16 exabytes, that is equivalent to 2^64 (aka. 64bit) or 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 bytes - which should be sufficient.

 

With NTFS you can forget about clustering. Additionally, you can easily create a single partition which spans your brand new 80GB disk entirely. With FAT32 this wouldn't be possible due to its 32GB limit.

 

For details refer to

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q93/4/96.ASP

 

Roland

 

This message has been edited by Roland Genske on 06-18-2001 at 01:20 PM

[D.Triny]

Originally posted by Roland Genske:

With Windows 2000, use NTFS! As a true 64bit file system, it is much more reliable than FAT and much faster, too.

 

 

 

yes, I actually use NTFS myself, but I hesitate to recommend it, because many folks are "dual booting" with Win9x which can't see NTFS drives. (at least not natively)

 

 

-david abraham

[Roland Genske]

I agree, this is probably a reason to have at least one FAT partition for file transfer purposes.

 

Roland