Partition Size Limits

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Guest

Is there a limit (in XP Pro or Home) to what size drive you can add before the OS forces you to partition the drive? I would like to add a new drive, say 250Gb, but I don't necessarily want to partition it
Thanks!
 
If you have WinXP SP1 installed then you are OK. But does your Bios
support 48-bit LBA? How old is your Computer?
JWJ said:
Is there a limit (in XP Pro or Home) to what size drive you can add before
Click to expand...
the OS forces you to partition the drive? I would like to add a new drive,
say 250Gb, but I don't necessarily want to partition it.
 
In
JWJ said:
Is there a limit (in XP Pro or Home) to what size drive you can add
before the OS forces you to partition the drive? I would like to add
a new drive, say 250Gb, but I don't necessarily want to
Click to expand...
partition it.


A word on the terminology: to partition means to create *one* or
more partitions. So all drives have to be partitioned, if only to
make a single partition, before being used.

Yes, you can have a single 250GB partition on your drive. There
is no drive made today that Windows can not support as a single
partition.
 
JWJ said:
Is there a limit (in XP Pro or Home) to what size drive you can add before the OS forces you to partition the drive? I would like to add a new drive, say 250Gb, but I don't necessarily want to partition it.
Thanks!
Click to expand...

Provided you use the NTFS file system on the new drive there is no
problem.

However if for some reason you want the new drive to be FAT32 then you
will have to partition so that no one partition is larger than 128 gb.

About the only reason I can think of for wanting to have FAT32 would
be if you have multiple versions of Windows installed on the computer
and want to be able to access that drive from Windows 98 or Windows
Me.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."
 
JWJ said:
Is there a limit (in XP Pro or Home) to what size drive you can add before the OS forces you to partition the drive? I would like to add a new drive, say 250Gb, but I don't necessarily want to partition it.
Thanks!
Click to expand...

you can do this only if you have SP1 installed and enable 48bit LBA
support. If you don't, then 130gb is the limit.
 
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