Maximum Hard Drive Size in Win XP

[cdmazoff]

Hi Gang: Boy, MS Knowledge base is useless, and I couldn't find anything at Gigabyte or Amibios

Putting a 100GB drive in a Gigabyte 7ZXE. It will be the second drive. Will probably use FAT 32 and partition. 20, 40, 40. I seem to remember that max partition size for FAt32 is 40GB. It is for a lady and I think FAT 32 and using a Windows 98 boot disk will be easier for her to understand than working in NTFS (which is what the other drive with XP is formatted in)

I want to image the old Win98 drive to one partition and use the other 2 for storage.

What are the pro's and cons and limits etc.

CD

[BipolarBill]

There is a 32GB limit for FAT32 partitions when created in Windows XP only. If does not apply to other Windows OSes. WinXP can use FAT32 partitions greater than 32GB if they are created elsewhere (Win2K, 98, ME, Partition Magic).

Any FAT32 size limits will usually be BIOS-related.

[cdmazoff]

Hi Bill: How are you. Thanks for getting back to me.

So: if I just use the install CD with the new drive (I'm not sure whether she got a WD or a Maxtor) I would just follow instructions and clone the existing 30 GB over and make 2 more 40 Gigs? Or Should I leave the rest as 1 70 GB drive.

Aside from the fact that there would be one hell of a lot of slack is there any advantage to having 1 large partition as opposed to 2?

I'm wurried she'll get confused over the enourmous amount of logical drives created by multiple partitions.

CD

[BipolarBill]

I'm fine. Summer's almost gone here in SE Texas. :cool:

Use a Win98 startup disk and create two 50GB FAT32 partitions with FDISK. Make sure that you are seeing drive #2!! You can format them with XP - you just can't create them.