Is there a limit to how much Hard Drive space you can have for windows?

Question

I'm looking for an external and was wondering if windows has a limit on HD or is that memory it has a limit on?

Answer 1

Actually, Windows XP with no Service Packs, has a limit of 127GB, or 137 billion bytes (they're the same). And you only need SP1 for that not to be the case anymore.

Answer 2

Depends which version of Windows you're talking about. Yes, they all have a limit on both hard drive space and amount of RAM they can handle. Your computer itself (the hardware) will also have its own limit. Whichever one is less would be the most you can use. I doubt any external hard drive you are looking at even comes close to the limit though. Original Windows XP does have a problem formatting single partitions larger than 130 -140 Gb (somewhere around there, I forget). Service Pack 2 fixed this problem, so as long as you have that, you'll be fine.

Answer 3

To use harddrives bigger than 137gb:
Windows 2k
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305098
Windows xp
service pack 2

Limit after the above is set up properly is:
2^48 * 512bytes = 144115188075855872 bytes or 128pB

Answer 4

4 terabytes