Vista Drive Capacity Limitations

As hard drive sizes increase it is important to consider how much of the hard drive space a computer can actually use. The maximum amount of hard drive storage space available to a computer depends on the operating system and the motherboard configuration.

Motherboard

The first deciding factor on maximum hard drive size is the motherboard configuration. A motherboard has to be designed and equipped to detect larger sizes. The maximum size limit motherboards traditionally supported in the past was 2 terabytes. As of 2011, motherboards are able to surpass that limit. If a motherboard displays the full size of the hard drive in the BIOS screen, the motherboard is able to fully support the drive.

Windows Vista 64-bit

The 64-bit version of Windows Vista is able to use a new partition table format called GPT. GPT has a maximum disc and raw partition size of 18 exabytes, or 1 quintillion bytes. Windows file structures, however, can only support partition sizes up to 256 terabytes, each with a maximum of 128 logical partitions.

Windows Vista 32-bit

The 32-bit version of Windows Vista is limited to using the MBR, or master boot record, partition format. MBR has a maximum partition size of 2 terabytes

References

• Microsoft: Windows and GPT FAQ