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    Understanding The 2 TB Limit in Windows Storage

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    pawan_battula
    There are three main 2 TB limitations in Windows storage: (1) the partition size limit of 2 TB for MBR disks, (2) the NTFS limit of 2 TB due to a maximum of 2^32 clusters, and (3) the 2 TB limit when Windows uses the Read10/Write10 SCSI standard. These limits can be overcome by using dynamic disks and volume sets, GPT disks, cluster sizes over 512 bytes, and SCSI controllers and drives that support the Read16/Write16 standard, respectively. Exceeding these limits allows storage volumes greater than 2 TB in size.

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    Understanding The 2 TB Limit in Windows Storage

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    There are three main 2 TB limitations in Windows storage: (1) the partition size limit of 2 TB for MBR disks, (2) the NTFS limit of 2 TB due to a maximum of 2^32 clusters, and (3) the 2 TB limit when Windows uses the Read10/Write10 SCSI standard. These limits can be overcome by using dynamic disks and volume sets, GPT disks, cluster sizes over 512 bytes, and SCSI controllers and drives that support the Read16/Write16 standard, respectively. Exceeding these limits allows storage volumes greater than 2 TB in size.

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    Understanding the 2 TB Limit in Windows Storage

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    There are three main 2 TB limitations in Windows storage: (1) the partition size limit of 2 TB for MBR disks, (2) the NTFS limit of 2 TB due to a maximum of 2^32 clusters, and (3) the 2 TB limit when Windows uses the Read10/Write10 SCSI standard. These limits can be overcome by using dynamic disks and volume sets, GPT disks, cluster sizes over 512 bytes, and SCSI controllers and drives that support the Read16/Write16 standard, respectively. Exceeding these limits allows storage volumes greater than 2 TB in size.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    100 views3 pages

    Understanding The 2 TB Limit in Windows Storage

    Uploaded by

    pawan_battula
    There are three main 2 TB limitations in Windows storage: (1) the partition size limit of 2 TB for MBR disks, (2) the NTFS limit of 2 TB due to a maximum of 2^32 clusters, and (3) the 2 TB limit when Windows uses the Read10/Write10 SCSI standard. These limits can be overcome by using dynamic disks and volume sets, GPT disks, cluster sizes over 512 bytes, and SCSI controllers and drives that support the Read16/Write16 standard, respectively. Exceeding these limits allows storage volumes greater than 2 TB in size.

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    of 3

    Understanding the 2 TB Limit in Windows Storage

    There are actually three different 2 TB limitations that are commonly hit...

    Partition size

    Number of clusters

    SCSI goo

    Partition Size Limitation


    The partition size is pretty straight forward. On an MBR (Master Boot Record) disk, the
    locations where the partition sizes are stored are only 4 bytes long. Since this is in
    hexadecimal, the largest value we can stuff in there is all Fs. So the max value would
    4,294,967,295 in decimal.
    FF FF FF FFh = 4294967295d
    This maximum partition size is not in bytes, it is in number of sectors. Since currently
    sectors are limited to 512 bytes, the maximum size ends up being 2 TB.
    4,294,967,295 sectors * 512 bytes/sectors = 2,199,023,255,040 bytes or 2TB.
    Number of Clusters
    The second limitation is harder to spot. It is a limitation of NTFS. NTFS is limited to
    (2^32 -1) clusters.no matter what. The smallest cluster size possible is 512 bytes (1
    sector). So again the math leaves us at 2,199,023,255,040 or 2TB.
    (2^32)-1 = (4,294,967,296)-1 = 4,294,967,295 clusters
    4,294,967,295 clusters * 512 bytes/cluster = = 2,199,023,255,040 bytes or 2TB
    Here is a quick reference chart to help you see the maximum NTFS size for each cluster
    size.
    Cluster size

    NTFS Max Size

    512 bytes

    2,199,023,255,040 (2TB)

    1024 bytes

    4,398,046,510,080 (4TB)

    2048 bytes

    8,796,093,020,160 (8TB)

    4096 bytes

    17,592,186,040,320 (16TB) Default cluster size

    8192 bytes

    35,184,372,080,640 (32TB)

    16384 bytes

    70,368,744,161,280 (64TB)

    32768 bytes

    140,737,488,322,560 (128TB)

    65536 bytes

    281,474,976,654,120 (256TB)

    Cluster size really depends on your needs. While 512 is fine if you just have a bunch of
    tiny files, it isnt as efficient for say a volume with just SQL DBs. Also, a tiny cluster size
    can adversely affect VSS. But that is a topic for another time.
    SCSI Goo
    This is by far the hardest to understand as it requires some basic SCSI knowledge.
    Microsoft Windows operating systems support two different SCSI standards when it
    comes to reads and writes. There is a third but it is very old and is mostly just used on
    tape devices. So lets just forget about that one and stick to the two that are relevant.
    These two standards are Read10/Write10 and Read16/Write16. This all has to do with
    the way the CDB (Command Descriptor Block) is structured.
    Read10/Write10 This standard reserves bytes 2-5 to define the LBA (Logical Block
    Address). Think of LBA as sector numbers.it makes it easier on your brain. So we
    have 4 bytes that can define the addressable sectors. Just like in the partition size
    limitation we are back to dealing with a 4 byte number used to define all the addresses
    on the drive.
    FF FF FF FFh = 4294967295d
    And just like before, the above is just the possible number of address (number of
    sectors). Multiply by the standard sector size of 512 bytes and we get
    4,294,967,295 sectors * 512 bytes/sectors = 2,199,023,255,040 bytes or 2TB.
    What this all means is that when Windows is using the Read10/Write10 standard, then
    the biggest drive that will be supported is 2TB.
    Read16/Write16 Sometimes called LBA64 by some vendors, this standard reserves
    bytes 2-9 to define the LBAs. That would be 8 bytes, each byte being 8 bits in size. Now
    here is where we start getting into some really big numbers. The approximate size
    comes out to be around 8ZB (zettabytes). Heres a quick chart to put it in some
    perspective.

    1024KB = 1MB (megabyte)

    1024MB = 1GB (gigabyte)

    1024GB = 1TB (terabyte)

    1024TB = 1PB (petabyte)

    1024PB = 1EB (exabyte)

    1024EB = 1ZB (zettabyte)

    So it is going to be a while before we have to worry about running into the limitation of
    Read16/Write16.
    2

    Exceeding the limitations


    Each limitation has a way of getting around it. Otherwise wed still be stuck at 2TB.
    Partition size limitation There are actually two ways around this. The first way is to
    convert your disks to dynamic disks and create volume sets. This functionality has been
    around since Windows 2000. This doesnt really allow you to increase the partition
    size. What it does is give you the ability to chain your partitions together to form larger
    volumes. So I could use two drives of 2TB and create a volume of roughly 4TB in size.
    The second method to bypass the partition size limitation is to use a GPT (Guid Partition
    Table) configuration. In Windows 2003 SP1 Microsoft introduced its implementation of
    the GPT. A disk configured to be GPT rather than the MBR style would have a 32 sector
    partition array instead of a tiny 64 byte partition table.
    NOTE: 32 sectors is equal to 16,384 bytes
    The partitions that can be defined on a GPT disk can be up to 16EB in size.
    Number of clusters There really isnt a way around this limitation. NTFS is currently
    still limited in its number of clusters. However, you can get past 2TB by making sure
    your cluster size is larger than the minimum size of 512 bytes.
    It is important to note that for the most part, if you create a FAT partition and then
    convert it to NTFS the cluster size will come out as 512 bytes. There are ways around
    this but most of them require that you know ahead of time that you are going to be
    converting your FAT partition to NTFS.
    SCSI goo There isnt anything in Windows you can do to get around the limitation of
    Read10/Write10 as Windows is already able to use Read16/Write16. However, the
    hardware MUST support it as well. Windows will query the storage devices and
    negotiate if Read10/Write10 or Read16/Write16 is to be used. When in doubt, check
    with your storage vendor.

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