What is this 2TB ceiling?

[aimeeandbeatles]

My new 3 terabyte hard drive should be arriving this week. Anyways I told an online friend about it and they said something about a 2 TB ceiling. So I googled it and ended up very confused.

The setup I'm doing is use my current 500 GB hard drive for the system/boot partition, and the 3 TB for the data stuff. But then I read stuff like this and I can't figure out what they're saying:
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/ask_doctor/why_2tb_ceiling
http://blogs.technet.com/b/askcore/...anding-the-2-tb-limit-in-windows-storage.aspx

I have a 32 bit version of Windows and not enough resources to upgrade. I actually pretty much already blew my budget with getting the hard drive.

I'm not using it for a boot partition; I'm using the 500 GB for that. I'm not planning any other partitioning other than the two drives and I'm confused. Do I need to worry?

 

[civver_764]

Yeah you should probably upgrade to 64 bit somehow. Basically there's no way for your computer index 3 terabytes of memory "sectors", because it only uses 32 digit binary numbers. You need more digits to have larger indices. Upgrading to 64 bit will let your computer use 64 digit binary numbers.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Unfortunately, as I said, I dont have the resources to do so. Not everyone has a bunch of expendable cash.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

It doesnt matter anymore.... I have to return it and get my money back. Somebody screwed off on paying the bills and it wasnt me.

Because god forbid I have anything of my own.

 

[innonimatu]

Yeah you should probably upgrade to 64 bit somehow. Basically there's no way for your computer index 3 terabytes of memory "sectors", because it only uses 32 digit binary numbers. You need more digits to have larger indices. Upgrading to 64 bit will let your computer use 64 digit binary numbers.

No, it has nothing to do with whether the OS is 32 or 64bit. The problem lies in the PC BIOS. The space reserved in for the partition table in the "mbr" type arrangement of PC disks allows the addressing of only 2^32 sectors, with each sector being 512 bytes that gives a limit of some 2.20TB for the disks.

Some operating systems can work around this limitation even within the mbr partition system. Others can't or won't and demand that a PC support the new UEFI type BIOS with a GUID instead of mbr) partition table which no longer has this limitation

Linux basically supports every possible combination, that support having been freely added over the past few years by interested parties

Microsoft absolutely refuses to update its operating systems in order to support larger disks with the MBR scheme, or even to add support for UEFI BIOS in its older operating systems. Since you have the misfortune of using Windows you'll have to check what disks Microsoft allows you to use with the specific version you have.

 

[Mr.WorldWide]

What on earth do you need a 3TB HDD for?
I hate to sound critical but you say that you have insufficient funds to upgrade to 64 bit OS but you are splurging on 3TB HDD?

The largest HDD I have is 1 TB and the only reason it has more then 70GB of data on it is because I rip the occasional movie to it.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

What on earth do you need a 3TB HDD for?
I hate to sound critical but you say that you have insufficient funds to upgrade to 64 bit OS but you are splurging on 3TB HDD?

The largest HDD I have is 1 TB and the only reason it has more then 70GB of data on it is because I rip the occasional movie to it.

The only reason I got it was because it was on sale for the price of a 2TB. I have a lot of gameplay videos.

It doesn't matter now. I'm not getting any hard drive now. I'm not even going to bother trying again because whatever I do she ruins everything.

 

[wolfigor]

The only reason I got it was because it was on sale for the price of a 2TB. I have a lot of gameplay videos.

It doesn't matter now. I'm not getting any hard drive now. I'm not even going to bother trying again because whatever I do she ruins everything.

it's a pity you cannot get it anymore

Anyway if I understand correctly the problem of 2TB ceiling applies only if you want to boot from such disk.
If you use your 500MB disk for OS and the 3TB for data then you are safe.

 

[Deaths Advocate]

I would suggest saving for the OS first.

 

[civver_764]

No, it has nothing to do with whether the OS is 32 or 64bit. The problem lies in the PC BIOS. The space reserved in for the partition table in the "mbr" type arrangement of PC disks allows the addressing of only 2^32 sectors, with each sector being 512 bytes that gives a limit of some 2.20TB for the disks.

Some operating systems can work around this limitation even within the mbr partition system. Others can't or won't and demand that a PC support the new UEFI type BIOS with a GUID instead of mbr) partition table which no longer has this limitation

Linux basically supports every possible combination, that support having been freely added over the past few years by interested parties

Microsoft absolutely refuses to update its operating systems in order to support larger disks with the MBR scheme, or even to add support for UEFI BIOS in its older operating systems. Since you have the misfortune of using Windows you'll have to check what disks Microsoft allows you to use with the specific version you have.

Heh. I stand corrected.

 

[Narnia]

I don't know anything about this, please correct me if I am (probably) wrong, but couldn't you partition it into two 1.5 TB partitions and then be just fine? Or am I missing something?
Thanks

PS: sorry you had to return the drive, that sucks.
PS: I'm asking this now because I'm still curious of the answer

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Well I did end up getting a 1TB hard drive from a local place in town installed it at a decent price and also cleaned the fans and reseated the DVD drive that I hadn't realized the cable was loose (which made DVD burns stop failing). I forgot that my motherboard is sort of a weird one.

 

[innonimatu]

I don't know anything about this, please correct me if I am (probably) wrong, but couldn't you partition it into two 1.5 TB partitions and then be just fine? Or am I missing something?
Thanks

No, the partition table must hold the sector number for the start and the end of the partition. You would not be able to set the end of the second partition to a value greater than the maximum which can be represented within the mbr table. You'd end up with a 1.5TB partition and a ~0.6TB one.