nt partition limit?

Printable View

May 21st, 2002, 07:38 AM
fathead

nt partition limit?

help refresh my memory...i have a nt workstation with a 25 gb hard drive. the first (c:) partition is 2 gb and the second is 23 gb. I need to repartition the first to make it bigger. What is the max that I can make it...and will partition magic resize it...both partitions are ntfs
May 21st, 2002, 08:01 AM
jfesler

I believe the max partition size is 4GB.
May 21st, 2002, 08:08 AM
fathead

so I can make the boot partition 4 gb and any other partition can be as large as I need...???
May 21st, 2002, 08:21 AM
kato

<a href="http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q224526" target="_blank">http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q224526</a>

From this article, it sounds like if you create the partition using NT4 setup, it will make it 4GB, but if using a 3rd party (partition magic) you should be able to use 8GB of system partition.
May 21st, 2002, 08:38 AM
nytiger73

In addition, the first partition need to be formatted NTFS to have it any larger than 2GB. As this is the theoretical limit of the FAT16 file system.

The first partition can be no larger than 4GB when formatted using the NT setup program. I have not tried making it bigger using a third party utility.

The second partition and subsequent ones can then be as large as you want (terabytes)
May 21st, 2002, 11:14 AM
Gabriel

A. on some Windows NT installation you can get FAT16 up to 4Gb (it is unreasoble because the cluster size is very problematic).
B. resizing partitions using PM - depends on the Disk geomtry and System specs.

anyway - backup data.

Good Luck
Gabriel
May 21st, 2002, 11:26 AM
Matridom

when installing the OS, yoru limit is 4 gig for the boot partition. Make it NTFS then stretch it the full drive size with PQmagic.. just backup before hand. I've run NT4.0 on a 20 gig 1 partition without issues.

The installation issue stems from the fact that NT cannot creat an NTFS partition from the OSloader, so it creats a fat partition then converts it to NTFS on first reboot.

hope it helps.
May 21st, 2002, 07:14 PM
fathead

thanks for all the advice...i'll be doing this next week.
May 28th, 2002, 12:30 PM
FatalException0E

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Matridom:


The installation issue stems from the fact that NT cannot creat an NTFS partition from the OSloader, so it creats a fat partition then converts it to NTFS on first reboot.

<hr /></blockquote>I was wondering about that limit....
Dang, where else are ya gonna find so much esoteric knowledge in so small a number of users? :)
May 28th, 2002, 12:46 PM
silencio

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Gabriel:
A. on some Windows NT installation you can get FAT16 up to 4Gb (it is unreasoble because the cluster size is very problematic).
B. resizing partitions using PM - depends on the Disk geomtry and System specs.

anyway - backup data.

Good Luck
Gabriel<hr /></blockquote>Ditto.

I'd backup both of your partitions, then reinstall NT with a 4gig NTFS partition and leave the rest of the space unpartitioned.

Then I'd run partition or server magic to increase your primary partition, then see if you can get NT to boot with an 8gig partition.

If that works, use NT to create an extended partition on the end of the drive and format it. Again, make sure everything works and you don't get any blue screens.

If it all works, restore your partitions with ghost. There's an option to resize when you run the image back to the machine. If it won't work then I've wasted 5 minutes typing.

I've seen 8 gig partitions. Damn HP would do that to their netservers. It was built right into the "HP" server setup CDs. That made it a nightmare if something broke because you can't run a paralell install or even a fresh intstall into an existing directory when the primary partition is 8 gig. It's no wonder Compaq has all the server market share.
May 29th, 2002, 02:00 AM
Gabriel

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by iateyourcat:
[QBIf it won't work then I've wasted 5 minutes typing...
[/QB]<hr /></blockquote>LOL!
:D
May 29th, 2002, 03:05 AM
Matridom

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by iateyourcat:
 <blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Gabriel:
A. on some Windows NT installation you can get FAT16 up to 4Gb (it is unreasoble because the cluster size is very problematic).
B. resizing partitions using PM - depends on the Disk geomtry and System specs.

anyway - backup data.

Good Luck
Gabriel<hr /></blockquote>Ditto.

I'd backup both of your partitions, then reinstall NT with a 4gig NTFS partition and leave the rest of the space unpartitioned.

Then I'd run partition or server magic to increase your primary partition, then see if you can get NT to boot with an 8gig partition.

If that works, use NT to create an extended partition on the end of the drive and format it. Again, make sure everything works and you don't get any blue screens.

If it all works, restore your partitions with ghost. There's an option to resize when you run the image back to the machine. If it won't work then I've wasted 5 minutes typing.

I've seen 8 gig partitions. Damn HP would do that to their netservers. It was built right into the "HP" server setup CDs. That made it a nightmare if something broke because you can't run a paralell install or even a fresh intstall into an existing directory when the primary partition is 8 gig. It's no wonder Compaq has all the server market share.<hr /></blockquote>The simplest, easiest, safest and fastest way to do it is to take your hard drive, put it into another NT boxe(cannot be 2k/xp). Create your partition in the gui, then take the drive out and put it on the new system. Then proceed with the OS installation.