Max Partition Size in NT 4.0 Server

[sennister]

What is the limit on the primary partition when installing NT 4.0 Server? I thought it was 2GB a coworker was thinking 4GB. NT 4.0 Server was installed on a 2GB partition and then SP 6a was applied to the install. I then used Partition Magic to resize the partion to 4GB but noticed I went a little over. The system ended up being 4.1GB. Since everything seemed to work fine I resized again to 5.59GB to see what would happen. I really thought there was a max on the size on the primary partition. I don't know if SP6a fixed the max size or what is going on. Does anyone know what the max size is or if SP6a fixes this. Thanks

[zypr]

The max partition size is 2048m, (2 gig) for the installation because that is the physical limitation that DOS can see. After the install you can extend the partition to whatever size you would like.

[sennister]

Thanks. That explains it. I thought there was something about a 2GB limit. I have worked more with 2000 pro and server than the older NT 4.0 machines. Thanks again for your quick reply.

[Mike Turley]

Originally posted by zypr:
<STRONG>The max partition size is 2048m, (2 gig) for the installation because that is the physical limitation that DOS can see.</STRONG>

NT always formats the drive during install as FAT and coverts it after the first boot to NTFS (if you selected NTFS). DOS/Win9x has a 2GB limit on FAT partitions, but NT allows up to 4GB.
Windows 2000 can use FAT32 so there isn't the 4GB limit during the install.

[kingtbone]

I thought the max limit for NTFS after the whole install process was 2TB, maybe not

[ShadowKing]

Originally posted by kingtbone:
<STRONG>I thought the max limit for NTFS after the whole install process was 2TB, maybe not</STRONG>

He's right. NTFS will support up to a 2TB partition size.

However, Windows NT will only let you install with a 4GB partition.