Question about 2TB limit

[Nunya]

I've read up on the 2TB limit and have a question for the storage gurus. I currently have 4 1.5TB drives on a 3Ware 9500S in RAID5 for 4.5TB usable space, formatted NTFS. This is on my file server running 2003 X64. I set this up before reading about the 2TB limit, and now I'm wondering why I don't have any problems. Below is a screenshot with what I've got. Just curious if anyone can tell me why I haven't had to format the partition GPT.

 

[iluvdeal]

Are you sure it's not already using GPT? GPT is not a file system type so it's not going to say GPT, it'll still use NTFS as the file system.

 

[RebateMonger]

Look in Disk Management and see what it says about that virtual disk. I believe that Server 2003 x64 can handle GPT disks as non-bootable disks.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I thought NTFS had a 256TB limit?

 

[RebateMonger]

I thought NTFS had a 256TB limit?

The problem isn't NTFS. It's MBR partitioning, which is limited to 2 TB partitions and 2 TB disks.

Edited:
As Virtual Larry points out below, my original statement about multiple 2 TB partitions being possible on a single MBR disk was incorrect.

I was thinking "virtual disks" and RAID arrays, rather than real disks. You can create multiple 2 TB virtual disks on a large RAID array and you should be able to partition each of those virtual disks with MBR.

 

[VirtualLarry]

The problem isn't NTFS. It's MBR partitioning, which is limited to 2 TB partitions. To use that 4 TB virtual disk, you'd have to create two MBR partitions of 2 TB each.

Not exactly. MBR is limited to 2TB total, for all partitions. So with a 4TB disk, only 2TB would be usable at all. You wouldn't be able to create two 2TB partitions.

 

[Nunya]

Thanks for the responses. I checked and it is already GPT. From what I read I assumed it was something I would have to do manually, not something it would do automatically, but guess I was wrong. I appreciate the info.