What is the drive space limitation of FAT 32?

[ghetto buck]

I ask this because i'm about to RAID (stripe) a couple of wd 45 gig (5400 ) drives which will give me a gargantua 90 gig drive using a modded promise 66. Also any advice on setting everything up and converting the promise 66.

edit: while i'm on the subject since I will be using win2k on my 90 gig and have a seperate 30 gig for my 98 drive (this was acting as a 2 partition dual boot before i got my 2 45's) do you recommend NTFS and why. What advantages does NTFS have for a user where security isn't a big issue and what are the drive space limitations of NTFS.

 

[Mark R]

The limit is bigger than will be relevant for the forseeable future.

It's something like 130,000 GB

 

[ghetto buck]

Thanks Mark R,

There's wee and there's not so wee, but that is FRIGGIN HUGE! I remember the space limit of FAT 16 was only 512 meg so I guess someone got their act together.

edit: "my bad" hehe. Zach is correct it is a 2 gig limit for FAT 16, I don't want to contaminate any one else with false info

 

[Zach]

FAT16 was 2 gigs..

 

[culex]

From Microsoft KB #255867,

"FAT32: This file system supports drives up to 2 terabytes in size and stores files on smaller sections of the hard disk than does the FAT16 file system. This results in more free space on the hard disk. The FAT32 file system does not support drives smaller than 512 MB."

 

[ghetto buck]

Was it 2 gigs? I remember some kind of problem with drives over 512 megs.

Thanks for the info fella's any suggestions on the RAID setup would also be appreciated.

 

[AndyHui]

OK....here are the limitations for FAT32:

1. Clusters cannot be 64 kilobytes (KB) or larger. If clusters were 64 KB or larger, some programs (such as Setup programs) might calculate disk space incorrectly.

2. A volume must contain at least 65,527 clusters to use the FAT32 file system. You cannot increase the cluster size on a volume using the FAT32 file system so that it ends up with less than 65,527 clusters.

3. The maximum possible number of clusters on a volume using the FAT32 file system is 268,435,445. With a maximum of 32 KB per cluster with space for the file allocation table (FAT), this equates to a maximum disk size of approximately 8 terabytes (TB).

4. The ScanDisk tool included with Microsoft Windows 95 and Microsoft Windows 98 is a 16-bit program. Such programs have a single memory block maximum allocation size of 16 MB less 64 KB. Therefore, The Windows 95/98 ScanDisk tool cannot process volumes using the FAT32 file system that have a FAT larger than 16 MB less 64 KB in size. A FAT entry on a volume using the FAT32 file system uses 4 bytes, so ScanDisk cannot process the FAT on a volume using the FAT32 file system that defines more than 4,177,920 clusters (including the two reserved clusters). Including the FATs themselves, this works out, at the maximum of 32 KB per cluster, to a volume size of 127.53 gigabytes (GB).

5. You cannot decrease the cluster size on a volume using the FAT32 file system so that the FAT ends up larger than 16 MB less 64 KB in size.

6. You cannot format a volume larger than 32 GB in size using the FAT32 file system in Windows 2000. The Windows 2000 FastFAT driver can mount and support volumes larger than 32 GB that use the FAT32 file system (subject to the other limits), but you cannot create one using the Format tool. This behaviour is by design. If you need to create a volume larger than 32 GB, use the NTFS file system instead.

 

[ghetto buck]

AndyHui,

:Q Wow! :Q Thanks man that's some tasty info. So according to #6 I need to go with NTFS eh? That's alright 30 gig's is plenty for my 98 partition since I rarely use it. The only reason I was even curious is that my 30 gig (Quantum 7200rpm) drive is somewhat loud and since I would need my mp3's to be accesible from both 98 and 2000 I would need to put them on the FAT 32 drive. Still it's quite clear that NTFS is the superior FS so I might as well get away from FAT while the gettin is good.

 

[noxipoo]

in practical terms, fat32 is 32gigs and yep, NTFS is superior, thats why its replacing FAT, FAT32 in 2001

 

[AndyHui]

Well, there's nothing stopping you from creating a number of partitions that are smaller than 32GB. That woud solve your problem. You do not need to have just 1 partition for the drive/volume.

Practical limits for NTFS is 2 Terrabytes....theoretical limit is actually somewhere in the vicinity of 4 exabytes......erm....I'm not too surehow big an exabyte is, but I do know that it is huge.

Keep in mind that Win98 cannot access an NTFS partition without 3rd party drivers.

 

[DaddyG]

Ghetto,

The 512mb limitation was due the the way that the BIOS addressed the cylinder, head, and sector of the drive. Logical Block Addressing (LBA) mode fixed this. Next came the 2gig FAT 16 limitation. Following on came the 8 gig limit of the 24bit addressing of cyl,hd,sector. Int13 BIOS extensions add 4 more bits to total 28 giving 128gig of addressing.

 

[SUOrangeman]

Ghetto-

You misread the post by Andy.

You can create on 90GB FAT32 that will work with Win2K. You just can't make such a volume while in Win2K. You *must* create it wil something else (Partition Magic, Ranish, etc.). WIn2K will read larger FAT32 volumes just fine.

BTW, I also got one of those 45GB numbers and currently use it as a single FAT32 volume.

-SUO

 

[MasterMind]

Microsoft Product Support



Promise has a better explanation on setting up a FAT32 partition larger than 64 GB using the MS update. Something about using % instead of actual size. Their site seems to be down though.

 

[Sunner]

one exabyte is 1 million terrabytes, or 1.000.000.000 gigabytes.
Should last you a while eh?

 

[ghetto buck]

Thanks for the help guys, that's why this board is my home page.

DaddyG - Thank you! I knew there was something with 512 megs. That was driving me nuts.

SUOrangeman - That makes more sense to me, considering all the huge drives coming out 32 gigs seemed pretty low.

Sunner - Dang if 1 exabyte is 1 million terrabytes then what comes in between?


Thanks again for the help, already have my Promise 66 ordered.

 

[ghetto buck]

Almost forgot I've decided to go NTFS. Just makes more sense and I read you don't have to run scandisk, that's all it took

 

[Sunner]

1000 MB = 1 GB
1000 GB = 1 TB
1000 TB = 1 PB(Petabyte)
1000 PB = 1 EB(Exabyte)
After that there are a few more units with names, cant remember, they're based of old greek letters, I believe one is something along the lines of Zetabyte after the letter "Zeta", and the one after that is based of "Iota", dont know if that makes it an "Iotabyte" though

Dont know if there are even more after those...