2.2 TB HDD limit
The problem with deploying > 2.2 TB drives relates to MBR and BIOS limitations
64B MBR table use 32 bits mode to adress 4 primary partitions in 16KB block and with 512 bits sector the limit of adressing is in formula:
2^32 x 512= 4 294 967 296 x 512 = 2 199 023 255 552 (= 2.2TB)
This is a hard-drive addressing scheme found in legacy BIOSs and operating systems
2 indicates binary, 32 is the number of bits allowed in a legacy disk address, and 512 is the number of bytes in a legacy hard-drive data block.
[In GPT => LBA adress is coded in 64 bits: 2^64 x 512 = 9.4 ZB (8 ZiB)]
Microsoft chose not to implement support for anything larger than 2.2TB drives in any of its 32-bit consumer operating systems
You can find drivers and utilities that allow you to use a 3TB drive as auxiliary storage with any flavor of Windows, XP or later.
but you can boot Windows from a 3TB drive start of64-bit Vista or 64-bit Windows 7--and then, only if you have a PC with an EFI/UEFI BIOS.
EFI is Intel's Extensible Firmware Interface, and UEFI (United EFI) is the nonproprietary version based on the 1.10 EFI spec.
The EFI technology component that allows the full utilization of drives greater than 2.2TB is called the GPT, or the GUID (Globally Unique IDentifier) Partition Table.
GPT replaces the older MBR (Master Boot Record) scheme (which is subject to the 2.2TB limit) and allows partitions of up to 9.2 zettabytes (2^70)
Hard Disk adressing
CHS (cylinder-head-sector) scheme, where blocks were addressed by means of a tuple which defined the cylinder, head, and sector at which they appeared on the hard disk.
CHS did not map well to devices other than hard disks (such as tapes and networked storage), and was generally not used for them.
CHS was used in early MFM and RLL drives, and both it and its successor Extended Cylinder-Head-Sector (ECHS) were used in the first ATA drives.
Current disk drives use zone bit recording, where the number of sectors per track depends on the track number. Even though the disk drive will report some CHS values as sectors per track (SPT) and heads per cylinder (HPC), they have little to do with the disk drive's true geometry.
The LBA (Logical block addressing) scheme replaces earlier schemes which exposed the physical details of the storage device to the software of the operating system.
CHS (cylinder/head/sector) tuples can be mapped to LBA address with the special formula
LBA 28 bits => limit 137 GB (128 GiB)
LBA 48 bits (2003) => limit 144 PB (128 PiB)
Hard Drive Size Limitations and Barriers (history)
64B MBR table use 32 bits mode to adress 4 primary partitions in 16KB block and with 512 bits sector the limit of adressing is in formula:
2^32 x 512= 4 294 967 296 x 512 = 2 199 023 255 552 (= 2.2TB)
This is a hard-drive addressing scheme found in legacy BIOSs and operating systems
2 indicates binary, 32 is the number of bits allowed in a legacy disk address, and 512 is the number of bytes in a legacy hard-drive data block.
[In GPT => LBA adress is coded in 64 bits: 2^64 x 512 = 9.4 ZB (8 ZiB)]
Microsoft chose not to implement support for anything larger than 2.2TB drives in any of its 32-bit consumer operating systems
You can find drivers and utilities that allow you to use a 3TB drive as auxiliary storage with any flavor of Windows, XP or later.
but you can boot Windows from a 3TB drive start of64-bit Vista or 64-bit Windows 7--and then, only if you have a PC with an EFI/UEFI BIOS.
EFI is Intel's Extensible Firmware Interface, and UEFI (United EFI) is the nonproprietary version based on the 1.10 EFI spec.
The EFI technology component that allows the full utilization of drives greater than 2.2TB is called the GPT, or the GUID (Globally Unique IDentifier) Partition Table.
GPT replaces the older MBR (Master Boot Record) scheme (which is subject to the 2.2TB limit) and allows partitions of up to 9.2 zettabytes (2^70)
While Windows systems suffer from the MBR's constraints, Macs and 64-bit Linux machines have no issues using or booting from 3TB drives.
Most 32-bit Linux distributions also support 3TB drives, without requiring an EFI/UEFI .Hard Disk adressing
CHS (cylinder-head-sector) scheme, where blocks were addressed by means of a tuple which defined the cylinder, head, and sector at which they appeared on the hard disk.
CHS did not map well to devices other than hard disks (such as tapes and networked storage), and was generally not used for them.
CHS was used in early MFM and RLL drives, and both it and its successor Extended Cylinder-Head-Sector (ECHS) were used in the first ATA drives.
Current disk drives use zone bit recording, where the number of sectors per track depends on the track number. Even though the disk drive will report some CHS values as sectors per track (SPT) and heads per cylinder (HPC), they have little to do with the disk drive's true geometry.
The LBA (Logical block addressing) scheme replaces earlier schemes which exposed the physical details of the storage device to the software of the operating system.
CHS (cylinder/head/sector) tuples can be mapped to LBA address with the special formula
LBA 28 bits => limit 137 GB (128 GiB)
LBA 48 bits (2003) => limit 144 PB (128 PiB)
Hard Drive Size Limitations and Barriers (history)