Drive Size and File System

[extreme]

windows XP NTFS File system can handel how much drive size and what file system should be choosen for all drives when harddisk has windows XP installed

[GX1_Man]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS

[bayern]

Speaking of which, I don't get this,

"Maximum Volume Size
In theory, the maximum NTFS volume size is 2\64-1 clusters. However, the maximum NTFS volume size as implemented in Windows XP Professional is 2\32-1 clusters. For example, using 64 KiB clusters, the maximum NTFS volume size is 256 TiB minus 64 KiB. Using the default cluster size of 4 KiB, the maximum NTFS volume size is 16 TiB minus 4 KiB. Because partition tables on master boot record (MBR) disks only support partition sizes up to 2 TiB, you must use dynamic volumes to create NTFS volumes over 2 TiB."

When I tried o install WinXP pro in NTFS on my 300G hd, it only recognizes 127G, I had to use the format disk that came with Seagate to get it to recognize 300G then copy the system from the master drive  using a Seagate utility, what am I missing?

B.

[GX1_Man]

Is this XP Pro with SP2 already on it?

[bayern]

O, I kinda circumnavigated it. When I bought the 300G, I was going to use it as a slave for storage. I set it up as the slave on my WinXP pro SP2 machine. WinXP can only format 127G of it, so I used the utility Seagate provided, afterward WinXP recognised it as 300G. Then a scary thought came across my mind: what if the master fails? I better install an OS on the slave just in case. So I yanked out the master and set the 300G drive as the master, tried to install XP on it, XP said it can only format 127G. (I did not partition it, I just want a whole big chunk of disk space.) Then I found out Seagate also has an utility to copy files from another drive. So I went back to set the 300G drive as the slave and boot the PC up with the original master drive. Used the Seagate utility again to make it 300G recognisable to XP, then used the other utility to copy the entire XP to the 300G drive. It's kinda circuitous. Sorry this is so long, hope I explain it clearly.

I tested it and it works. All I need to do, in case of disaster, is to set the 300G drive as master and it will boot up with all my data intact.

I read a lot about file system and almost every article has the same answer that NTFS is capable of  up to 2T or 4T but I am not sure why WinXP doesn't support it. What am I missing here. I keep my XP updated all the time, is there some tricks in WinXP I am missing?

B.