How to Break Windows 10 Hard Drive Limit without Data Loss?
Is there a limit to hard drives in Windows 10?
In Windows 10, you may find your hard drive is always less than 2TB no matter how larger the hard drive is. In general, the traditional hard disks are always using 512B sector while the new disks use 4K sector. Taking compatibility into consideration, most systems emulate a 4K physical sector to 512B sectors.
Now, I will take 512 bytes as an example to count the capacity of a hard drive:
►In MBR(Master Boot Record), the maximum hard disk size in windows = 2^32*512 = 2TB. (32 is the number of bits allowed in a legacy disk address)
►In GPT(GUID Partition Table), the maximum hard drive disk size in windows = 2^64*512=94EB. (64 is the number of bits allowed in a UEFI disk address)
Note: The capacity of a hard disk depends on the number of logical sectors within the device, the size of each logical sector and the bits and bytes information of system which can represent sector amounts.
Windows 10 2TB limit and its cause
A large amount of users regard the operating system as the reason why windows 10 has 2 TB limit. But It's not the real reason. In reality, the reason is the partitioning scheme you use to define the disks. If you use MBR, you will have the 2 TB limit problem. However, if you employ GPT disk, you will not have the problem. The capacity of GPT disk can be up to 9.4 EB and even larger.
Sure-fire way to fix Windows 10 hard drive limit without data loss
Want to fix the maximum hard drive limit in Windows 10 completely, I recommend you a free partition manager, Qiling Disk Master Standard. With it, you can convert MBR to GPT disk without data loss. Free download it and you just need the follow the detailed steps below.
Step 1. Click the disk you want to convert and select Convert to GPT.
Step 2. Wait a while for the Disk master convert the partition to GPT.
✍Tips:
● If the file system of your hard drive is FAT32, you can convert FAT32 to NTFS. Compared with an FAT32 file system, the NTFS own a better performance which can let your computer works better.
● If you need to convert a disk that contains OS from MBR to GPT, please upgrade to Qiling Disk Master Professional.
Summary
Windows 10 hard drive limit depends on partitioning scheme. Different partioning scheme has different capacity. The MBR disk can support 2TB at most. But the GPT disk can support 94EB, even more.
Thus, if you want to fix this problem completely, you can convet MBR to GPT disk with a usful software like Qiling Disk Master. Besides, this software still can fix other problems you may meet, including the extend volume is disabled, low disk space, GPT protective partition, the selected disk is of the GPT partition style,
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