Does Windows 7 cap the size of a hard drive?

[Disney Addicted]

Before I purchase an external hard drive, I have a question.

A few years ago Windows had limits on how much hard drive space it would recoganize. Does it anymore? I would like to purchase a 3 TB hard drive but need to find out if Windows 7 will recoganize it.

 

[mcorbo]

Before I purchase an external hard drive, I have a question.

A few years ago Windows had limits on how much hard drive space it would recoganize. Does it anymore? I would like to purchase a 3 TB hard drive but need to find out if Windows 7 will recoganize it.

It's not as simple as windows recognizing it, any drive greater than 2tb can be used as a data drive, but not a boot drive in Windows 7. In order to use a drive greater than 2TB as a boot drive, you would need to have the 64 bit version of windows 7 and a motherboard and bios that support it. There is much more information here:

http://www.hgst.com/tech/techlib.nsf/techdocs/869E4925CC72E233862577E100235119/$file/Deskstar_3TB_FAQ_finalwebv2.pdf

 

[Disney Addicted]

It's not as simple as windows recognizing it, any drive greater than 2tb can be used as a data drive, but not a boot drive in Windows 7. In order to use a drive greater than 2TB as a boot drive, you would need to have the 64 bit version of windows 7 and a motherboard and bios that support it. There is much more information here:

http://www.hgst.com/tech/techlib.nsf/techdocs/869E4925CC72E233862577E100235119/$file/Deskstar_3TB_FAQ_finalwebv2.pdf

Thank you mcorbo. I want to use it purely as a data drive. I'll take a look at the article you linked.

 

[jedijill]

Thank you mcorbo. I want to use it purely as a data drive. I'll take a look at the article you linked.

You should be fine. I run a Drobo drive as an external HD with a capacity of 7TB and Windows 7 has no issues with it.

Jill in CO