F5F Stay Refreshed Hardware Desktop Windows 10/11 only allows drives up to 4TB for booting.

Windows 10/11 only allows drives up to 4TB for booting.

Windows 10/11 only allows drives up to 4TB for booting.

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Bowling_Beast
Member
200
03-02-2021, 08:50 PM
#1
Recently, I upgraded my storage by purchasing a Samsung 990 PRO 4TB NVMe drive. Initially, I intended to use it as the primary bootable drive during Windows 11 installation. After completing the setup, I discovered that two terabytes of my four-terabyte drive remained unallocated. Despite formatting and reinstalling the OS, I encountered issues where Windows only recognized the first two terabytes and left the rest unassigned. I wondered if there’s a limitation in Windows regarding the boot drive size.
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Bowling_Beast
03-02-2021, 08:50 PM #1

Recently, I upgraded my storage by purchasing a Samsung 990 PRO 4TB NVMe drive. Initially, I intended to use it as the primary bootable drive during Windows 11 installation. After completing the setup, I discovered that two terabytes of my four-terabyte drive remained unallocated. Despite formatting and reinstalling the OS, I encountered issues where Windows only recognized the first two terabytes and left the rest unassigned. I wondered if there’s a limitation in Windows regarding the boot drive size.

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Dephunkpunk_2
Senior Member
484
03-05-2021, 11:15 PM
#2
Check if NTFS is being used with a 512 byte cluster. This will limit storage to 2 TB per partition. Consider changing the cluster size to 4 KB for more space.
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Dephunkpunk_2
03-05-2021, 11:15 PM #2

Check if NTFS is being used with a 512 byte cluster. This will limit storage to 2 TB per partition. Consider changing the cluster size to 4 KB for more space.

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Askir152
Member
63
03-06-2021, 12:22 AM
#3
I utilized solid-state drives up to 16 TB for boot purposes on certain configurations. I believe NVMe doesn't impose any unique restrictions either.
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Askir152
03-06-2021, 12:22 AM #3

I utilized solid-state drives up to 16 TB for boot purposes on certain configurations. I believe NVMe doesn't impose any unique restrictions either.

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IAmKillerham
Senior Member
252
03-06-2021, 02:04 AM
#4
Ensure BIOS settings disable CSM.
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IAmKillerham
03-06-2021, 02:04 AM #4

Ensure BIOS settings disable CSM.

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augustb19907
Senior Member
456
03-06-2021, 02:43 AM
#5
I gave up and returned to my original 512GB storage for booting, while the 4TB drive is connected to my second M.2 port. Lucky I have two M.2 slots!
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augustb19907
03-06-2021, 02:43 AM #5

I gave up and returned to my original 512GB storage for booting, while the 4TB drive is connected to my second M.2 port. Lucky I have two M.2 slots!