Guest Peter Posted September 8, 2007 Posted September 8, 2007 Hi, I am new to XP and just learn that there are at most 4 partitions (primary and extended) for the HD. I would like to know does it mean that does it mean at most there are 4 partitions in a physical HD or the whole system ? If it applies to the whole system, does it mean that at most we can have 4 physical HD ? Peter
Guest Pegasus \(MVP\) Posted September 8, 2007 Posted September 8, 2007 Re: Max Number of Hard Disk(s) Re: Max Number of Hard Disk(s) "Peter" <Peter@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:%23CVW9Wf8HHA.4712@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl... > Hi, > > I am new to XP and just learn that there are at most 4 partitions (primary > and extended) for the HD. I would like to know does it mean that does it > mean at most there are 4 partitions in a physical HD or the whole system ? > > If it applies to the whole system, does it mean that at most we can have 4 > physical HD ? > > Peter > You can have as many hard disks as your controller will support. Each of them can have up to 4 partitions. Each extended partition can have as many drives as there are free letters in the alphabet.
Guest Peter Posted September 8, 2007 Posted September 8, 2007 Re: Max Number of Hard Disk(s) Re: Max Number of Hard Disk(s) Dear Pegasus, Many thanks for your advice. Peter "Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@fly.com> wrote in message news:%23UkTbmf8HHA.1484@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl... > > "Peter" <Peter@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message > news:%23CVW9Wf8HHA.4712@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl... >> Hi, >> >> I am new to XP and just learn that there are at most 4 partitions >> (primary and extended) for the HD. I would like to know does it mean >> that does it mean at most there are 4 partitions in a physical HD or the >> whole system ? >> >> If it applies to the whole system, does it mean that at most we can have >> 4 physical HD ? >> >> Peter >> > > You can have as many hard disks as your controller will support. > Each of them can have up to 4 partitions. Each extended partition > can have as many drives as there are free letters in the alphabet. >
Guest Ken Blake, MVP Posted September 8, 2007 Posted September 8, 2007 Re: Max Number of Hard Disk On Sat, 8 Sep 2007 19:11:07 +1000, "Peter" <Peter@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: > I am new to XP and just learn that there are at most 4 partitions (primary > and extended) for the HD. Yes, however it's worth noting that most of us often use the word "partition" very loosely. You can have multiple *logical drives* within a single extended partition. Each of those logical drives can get its own drive letter, so you can have more than 4 "drives" (which we loosely call "partitions") on a single extended partition. Also note that this is not an XP restriction. It works the same way in other versions of DOS and Windows. > I would like to know does it mean that does it > mean at most there are 4 partitions in a physical HD Yes. The statement you wrote above is correct, as I said. > or the whole system ? No. > If it applies to the whole system, does it mean that at most we can have 4 > physical HD ? No. You can have as many physical drives as your hardware supports. The constraints are support on the motherboard/addin cards, adequate power, and adequate cooling. -- Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User Please Reply to the Newsgroup
Guest Lil' Dave Posted September 9, 2007 Posted September 9, 2007 Re: Max Number of Hard Disk "Peter" <Peter@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:%23CVW9Wf8HHA.4712@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl... > Hi, > > I am new to XP and just learn that there are at most 4 partitions (primary > and extended) for the HD. I would like to know does it mean that does it > mean at most there are 4 partitions in a physical HD or the whole system ? > > If it applies to the whole system, does it mean that at most we can have 4 > physical HD ? > > Peter > The crux is that an extended partition is simply a "container" for logical drives. There is no relation between an extended partition and what XP calls "drives". Under msdos, prior versions of windows, and XP, only 4 partitions per physical hard drive. Those 4 partitions can be all primary, all extended (stupid), any combination. The same rules also apply to external hard drives. Have had 6 hard drives internally at one time. No more would physically fit in the internal area at the bottom of the PC. All the other 6 5.25" bays were full. Dave
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