Windows NT 4 Can't Create An NTFS Partition over 4Gb During Installation

During the text based portion of the NT installation, it is possible to create and format partitions. The maximum size for an NTFS partition is very large (16 exabytes), however the maximum size for a FAT partition under NT is 4GB (2GB under DOS). If you format a partition as NTFS during NT installation, it originally formats it as FAT and then converts it in the final stages of the NT installation, and this you are limited to a maximum partition size of 4GB during the NT installation.

To get around this problem there are several paths of action open to you:

1. Before starting the installation,. insert the disk into an existing NT installation and partition/format the disk using Disk Administrator and then insert the disk into the machine to be installed 2.Partition the disk into smaller partitions, if you had a 5GB disk you could have a 1GB system partition, and a 4GB boot partition.

2. The system partition is the partition NT's core startup files are located, boot.ini, ntldr and ntdetect.com (ntbootdd.sys if SCSI), and will normally be the active partition. The boot partition is the partition that NT stores the rest of its files, i.e. the %systemroot% directory

3. Create a 4GB partition at installation time, and then extend the NTFS partition after installation has completed

4. Start Disk Administrator (Start - Programs - Administrative Tools - Disk Administrator)

5. Select the NTFS partition and holding down the Ctrl key select the unpartitioned space of the rest of the disk

6. From the Partition menu, select Extend Volume Set
Note - You cannot extend a NTFS partition if it is the boot or system partition (as the boot/system partition cannot be part of a volume set)