hdd size limit

[NoWinBob]

I am using Mint 21 on a tower.I,m wondering if there is a size limit for storage hdd.I think I remember reading that there is a 2tb limit for linux.Am I dreaming?I want to back up lots of uncompressed video on the machine instead of using multiple external drives.

[gittiest personITW]

I've got a 6TB drive in and there is no problem. There most likely is a limit, but it is a limit that won't be reached for at least a couple of decades.

[rene]

The 2T thing is a limit of old, MBR-style partitioning (and of FAT filesystems) and not to do with Linux. For GPT-style partitioning there's no practical limit (and e.g. ext4 supports 1E = 1M x 1T)

[Petermint]

FAT had a limit because the block index and other things were 16 bit. Then there was 32 bit FAT. Now there is exFAT witch is extremely FAT.

You see that with SD cards where they have to have the right FAT content.

Old versions of some operating systems are 32 bit and some software is 32 bit. You get a limit of 2 billion for signed 32 bit integer or 4 billion for unsigned 32 bit integer. That might lead to some limit like being only able to plug in 4 billion USB disks.

Ext4 is bigger than any known disk and bigger than all the disks in most computer rooms when they are all put together in a giant RAID array.