I like to link to http://toastytech.com/guis/miscb2.html , which shows Windows 95 running on a 500GB disk.

There is a size limit at 137 GB that may require some effort to overcome. I think you need a third-party patch.

Jorpho wrote:

I like to link to http://toastytech.com/guis/miscb2.html , which shows Windows 95 running on a 500GB disk.

There is a size limit at 137 GB that may require some effort to overcome. I think you need a third-party patch.

Thanks for the helpful response! 😀

Galahad wrote:

Hi, was wondering if anyone might know offhand what is the maximum internal hard disk size that Windows Me will accept? On my current classic/retro PC gaming rig, I think I have a 120GB IDE/PATA hard drive installed, which Windows Me accepts with no problems and with the full partition size, so I was thinking about purchasing a few extra backup internal drives for when the existing hard drive starts to go bad or fails. Since my computer accepts the 120GB size, does anyone know if it is possible to go higher, say 250GB or 320GB? My classic gaming box is an HP Vectra VE6 Series 8 Minitower PC, with 384MB RAM and a 333MHz Pentium II processor.

For that hardware, I'd be more worried about what the motherboard BIOS supports than I would with Windows Me. Back in the P2 days, the BIOS limit was usually 137GB. Good luck with your search. I got lucky finding a pair of working 40GB drives for my P2 Win98 rebuild.

FFXIhealer wrote:

Galahad wrote:

Hi, was wondering if anyone might know offhand what is the maximum internal hard disk size that Windows Me will accept? On my current classic/retro PC gaming rig, I think I have a 120GB IDE/PATA hard drive installed, which Windows Me accepts with no problems and with the full partition size, so I was thinking about purchasing a few extra backup internal drives for when the existing hard drive starts to go bad or fails. Since my computer accepts the 120GB size, does anyone know if it is possible to go higher, say 250GB or 320GB? My classic gaming box is an HP Vectra VE6 Series 8 Minitower PC, with 384MB RAM and a 333MHz Pentium II processor.

For that hardware, I'd be more worried about what the motherboard BIOS supports than I would with Windows Me. Back in the P2 days, the BIOS limit was usually 137GB. Good luck with your search. I got lucky finding a pair of working 40GB drives for my P2 Win98 rebuild.

Actually the 137GB limit is purely a function of the ATA interface standard and has nothing to do with the BIOS. The last BIOS limit was the 8.4GB, and 2000-ish motherboards were far over that one.

The 137GB (or 128GiB) limit was due to the LBA28 standard, which was superseded in 2003 by LBA48. There should be OS patches for it.

stamasd wrote:

Actually the 137GB limit is purely a function of the ATA interface standard and has nothing to do with the BIOS. The last BIOS limit was the 8.4GB, and 2000-ish motherboards were far over that one.

The 137GB (or 128GiB) limit was due to the LBA28 standard, which was superseded in 2003 by LBA48. There should be OS patches for it.

some 586 and early 686 boards did have bios limit of 32gb, most of which can be patched to support up to 128gb though, as long as the chipset has lba28 support.

Again many thanks to everyone for all of your valuable replies and input; I very deeply appreciate your help!