Question

A user is attempting to format a 4 TB HDD using NTFS but only has the option to format the disk with a size of approximately 2 TB. What is the most likely reason the user is unable to format the disk to its full capacity?

Answer 1

The disk is using the MBR partitioning scheme.

Explanation:

Master Boot Record (MBR) disks use the standard BIOS partition table

The MBR (master boot record) partitioning scheme is a partitioning scheme that limits the number of logical sectors to 32 bits. Therefore the maximum number that can be represented by 32 bits is 2³² (4,294,967,295), which is approximately 2 TB of capacity. Hence MBR partitioning scheme has a limit of 2 TB