2

We have a legacy 32-bit application that is running on Windows Server 2012 R2 64-bit. I need to add some additional storage but one of my peers believes that 32-bit software can't access a partition drive larger than 2 TB. Aside from any OS limits, is anyone aware of any partition size limits for 32-bit applications?

1 Answer 1

3

The application doesn't have to know about the size of the volume.

However, if the application developer wrote the app in such a way that is does care, then you could have a problem. For example, if the app asks the OS for the amount of free space and the app interprets more than 2 TB of free space as a negative number, then it could refuse to write the file, or report a strange number, or crash, or write a corrupt file.

2
  • It should be emphasized that this will only happen if the application is buggy, and could happen just as easily to a 64-bit application. The age of the application, not the bitness, is probably more indicative of whether large volumes are likely to confuse it or not. Jun 13, 2018 at 21:39
  • Also keep in mind that 32bit applications are not forbidden from understanding numbers larger than 32bit, they just can't do it "natively". Lots of APIs in Windows from before 64bit CPUs existed needed this, they just take two 32bit integers (usually one is designated as high and one as low), so it's just more work to deal with, but certainly possible. Storage is a prime example, disk arrays and SANs aren't new, a 32bit OS and therefore applications can definitely deal with large sizes, it just takes more care.
    – briantist
    Jun 16, 2018 at 14:04

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .