What Is MBR Maximum Size [Complete & Concise Guide]

If your hard drives are already using the MBR partition style or you're considering converting your hard drives to MBR, there are a few things you should know first.

This article reveals everything you need to know about MBR, its maximum size, and more – keep reading!

What is the MBR Maximum Size?

Master Boot Record, also referred to as MBR, is a partition style that employs traditional BIOS partition tables for storing data on a hard disk or an SSD. The MBR partition scheme supports drives with a maximum capacity of 2 TB.

For example, if your drive is larger than 2 TB, such as 3 TB, only the first 2 TB will be accessible. The remaining part of the drive will appear as "Unallocated."

You can click on the following links to learn more about this issue:

Additionally, an MBR disk can be divided into four primary partitions, that is, three primary partitions along with one extended partition.

And if you’re wondering why MBR supports only 2 TB, it’s because a hard disk uses 512-byte sectors.

The number of addressing bits in the MBR determines the maximum size of the disk it can support. With 32 bits used for addressing in MBR, the addressable range for the hard disk is 2^32, which equals 4 gigabytes (GB). Given that each sector on the drive is 512 bytes, the capacity of an MBR disk is calculated as 4GB * 512 bytes = 2 terabytes (TB).

To address the limitations of MBR, the GPT (GUID Partition Table) was introduced. Unlike MBR, a GPT disk does not have these limitations and is utilized by both Microsoft and Apple.

MBR Maximum Size VS GPT

Therefore, the maximum disk size for GPT is 9,400,000,000 terabytes, whereas for MBR, it is 2 terabytes. MBR allows for 4 primary partitions, while GPT supports up to 128 partitions. There are numerous other differences between the two as well.

IBM introduced MBR in 1983 to support the 10 MB hard disk of their then-brand-new IBM Personal Computer XT. In contrast, GPT was introduced by Intel.

Since GPT is technically superior to MBR, and Intel has been the default chip manufacturer for both Apple and Microsoft for many years, both Apple and Microsoft utilize GPT partitioning on their disks.

Therefore, if your hard drive or SSD employs the MBR partition scheme and you wish to convert it to GPT, proceed to our next section to learn how. Before proceeding, review the table below to understand the distinctions between MBR and GPT.

If you wish to learn more about the differences between an MBR disk and a GPT disk, here's a link for you:

MBR VS GPT | What's the Difference and Which Is Better

To determine which partitioning scheme to use, it's essential to grasp the basics of MBR and GPT.

Now, let's learn how to break through the limits of an MBR disk.

How to Break the MBR Maximum Size Limit:

For Windows PCs, you can effortlessly convert your hard drive or SSD from MBR to GPT partition style using the tools Partition Master Professional. This user-friendly tool simplifies your life by handling all your disk management requirements with just a few clicks.

Using the Partition Master tool, you can create or delete partitions with various file system types, merge or expand partitions, copy the operating system and your files to other drives, resize, format, or wipe unallocated space, and perform many more operations.

Here are a few remarkable features of the Partition Master tool:

• Hide/Unhide partitions
• Clone System Partitions
• Convert NTFS to FAT32 and vice versa
• Change the cluster size, such as exFAT allocation unit size and NTFS allocation unit size

If you are someone who has been searching for a tool that unleashes the potential of your drive and grants you control over it, Partition Master should be your go-to option.

Conclusion

In simple terms, MBR is an outdated partition style with numerous limitations that render it unsuitable for contemporary usage. Thankfully, you can transform the partition style from MBR to GPT; however, doing so can be somewhat challenging using the conventional tools provided by Microsoft.

This is why we recommend using tools like Partition Master to convert MBR to GPT in just a few seconds.

Frequently Asked Questions About MBR Maximum Size

Here are responses to some questions that should clarify any remaining queries about the maximum size of MBRs, if you have any.

1. Should an SSD be formatted as GPT or MBR?

SSDs can utilize both GPT and MBR formats, but it is recommended to use GPT over MBR due to its limitations.

2. Can an SSD use MBR?

If the capacity of the SSD is 2 TB or less, of course, you can use the MBR partition on it.

< strong > 3. Can I use MBR on a 3TB drive? < /strong >

You can, but only 2 TB will be considered "allocated" space and thus usable. The remaining 1 TB will not be visible in Disk Management and cannot be utilized.