During the text-based portion of the NT installation, it is possible to create and format partitions. The maximum size for an NTFS partition is very large (16 exabytes), however the maximum size for a FAT partition under NT is 4GB (2GB under DOS). If you format a partition as NTFS during NT installation, it originally formats it as FAT and then converts it in the final stages of the NT installation, and thus you are limited to a maximum partition size of 4GB during the NT installation.

To get around this limitation one could:

1. Add the drive to a working NT system and use Disk Administrator to format the disk with whatever partition size wanted. Remove the disk and place in new system.
2. Partition the disk into partitions 4GB or less. You have multiple drive letters.
3. Create a 4GB partition at installation time, and then extend the NTFS partition after installation has completed using Extend Volume Set under Disk Administrator.
4. If you are performing an unattended installation it is possible to create a greater than 4GB partition using the ExtendOEMPartition flag in the unattended file. This key causes text-mode setup to extend the partition on which the temporary Windows NT sources are located into any available unpartitioned space that physically follows it on the disk. Under the [unattended] section include the lines:

   FileSystem = convertNTFS ExtendOemPartition = 1, NoWait

   For more information see Microsoft Knowledge base articles:

   Q138364
   Q119497

NTFS Tips:

Managing Shared Resources and Resource Security
Choosing Between FAT and NTFS
Web versus NTFS Permissions
Getting the Most from IIS Security
NTFS Security, Part 2: Implementing NTFS Special Permissions on Your Web Site
Getting the Most from IIS Security
NTFS Permissions
Cancel an NTFS conversion
NT equivalents of NetWare Rights
Access NTFS from DOS, Win95 or Win98 using NTFSDOS driver
NTFS Last Access TimeStamp
xcopy - keep attributes
How To Remove Files with Reserved Names such as LPT1 or PRN
NTFS Metadata files
Disable NTs 8.3 aliases for LFNs under NTFS
Streams displays which NTFS files have alternate streams content
VolumeID changes NT and FAT volume IDs
Create a NTFS partition over 4GB during installation
Windows NT NTFS Directory Compression

Covers installation and support of NT Workstation. If you are just getting into NT workstation, its a good book. If you are experienced NT techie, forget it.

Table of Contents
Meat and potatoes for NT workstation support.