Maximum Number of MS-DOS Disk Partitions and Other Drives (41189)



The information in this article applies to:
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.1
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.2
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.21
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.3
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.3a
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 4.0
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 4.01
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 5.0
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 5.0a
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.0
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.2
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.21
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.22

This article was previously published under Q41189

SUMMARY

The maximum number of logical drives that can be contained in an extended partition is 23. Thus, with an active MS-DOS partition, and all 23 logical drives (in the extended partition) allocated, this gives 24 hard-disk drives (23 + 1) that can be used, in conjunction with other virtual RAM drives, network drives, and floppy-disk drives. The maximum number of total drives that MS-DOS can use is 26: Drive A through Drive Z.

Modification Type: Major Last Reviewed: 5/12/2003
Keywords: KB41189