Big Friggin Files

August 4, 2004

Here's a handy list of maximum file sizes for various filesystems:

  • ext2/3: Filesystem up to 16 TB, individual files to 2 TB
  • Reiserfs: Filesystem up to 17 TB, individual files to 2 TB.
  • JFS: Filesystem up to 32 PB, individual files to 4 PB.
  • XFS: Filesystem up to 16 EB, individual files to 8 EB.
  • NTFS: Varies, but with default block size the maximum filesystem size is 16 TB. Files are limited only by the size of the volume.

Note: The 2.4 Linux kernel has a 2 TB limitation on the size of a block device, so the very large limits above are, for the moment, theoretical. 2.5/2.6 should fix this limitation.

Source

I also stumbled across MDBTools. It's a set of tools for reading Access files in real operating systems. Seems to be buggy at the moment, but it looks promising.