Question: When the number of possible RAM adresses is limited by the computer architecture (32/64 bit), why isn’t the size of the hard disk limited?
Or is it limited? If yes, what would be the highest possible size of a hard-disk for a 32-bit computer?
How are the adresses of hard-disks handled then?
Answer: HDs are addressed by a cylinder-head-sector hierarchy. Interestingly, the more current. logical form of addressing, called LBA has been extended over the years to support larger and larger sizes. It’s explained here in detail.
What is limited, however, is file sizes. Such limits can be found for the respective file systems (FAT32, NTFS, etc.)