Why does a SATA hard disk enclosure have a maximum capacity?

Question

Why do some USB SATA enclosures have a 1.5TB, 2TB, or 3TB maximum written in the box?

I want to know what happens if I use it on a drive above the maximum.

Also, some enclosures don't specify any maximum -- does that mean I can use them for a 4TB drive (or a 5TB drive when they come out)?

Answer 1

Firmware on the enclosure has been tested with certain drive capacities and the firmware supports them. It may be that a larger capacity drive MIGHT work or that the vendor would provide a firmware update at some future time.

You can try the higher capacity drive and it may work or it may not be recognized or recognized at a lower capacity