I do have PC based on Gigabyte 970A-DS3P motherboard, I bought it already assembled, and out of the box it had this 3TB Hdd Unlock program installed. I would have to reinstall my system soon and I was wandering what exactly this software is for? What is it do? Will I need it when I'll reinstall my system or not really?
Last edited by binks; 28 Mar 2015 at 16:13. Reason: Changed the title
It's most likely intended to allow you to see and be able to use all of a large drive.
Windows can only see and utilize about 2.2 TB on a drive that is initialized as MBR. If you had a 3 or 4 TB drive, the portion above 2.2 would be useless and not even visible.
The standard way around that is to initialize as GPT, rather than MBR. GPT doesn't have that 2.2 TB limitation.
BUT--some motherboard manufacturers have provided downloadable software that can overcome the MBR limitation. It tricks Windows, so that you can see and use the portion above 2.2 TB. I'm not sure if it's usable on drives larger than 3 TB. I'm pretty sure that's what Gigabyte has provided to you in this case. I'd guess you have a 3 TB drive and the builder knew of the limitation, so used this special Gigabyte download.
It doesn't have anything to do with installing Windows per se. If your drives are under 2.2 TB you don't need it or if you can initialize the drive as GPT rather than MBR, you don't need it. Otherwise, you do need it, unless you don't care about not being able to use all of a large drive.
Telling the truth this software confuses me. Maybe I just don't get it - english is my second language. Up till now I just thought that this soft is enabling me to use this 100something MB that is created during windows install for its files, so the part of the drive that says is "system reserved". The information on Gigabyte website is even more confusing for me - GIGABYTE officially announced the availability of the 3TB+ Unlock Utility that allows GIGABYTE motherboards without Hybrid EFI Technology to recognize and use unallocated space on new 3TB and larger hard disc drives (HDDs)... I do now have 2TB Toshiba HDD but in the not so distant future I want to change this to something like 6GB WD drive. So I assume that I'll need this soft. Right?
It has NOTHING to do with the 100 MB System Reserved.
From your post: "Utility that allows GIGABYTE motherboards without Hybrid EFI Technology to recognize and use unallocated space on new 3TB and larger hard disc drives (HDDs)." That's exactly what it does, as I said in my first post.
You would NOT need it on the 2 TB Toshiba because it is smaller than 2.2 TB.
You WOULD need it on the 6 TB WD drive, UNLESS you initialize that 6 TB disk as "GPT", not MBR.
Note: if this 6 TB drive will be your boot drive, you MUST initialize that drive as GPT and use UEFI rather than BIOS.
On the other hand, if this 6 TB disc is going to be strictly for data, not Windows, you could initialize it as GPT and still use a smaller, separate boot drive that is initialized as MBR. In that case, you would NOT use the Gigabyte software.
Or, also if strictly for data, you could initialize the 6 TB disk as MBR, using the Gigabyte software, and also use a smaller, separate boot drive, also initialized as MBR.
Thx for clearing that up for me:) As a matter of fact I'm planning to get SSD like 100GB or something like that and set it up as a boot drive for the system files(no worries, board have UEFI so I can set up for system to boot from SSD) and have this large HDD as my storage drive.
So in my case, if I go this route(SSD for system and storage drive) I wouldn't have to install thisGigabyte soft at all?
You would not need to use it if you can initialize the 6 TB disk as GPT.
I'm reasonably sure that is controlled by the operating system, so if you are using Windows 7 or later, you should be able to use GPT. There is some chance the motherboard has some say about GPT versus MBR, but I don't think so. Somebody else will probably jump in if I'm wrong about that.
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