Windows 7 - Partition or Volume - Create New

Hi Sean. I was hoping to find the answer to my problem here but no go.

I bought a new 3TB drive to put into a raid cabinet with a 1TB drive, hoping to make up 4gb jobd but found out that I can't and have to use it non-raid as 3+1.

But while the 1tb works fine, the 3TB only allowed me to use 2TB and the rest unallocated. I can neither render the unallocated space into a partition I can then shrink, nor will windows allow me to extend the 2TB section.

Screen shot included.

OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name DAN-HP
System Manufacturer Hewlett-Packard
System Model p6745f
System Type x64-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2300 CPU @ 2.80GHz, 2801 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date AMI 7.13, 5/4/2011
SMBIOS Version 2.6
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale Canada
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.1.7601.17514"
User Name Dan-HP\Dan
Time Zone Eastern Standard Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 6.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 5.91 GB
Available Physical Memory 2.95 GB
Total Virtual Memory 11.8 GB
Available Virtual Memory 8.80 GB
Page File Space 5.91 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

Hello PX,

You could convert your 3 TB drive (Disk 5) to be a GPT disk instead of MBR disk (default) to allow you to be able to use all 3TB of that drive in one or more partitions afterwards.

Before you convert the disk, be sure to backup anything that you do not want to lose on that disk to another separate physical disk location first. Converting the disk requires that all partitions and volumes are deleted on the disk.

Convert MBR Disk to GPT Disk

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Many thanks, Brink. I just read in the Mediasonic RAID cabinet instructions: "Note: For 3TB Hard drive, users must format in GPT Partitions and use Windows Vista or Windows 7 in 64bit."

I can't believe I missed this.

But is it OK (I don't know much about this) to keep the other drive in the RAID cabinet as an MBR disk or will it cause a conflict?

You're most welcome.

It doesn't matter, you can mix MBR and GPT disks in a RAID setup, or have some in a RAID and others not in RAID.

Much appreciated. But just one more question. I can't combine the two to be one huge 4gb disc, eh? The manual (for the RAID cabinet) says that JOBD writes first on one disc then the other so they'd have to be the same size and type, right?

Anyway it worked except when I rebooted strangely it was "offline." I just restarted and everything was ok again. Picky things, these computers but I guess they're still newish.

They do not have to be the same size or type, but it would be best if they were to avoid wasting space on larger HDD's, and not slowing down faster HDD's in the RAID setup. By default, the RAID setup will be as slow as the slowest HDD added to the RAID, and the smallest size HDD will cause only the same small amount to be use by the larger HDD's in the RAID.

Ah! Thanks again, Sean. They're both 7200 but here's the rub: "the smallest size HDD will cause only the same small amount to be use by the larger HDD's in the RAID"

Yup. That would certainly defeat the purpose. LOL! Thanks for your help. How do you find the time to be kind to so many strangers?

You're most welcome.

When it's something that you love to do, the time is just there.

Hi, there

In your tutorial :

Using Disk Management
1. You will first need to shrink a partition or volume from the free space on a disk to create unallocated space on that disk to use to create the new partition or volume with on the same disk.
NOTE: If this is a new HDD that is all unallocated space, then you can skip this step and go straight to step 2.

I have about 130 GB in my drive C, do I go to step 2? Thanks.

Please post back a screenshot of your maximized Disk management drive map and listings, using the Snipping Tool in Start Menu: Screen Shots

Tell us exactly what it is you want to do and we will give you the steps.