Agree with what TVeblen has mentioned. If you format partitions to <=2.2TB you should have no problem accessing with most any OS's (booting may be another issue though).
There's quite a bit of info on this stuff in that link I posted.
That is how the DiskWizard utility handles the workaround: it creates 2 virtual HDDs from one physical HDD to stay under the 2.1TB limit.
To get back to the original one drive, one partition setup I believe you will need to use a 3rd party program.
Likely the controller built into the enclosure wrote changes to the drive that w7 didn't like.
Not sure about that, but it's always a good idea to check those kind of specs when buying/using peripherals. They tend to bite at the most inopportune times.
I've hesitated buying drives greater than 2TB ever since they became available, for personal use or when buying for others, because of that 2.2TB limit.
I just took another (closer) look at you Disk Management screen shots. Here is what I see:
The ACTIVE partition is the partition that the BIOS looks for to boot an OS.
- In the screenshot from XP it shows Disk 3 - Drive M marked as ACTIVE.
- None of the partitions on Disk 0 are marked ACTIVE.
- Disk 0 - Drive E is marked BOOT, meaning it is the OS that is running
- The Disk 0 - SYSTEM RESERVED partition, which is usually the ACTIVE partition, is not marked ACTIVE. But it is marked SYSTEM, meaning the files required for booting are here.
From this it looks to me like the XP OS requires the 3TB drive to boot. This is a guess - like I said, a complicated experiment. Does this machine boot with the 3TB drive removed?
It the screenshot from the W7 system:
- The Drive 0 - SYSTEM RESERVED partition is marked ACTIVE, and SYSTEM
- The Drive 0 - C: partition is marked BOOT
From this it is obvious that W7 will boot just fine without the 3TB drive installed, which is what you have observed. But if that 3TB drive has got an ACTIVE partition (and possibly boot files) then that is going to throw a wrench in the works.
As mentioned previously, you will probably need to remove the ACTIVE flag from the 3TB drive's partition to use it in the W7 system.
But note: if the XP machine actually needs that ACTIVE partition to boot then you will have solved one problem and created another.
Can you recall any actions you have taken in trying to correct this issue that would explain what is going on here?
As it turns out. i may have made a n00b mistake. i have 6 sata sockets and even though i was absolutely sure that the correct drives were booting correctly. i went to the motherboard manual and it seems that sata socket 5 and 6 are for bootable drives. Any drive in those sockets overwrites whatever the boot order is set to.
what i had it set as:-
Socket 1 = Data storage drive only.
Socket 2 = Boot drive.
Socket 3 = Unused.
Socket 4 = Unused.
Socket 5 = Unused.
Socket 6 = [NEW DRIVE] ment as a non-boot data storage drive.
When i placed the new drive into socket 3. both dual boot OS's booted up correctly.
PS. Xp and Win7 boot up without the drive. So it shouldnt be a problem.
Wow, that's a new one!
What motherboard is it?
Glad you got it sorted. You can mark the thread as solved if you want.
Wow. Guess it never can hurt to pull out that manual when messing with the hardware!
Is that a UEFI board?
@ TVeblen, my mobo is an Asus Crosshair IV Formula.
@ F5ing , I know... i really should have looked at the manual rather than spending the last week searching every last remnant of the web and racking the brains of this community for the solution. the Asus Crosshair IV Formula is a UEFI enabled board. (ASUS - Motherboards- ASUS Crosshair V Formula.
Thank you to you both for your extreme and professional level of patience ou have shown me. it is greatly appreciated.
That is aggravating, spending all that time searching for answers, only to finally realize the answer's been under your nose the whole time!
UEFI. Nothing like starting all over again!
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