Toshiba 3TB GPT Partitioned & Fat32

Hope I'm not breaking any rules but my old post had a major

glitch and corrected post was buried.

Guys/Gals, I got a bit confused.

Sooooooo...... I've re-written my post:

Hi, I run Windows 7 Pro 64-Bit

with a ASRock P67 PRO3 (B3) MoBo

that has a UEFI BIOS.


I have EaseUS Partition Master Pro v9.2.2

and EaseUS Partition Wizard Home v8.1.1

as well as Acronis Disk Director 11 Home Build 11.0.2121


My C, D and E partitions are on a 120 GB NTFS SSD with an MBR.

I installed Windows 7 on a pre-partitioned SSD so no hidden

"System Partition".


I'm getting a Toshiba PH3300U-1I72 3TB HDD that will

have to be GPT Partitioned to get the full 3TBs.


It will be used as storage on partitions "F" thru "M".


F will be 2.637 TB's Set As Fat32

G will be 1 GB's Set As Fat32

H will be 5 GB's Set As Fat32

I will be 4 GB's Set As NTFS

J will be 30 GB's Set As Fat32

K will be 20 GB's Set As Fat32

L will be 46 GB's Set As Fat32

M will be 46 GB's Set As Fat32


My question: Can my Toshiba 3TB be partitioned as above?

Thanks in advance for any help you can be.

Big Al

Why so many partitions?
I can't imagine a legitimate use for that many.

OK guys, course is changing a little:



I would make 5 partitions, 4 NTFS and one small FAT32.


I use Norton's Ghost weekly and it has issues with GPT.


I proceeded to contact various partitioning/cloning software

companies to see if their products could be used in place of

Ghost.


The partial exchange below is between TeraByte Unlimited and me:

TBU:

"If your new drive uses 4K sector sizes you
wouldn't need to have a GPT."

Me:

Please elaborate.

BTW, Below is what my present Toshiba 2TB looks like.


TBU:

If you expose the 4K sector size and not the emulated

normal 512 byte sector size, you can use an MBR and

use the entire space (up to 16TiB).

0xFFFFFFFF*512=2,199,023,255,040
0xFFFFFFFF*4096=17,592,186,040,320


Me:

With what software and what is the procedure to go about

doing this?

Can it be done via a Bootable CD or must it be done in Windows

with just my SSD and empty 3TB connected?


TBU:

It would be a drive feature/option, typically using
a jumper. The BIOS would also have to support the larger
sizes too so it doesn't crash reading larger sectors, a
modern BIOS should be able to handle it.


My hunt for answers from Toshiba is a lost cause as their

support is a TOTAL joke and does NOT offer E-Mail support.

So, I'm here to find out if this "exposing the 4K sector size" can,

indeed, be done to my PH3300U-1I72, and if so, EXACTLY how to go

about doing it.

Also, are there any shortcomings to having the Toshiba "exposing

the 4K sector size" using 5 partitions, 4 NTFS and one small FAT32?


Big Al

Sorry to say that I've heard from numerous people with 3+ TB's

and they have grave reservations about Acronis/Seagate/WD's

Extended Capacity Manager to get full MBR 3TB HDD's and they

say that the "4096", "NTFS" and "Format" won't work.


Well, I HATE to admit defeat, but since I CANNOT find the

Ghost v11.5.1.2298 from GSS 2.5.1 that DOES see GPT HDD's,

I've concluded that my only recourse is to relegate my 3TB to

GPT and to BACKUP status to my 2TB Toshiba and dusted-off 1TB

Hitachi MBR HDD's that I'll be using as my main drives.


After numerous E-Mails to a bunch of Cloning Software companies,

I've settled on MiniTool Partition Wizard v8.1.1 from

Free Partition Magic alternative, partition manager freeware, partition magic server, partition magic Windows 7 and free Partition Manager software for Windows 7/8/VISTA/XP/2000 and Windows Server 2003/2008/2000. (To top it off, it's FREE!!!)

to pre-partition my 3TBer and to do the "Copy partitions from

my 1 and 2TB MBR's to partitions on my 3TB GPT" and use my

Ghost v11.5.1.2269's Make and Restore Bootable CD's to do my

MBR C and D Drive imaging chores.

It's been fun--NOT!