2 terabyte drive not usable in windows backup

[Val Zach]

I have a two terabyte external drive which works fine with standard windows file searches and copies and so on. But the Windows Backup chokes. Could it be that the backup utility has not been upgraded to access such a large drive? If that it the case, would it help to partition it?

 

[MoxieMomma]

Hi:

AFAIK It's not the size of the drive, per se.
It's the physical format of the new external hard drives (native "4K" or 4KB sectors).
"Files and Folders" backup and manual copy/paste work fine, but "System Image" does not.

See here:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2510009

The native Windows 7 (and Vista and XP) backup utility does not support those new drives.

You'll probably need one of several 3rd-party backup software utilities, or one of several other workarounds.

I'll let the more expert forum members suggest some options.

Cheers,

 

[GokAy]

Macrium Reflect free is a good backup/imaging software. Easy to setup and use too. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html

But lacks a file/folder backup function in the free version, you can use FreeFileSync to sync/backup data files. https://www.freefilesync.org/

Use the two together for optimal results.

 

[jumanji]

Hi:

AFAIK It's not the size of the drive, per se.
It's the physical format of the new external hard drives (native "4K" or 4KB sectors).
"Files and Folders" backup and manual copy/paste work fine, but "System Image" does not.

See here:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2510009

The native Windows 7 (and Vista and XP) backup utility does not support those new drives.......

Wrong information.

1. 2TB drives do not use Advanced formatting. Only drives >2TB will be using Advanced formatting

2. Even drives > 3TB only use AF 512E (4K physical and 512-byte logical sector size) and the drive translation in it will enable Windows 7 to read and write 4096 Byte data ( while reading the 4096 byte data chunk will be converted into 512 Byte data stream and presented to Windows 7. During write the 512 Byte data stream received will be read and converted to 4096 format and written into eight 512 byte logical sectors)

So basically the problem experienced by the OP has no relevance to the HDD size or 512E Advanced formatting .

I would advise the OP to do all updates todate in Windows 7 - this will enable Windows 7 to take on >2TB drives with 512E AF, wipe his 2TB HDD clean with Diskpart cleanall or any third party utility like Windows Low Level Format Tool (HDDGURU: HDD LLF Low Level Format Tool) and then format it with Windows Disk Management. ( Of course the OP needs to back up all data in that 2TB drive before the cleanall)

If he still gets into problem during Windows backup, he has to define his problem more precisely as to exactly what is happening when he is trying to backup and if he gets an error message he should present a verbatim report of it so that Windows specialists here ( I am not ) can crack it.

( And yep, Windows Backup Tool is not the best tool and he would be better off using the free third party backup tools like Macrium Reflect or AOMEI Backupper )

 

[MoxieMomma]

I stand corrected.
Thank you for the helpful explanation.

Cheers,

 

[AddRAM]

I recommend using Macrium also, along with windows backup, it`s never failed me the times I had to use it.

Please keep us posted