4TB formatted into 2 partions??

[AaLF]

Long time back I formatted a 4TB & it split in half. About 2TB in one partition usable and the other half useless. I know it's needs reformatting to fix but I've forgotten the steps.

 

[Brink]

Hello AaLF,

If you like, you could convert the disk to be a GPT disk instead of MBR. This way you could have one 4TB partition.

Convert MBR Disk to GPT Disk - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

[AaLF]

Hey Brink. Still there. good to see u again.

Look at the jpg. The beast is split in two. Paste up the steps plz.

 

[Golden]

Convert MBR Disk to GPT Disk - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
I'd just use free mini tool
Best Free Partition Manager for Windows | MiniTool Partition Free

Although I see no point in a 4tb partition split in half is more logical but then again I'm not one that needs a 4tb hdd if it goes bad allot of data goes down with it and not very realistic to even backup a 4tb hdd either.

 

[Barman58]

There is nothing to stop you using the functionality in the Windows Disk management to create a partition in the unallocated space, you could also make more than one partition if this better suits your needs.

The only Caveat with Windows 7 running on an MBR format is that no one partition can be larger than 2TB

After creating any new partition(s) you will also need to allocate a drive letter to each partition to enable them to be seen as drives in windows.

Partition or Volume - Create New - Windows 7 Help Forums
Drive Letter - Add, Change, or Remove in Windows - Windows 7 Help Forums

If you require a large single drive then as stated above the facility exists to convert the drive into a single GPT partition, but please be aware that windows own Drive management cannon perform this conversion without data loss, there are such software packages available that can do this without data loss but none that I know are free.

If you can transfer the data on the existing drive partition to an external Drive, (or other safe temporary store) then it's fairly simple to convert using windows own tools.

One thing to be aware of, (though not too serious a concern with the reliability of modern hard drives), is that however you partition your drive and whether it is MBR or GPT, if you have a Mechanical drive failure, you may lose all partitions on the drive,

Technically this sort of failure should be less likely with a drive formatted as GPT due to advances in the systems used over the old obsolescent MBR system but you should still have sufficient offline backup to protect your data

 

[RoasterMen]

I agree with Barman.

I had a 4TB drive and an extra 1TB drive (Since all the important files that I had don't even use half of 1TB) for backup.

I use MiniTool Partition to convert from MBR format to GPT if I am lazy. But I convert mine to GPT in the command prompt during windows installation before I format the disk.

 

[Barman58]

Minitool has recently removed the MBR/GPT Non data loss option from their free offering, I use a commercial copy so still have the option but always fully back-up before using anything that converts "live" data or storage - Just common sense and decades of experience

 

[jumanji]

^ One can still download and install MiniTool Partition Wizard Free 9.1 from http://www.filehorse.com/download-partition-wizard-home/old-versions/ to regain all functionalities lost in version 10 onwards.