6TB HDD - a disaster

[valcugen]

I kinda figured it out, i am using it as GPT just one partition and i can see it along with my mbr second hdd all together, so im ok with that for now, but i dont think i can use the 6tb hdd ONLY on my pc with windows 7 x64 or can i normally do so ?

 

[valcugen]

Welcome to the Forum.

You have a Kaby Lake computer that has a UEFI BIOS.
You can only clone boot able drives of same type of disk (MBR to MBR or GPT to GPT)
- Is the OS disk a Legacy - MBR or EFI - GPT?

Yes the OS disk is legacy, mbr

 

[Megahertz07]

You didn't post the Disk management image as I asked to.

Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image

When I see the Disk management image I'll guide you on what to do.

 

[valcugen]

Here it is:






Thank you

 

[Megahertz07]

The disk 0 has only one 6T partition (Z so it must be a GPT disk and has some data on it (360G).

If you want to use it as data Only partition you can leave as it is or split in more (any size) partitions.

If you want to have it as a boot able disk with win 7 there are two options:
Fist, backup all data on the F: disk to another disk as disk 0 will be formatted.
A) Leave the disk as GPT and reinstall Win 7 and all programs. Detach disk 1 from MB (unplug the power cable). Start the computer, press F12 to launch the boot menu and choose Win 7 installation disk as UEFI, go to install - advanced, delete all partitions - Create new. It will create 3 partitions
- UEFI - 100M - Fat32 (for the UEFI boot loader)
- M$ reserved - 120M - RAW (for bit locker decryption tool)
- Big NTFS - For windows and data.
Install win 7 on the Big NTFS. After installation you can shrink C: and create other partitions with no limit size.

B) Clone the disk 1 on disk 0.
Download and install Macrium Software | Macrium Reflect Free for Home use (leave the email blank).
Run Macrium Reflect and select disk clone (disk 1 to disk 0).
On the new disk, set:
System Reserved as 100M
C: big as you wish but smaller than 2.2T
D: big as you wish but smaller than 2.2T
It will convert disk 0 to MBR and clone.
When you finish cloning, detach disk 1 from MB (unplug the power cable) and boot from disk 0.
Open disk manager and you will see a unallocated space. You can create a new partition on it but the size is limited to 2.2T

You have a wonderful computer.
If I were you, I would buy a small SSD (128G) to have windows and programs and use the HDD's for data only(can be MBR or GPT). A SSD is 6 times faster than a HDD. It will boot in ~20 seconds and open programs at a blink on an eye.
You will have the speed of a SSD and the space of a HDD at low cost.
I have one of these. So far so good.
PNY CS900 120GB 2.5" SATA III INTERNAL Solid State Drive (SSD) - SSD7CS900-120-RB - Newegg.com

 

[valcugen]

Those are some good ideas,

At first after unpacking the drive i saw that it has 2 unallocated space parts,and i thought i could split them somehow,only the first i could split but the second,no matter if it was win7 built in part manager or diskpart partitikn making or multitool or even gparted i couldnt unless converted to gpt.

I tried at first easeus cloning but it didnt register my hdd as bootable at all,yes there was a third part(unallocated) but the drive didnt boot at all even after changing to uefi the controllers.

I will try tomorrow the macrium software you mentioned,my goalkriginally was to have again 2 partitions, 1.2tb system and rest for games,movies etc,but it can be only gpt,at the moment i have adapted it with gpt as a "third partition" so to speak but will definately try that tomorrow!

And thank you for the kind words for my system,though having lots of provlems with the 1080ti willbe switching to vega or radeon 7 asap,other than that i would preffer intel optane instead of a big pen drive ssd in my system,yes it will speed up my loadings but at the cost of reliability and durability,an hdd always outlives at least 2 pc's even under heavy use(editing,gaming,large file copy/paste constantly), i simply dont trust ssd's,besides i do loads of read/write activity on system drive every day,i cant risk my whole work and projects one day waking up to seemy ssd is dead and cant boot to save my work for just some loading times,i would preffer more fps in games for example

 

[SIW2]

MBR Partitions can define a disk drive capacity up to 2.2TB

For a 6 TB single disk that is initialized by using MBR, Windows can create partitions up to the first 2 TB. However, the remaining capacity cannot be addressed and, therefore, cannot be used.

If you want to use the full capacity of that disk, you need to use gpt.

windows-support-for-hard-disks-that-are-larger-than-2-tb

 

[valcugen]

Yes i am aware of that,but what about megaherz's cloning idea ? Wouldnt that work? I mean if i can choose how to extend the target partitions when im about to clone,lets say i choose 1tb system drive,2.2tb d drive,after the cloning process i should be left with another 2.2tb partition unallocated which i should be able to make into a third partition?
Thank you

 

[SIW2]

Wouldnt that work?

No.


Paragon used to do software that faked a second mbr so windows treat the one disk as 2 disks.

MBR:

Windows can create partitions up to the first 2 TB. However, the remaining capacity cannot be addressed and, therefore, cannot be used.

 

[Megahertz07]

Yes, SIW2 is right and I was wrong. You can't use more than 2TB on a MBR disk. So you must convert the disk from MBR to GPT to use all the 6TB capacity. I don't think you can easily clone your boot able MBR HDD to the GPT HDD as the boot loader on a GPT disk is on a Fat32 100M partition.
If it's possible, SIW2 is the one to guide you.

I have been using SSDs since 2011 and never had any disk failure. I would say that they are more reliable than a mechanic HDD. I have used 2.5" SSDs and one M.2 PCIe AHCI SSD.
I have a small (GPT) M.2 PCi SSD (128G) for windows&Programs and Linux. I use my HDD (GPT) (WD Gold) for data only.

You can install Win 7 for windows&Programs (MBR or GPT) on a 2.5" SSDs or on a M.2 MVMe and use your GPT HDD for data only.

I have moved C:\users from the SSD to the HDD (using Kari tutorial). All temporary files are now on the HDD.