Solved Advice on installing a 3 tb HDD on Windows 7 OS to full capacity

[loninappleton]

Windows support for hard disks exceeding 2 TB - Windows Server | Microsoft Docs

The link shows what I know so far about getting and installing a 3tb HDD to expand my storage space.

Between Microsoft and Seagate (in their seagate beyond Tb installation pages there seems to be

some differences. At Seagate, how I read it was that you can install a 3 Tb on a UEFI BIOS to
2 Tb but have to partition the remaining space separate. The Microsoft link above shows the standard
disk mamagement routine but specifies GPT rather than MBR be selected. At that point after selecting
Simple Volume, the graphic shows a single large partition, which would be my goal.


Please say what if any advisories should be added to these things about getting beyond the MS 2Tb limit.

At minimum I'd have to find a UEFI motherboard with DDR3 memory support to reuse components I have.

The work around for this I have looked at in the past is using an SSD as a boot drive with my 2Tb HDDs
for storage. I'm not at capacity yet, but I'm getting there from storing media files.

 

[SIW2]

gpt and mbr are partitioning styles.

mbr can recognize up to 2tib.

If you have a disk larger than 2 tib, use gpt.

You don't need efi firmware to have gpt disks as storage devices.

You would only need efi to boot windows from a gpt disk.

If you want to boot windows from a modest size mbr partitioned ssd, you can have an efi partitioned 3tb hard disk as storage. You don't need efi for that.

 

[loninappleton]

Ok thanks, that might get me started or .... finished since I don't know much more than
booting from MBR _or_ knowing how to run repair tools if needed. Example: the Bootrec commands.


I have avoided partitioning HDDs my whole life. :-/


What I could try on an adventurous day is take one of my Bootable SSDs and run GPT on an old sacrifice
small disk just to get the hang of it.


What is the special knowledge needed to reformat an SSD?



thanks for answering. Under stay at home here. I'll go see if I have an extra HDD from the cast off pile
which I had outgrown.

 

[file3456]

You absolutly NEED UEFI and a GPT partition table to BOOT a more than 2 TB HDD. Unable to Install My OS or Boot to a Partition Larger Than 2 TB with...).

If it's just a storage drive you can just use BIOS and would then just have to format the HDD to GPT to make use of the full 3 TB, otherwise in MBR you'll only see up to 2 TB.


Now you know.

How to format a drive in Windows. It's just all point and click. How to Format a Solid State Drive | Crucial.com

Tip: You can get to disk management a lot quicker if you have the My Computer icon on the desktop. Right click My Computer and go to Manage then Storage.

 

[loninappleton]

I'll mark this solved. It just takes the air out of me for buying something new.


thanks for answering.