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Help with a new HDD (Resolved).


Best Answer terry1966 , 01 April 2016 - 10:58 AM

to be honest i don't think you need anything because you won't be using it as a boot drive, you should just need to go into disk management and convert it to gpt and then you can create a single pa... Go to the full post »


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#1
heartgrave

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I got a 4tb HDD. When I get into disk management, it shows the HDD listed. When I right click it and select "New Simple Volume" it tells me that I will only be able to allocate 2048MB. I want the full 3726GB.

 

See attached image for what I am talking about.

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#2
phillpower2

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Hello heartgrave,

 

Use Mini Tool Partition Wizard (free) which you can download from here, all instructions for its use are included there.

 

As an asides heartgrave, I note from your screenshot that you are down to only 7% of free storage space on the C: drive, this is asking for trouble as you should always have between 20 and 25% of free storage space on the C: drive and between 10 and 15% of free storage space on data only drives, this allows for automatic updates to be installed and file swapping, if you do not have this Windows and other data can become corrupt, the computer unbootable and worse case scenario the storage device can fail, we can help you with this if you like but please let us know first before using Partition Wizard.


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#3
terry1966

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another fix might be to update your bios.

 

what you've run into is a mbr size limitation and the drive needs to be used with gpt to create partitions over the 2TB limit, now your bios may not be gpt capable without a bios update.

 

i had a similar problem and my bios needed to be updated first to work with gpt to overcome the 2TB partition limit without using a lvm workaround.

 

more info in links below.

https://blogs.techne...indows-storage/

http://www.pcworld.c...ard-drives.html

https://en.wikipedia...ter_boot_record

https://en.wikipedia...Partition_Table

 

:popcorn:


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#4
phillpower2

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Good call terry, your post reminded me off the ASRock 3TB+ Unlocker Utility  :thumbsup:

 

heartgrave

 

If you still have the same ASRock MB download and install the 3TB+ Unlocker Utility from here


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#5
heartgrave

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I have a MSI Z87-G45 MB.

 

When I run that free Mini tool, it shows this HDD having all 4TB un-allocated and not split up like it shows in the image I posted in my first post.

 

Updated bios to current and no fix.

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Edited by heartgrave, 31 March 2016 - 10:10 PM.

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#6
phillpower2

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Unless terry has another suggestion first I would format what Mini Tool has labelled as Drive E: and then create two new partitions, one to back up and store data to and one of around 200GB for a back up of Windows from the C: drive, once done, free up as much drive space as possible on the C: partition by deleting any old games, videos and pictures etc.

 

JAFYI: Where possible Windows should never be on the same partition as any every day data such as pictures and videos, this way there is less chance of Windows becoming corrupted or running out of storage space on the C: drive, OEM suppliers don`t bother partitioning storage storage devices purely down to not being willing to spend the labour time on it, custom/self builders would be wise to always take the time to partition storage devices as it can save a lot of time and trouble further down the road.


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#7
terry1966

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it looks to me like that mini tool is using basic mbr according to the picture and it needs to be using gpt.

 

top 2 lines in mini tool picture.

 

first drive:- basic mbr 931.51GB

second drive:- basic mbr 3.64TB

 

personally i wouldn't use the mini tool and just use windows disc management and see what it now shows.

 

it should now show the full drive can be partitioned as a single partition if you've run the unlocker utility phil linked to and it fixed the problems of the mbr limitation with larger drives.

 

:popcorn:

 

what operating system are you using? not using windows much myself i can't remember if windows 7 is gpt capable or if it needs a driver update so it can create and use gpt partitions.

 

did a quick google search and found this.

http://www.sevenforu...ont-format.html

 

Delete all partitions -
Then right click on the "Disk #" box on the left side of the Disk Management Window > and select "Convert to GPT Disk"
Then create the new partition using the Wizard.

so in disk management just delete the 2 shown partitions on the new 4TB hard drive and follow above then it should now show a single gpt partition.


Edited by terry1966, 01 April 2016 - 10:48 AM.

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#8
heartgrave

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I do not have an ASRock MB that he linked. I have a MSI Z87-G45 MB. It is Windows 7 64 Bit. We are trying to get the 4tb drive opened up so we can move everything from the smaller driver to it and then we are going to upgrade to windows 10. The bigger drive will be all the pictures, videos, games, etc, while the smaller will be Windows 10 and computer stuff.

 

Is there an unlocker tool for MSI? I went through and got the suite last night but didn't find anything about an unlocker tool.


Edited by heartgrave, 01 April 2016 - 10:51 AM.

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#9
terry1966

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✓  Best Answer

to be honest i don't think you need anything because you won't be using it as a boot drive, you should just need to go into disk management and convert it to gpt and then you can create a single partition on it to transfer all you files to.

 

:popcorn:


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#10
heartgrave

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Going into disk management and right clicking the partition and click "New GPT" resolved the issue. Thank you guys!


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#11
terry1966

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:spoton: 

 

funny how that works isn't,

the fix to a problem is usually always something simple,

but unless you know and can remember it, then we spend ages trying to figure it out. :rofl:

 

:popcorn:


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#12
phillpower2

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Glad you got it sorted heartgrave and thanks for letting us know, good catch terry  :thumbsup: (can only mark one post as best answer so opted for your reply #9, post #11 was a close second though  :lol: )


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#13
terry1966

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should add a very important bit (sorry didn't mention it earlier.) before you upgrade to windows 10, and that is to use something like macrium reflect to make an image of your original windows install and store it on the new 4TB hard drive, that way if anything goes wrong you can always put the pc back to original using the image and try again.

 

personally i wouldn't rely on the windows 10 rollback feature and why i'd advise everyone to make that backup image first.

 

you can use the free version of macrium reflect to create and restore drive images :- http://www.macrium.c...eflectfree.aspx

 

how to do the image :- http://www.macrium.c..._disk_image.asp

 

:popcorn:


Edited by terry1966, 02 April 2016 - 02:00 PM.

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#14
heartgrave

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Once everything is moved over I am going to use dban to wipe the old hard drive clean. Put in the windows 7 disc do a fresh install then upgrade to windows 10. The 4TB will be backup/everything else on it.


Edited by heartgrave, 03 April 2016 - 06:06 PM.

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#15
terry1966

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well if your going to do that anyway, what i'd do is not do an upgrade but just do a clean install of windows 10 using your windows 7 key to activate it.

 

http://www.howtogeek...all-windows-10/

 

Previously, Microsoft forced users to upgrade to Windows 10 before they could start fresh and do a clean install–which was annoyingly complicated and time-consuming. Now, things are much easier, since you can activate Windows 10 with a Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 key.

 

i'd download the windows 10 iso from here :- https://www.microsof...ad/windows10ISO

 

then i'd use rufus :- https://rufus.akeo.ie/

 

to create a bootable usb stick to do the clean windows 10 install with.

 

or you can just burn the iso to a dvd and use that to do the install.

 

:popcorn:


Edited by terry1966, 04 April 2016 - 12:19 AM.

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