Friday, October 29 2010
Disk Unlocker is exclusive (patent pending) software from ASUS that overcomes current operating system limitations that prevent a hard disk drive from utilizing more than 2048GB (also known as 2.2TB). This one-click software solution instantly enables the full capacity of the latest generation of high-density hard drives, making vast amounts of storage space available to ASUS motherboard users.

In the early days of computing, users would never have dreamed of needing more than a few megabytes, let alone a few gigabytes worth of data, and as a result, operating system code was written to reflect this way of thinking. Today, with ever-increasing data densities and hard drive capacities now reaching 3TB and beyond, PC users are still saddled with operating systems unable to use the full capacity of hard drives larger than 2048GB. In other words, storage space can remain unused and inaccessible without a motherboard upgrade.

ASUS Disk Unlocker remedies this problem in a quick and easy fashion, opening up the full capacity of hard drives larger than 2048GB. Disk Unlocker is yet another example of ASUS’ deep commitment to innovation for its customers, allowing them to fully realize the potential of their PCs without the need for an awkward operating system upgrade or costly hardware modification.

The Only Free and Instant Solution for PC Users
ASUS Disk Unlocker is a software utility that enables ASUS motherboards, new or old, to access the full capacity of hard drives with capacities larger than 2048GB. It’s quick to install, requires zero technical knowledge to use, and not only enables current high-capacity hard drives to be fully exploited, but will work with all future hard drive upgrades too.

ASUS Disk Unlocker is offered as a free download from asus.com. Don’t limit your PC to a 2048GB hard drive for the foreseeable future — switch to an ASUS motherboard and realize its full potential today. For more information, visit this page.

Compatible Motherboard Series

Intel Chipsets

X58 Series

P55 Series

H57 Series

H55 Series

X48 Series

P45 Series

P43 Series

G45 Series

G43 Series

G41 Series

X38 Series

P35 Series

G35 Series

G31 Series

946GZ Series

946PL Series

945GC Series

945GZ Series

945P Series

945PL Series

AMD Chipsets

890FX Series

890GX Series

880G Series

870 Series

790FX Series

790GX Series

790X Series

785G Series

780G Series

770 Series

760G Series

740G Series

*

*

*

NVIDIA Chipsets

980a SLI Series

750a SLI Series

780a SLI Series

posted by btarunr - 10:38 AM |  Related News

User comments
by TheLostSwede (October 29th - 11:45 AM) - Reply
But will it allow you to boot from a drive larger than 2TB?
I doubt it, since that's a BIOS limitation.
And is it such a big deal to partition a 3TB+ drive to be able to get access to all the space on it?
Besides, can you actually by any 3TB+ SATA drives yet?
by nINJAkECIL (October 29th - 12:32 PM) - Reply
it's not a bios limitation.it is indeed an OS limitation.the same case happened when u use more than 3gb of ram on 32bit OS.
the bios sees it as 4gb,but the OS can only utilizing 3-3.5gb of usable ram.
and btw,wdc already selling 3tb hdd with HBA.
by TheLostSwede (October 29th - 12:52 PM) - Reply
In this case it's actually a BIOS limitation if you want to boot from a drive larger than 2TB. Using a single partition larger than 2TB is an OS limitation. I'm well aware of of this...
by mastrdrver (October 29th - 1:41 PM) - Reply
According to the PCPer podcast (if I remember right) you can boot from the drive using the add-in card that is suppose to come with the Green 3TB internal drive.

The OS problem, according to the podcast and I remember this correctly, is that it is basically a driver problem. Their words not mine.

Looks like Asus got tired of waiting for Intel or AMD to update their drivers.
by AthlonX2 (October 29th - 1:56 PM) - Reply
this will be hacked in the next 24 hours so no need to buy an asus mb:)
by W1zzard (October 29th - 2:00 PM) - Reply
i thought only windows non-dynamic disks were subject to the 2 tb limit and as soon as you convert your disks to dynamic they can be almost any size ?
by TheMailMan78 (October 29th - 2:12 PM) - Reply
by: W1zzard
i thought only windows non-dynamic disks were subject to the 2 tb limit and as soon as you convert your disks to dynamic they can be almost any size ?
I was under the same impression.
by qwerty_lesh (October 29th - 2:13 PM) - Reply
Its a limitation of Basic disk partition types, I know that for sure.. but doesn't GPT disk partition types overcome all of this anyway? (Introduced since Vista)
by AthlonX2 (October 29th - 2:20 PM) - Reply
by: W1zzard
i thought only windows non-dynamic disks were subject to the 2 tb limit and as soon as you convert your disks to dynamic they can be almost any size ?
i dont think windows can boot from a GPT disk? im probably wrong
by W1zzard (October 29th - 2:50 PM) - Reply
that's correct you can't boot from gpt. i wonder what that asus tool is actually doing

edit:

according to the docs here: http://event.asus.com/mb/2010/Disk_Unlocker/Software/Disk_Unlocker_User_Guide.pdf
it creates a virtual disk on top of the space that you could not create as partition. so now you have an additional virtual hdd that you can create partitions on.
by AthlonX2 (October 29th - 3:22 PM) - Reply
seems lame, why couldnt we just partition it ourselves?
by wahdangun (October 29th - 3:32 PM) - Reply
you need EFI capable motherboard like in apple or some high end motherboard(its usually have instant on program) to use GPT format and boot from it, and maybe this software was to activate GPT support on the EFI bios
by Static~Charge (October 29th - 6:26 PM) - Reply
by: TheLostSwede
Besides, can you actually by any 3TB+ SATA drives yet?
Yes:

Western Digital Caviar Green WD30EZRSDTL 3TB SATA
$239.99
by mastrdrver (October 30th - 1:16 AM) - Reply
Fwiw PCPer pod case from last week (link to page, it's #127):
MP3
iTunes

They pretty much start from the beginning talking about it so no need to jump ahead or anything.
by [H]@RD5TUFF (October 31st - 4:25 PM) - Reply
I'm not sure I really see the need for this, as if you need that kind of space on a boot disk you can always raid. Also why on earth would you need more than 2TB on a boot disk, I have nearly 100 games installed on a 500gb disk with roughly 60 gig free.
by Batou1986 (October 31st - 9:18 PM) - Reply
im just confused where the whole issue is here why would anyone with pc common sense want a single 3tb boot/os drive ?
by BorgOvermind (November 1st - 7:34 AM) - Reply
GPT. Solved.

by: Batou1986
im just confused where the whole issue is here why would anyone with pc common sense want a single 3tb boot/os drive ?

I have a ~3.63TB partition. 4 WD Black 1TB drives in RAID0.
I will upgrade to 2TB RAID 0 for main RAID and another RAID as backup (made of Green drives - probably 2 or 3 3TB drives).
5703 Users online, 4.44 mbps
Quick Search
Already a member?
Username:
Password:
Register Here!
TechPowerUp on Facebook 
TechPowerUp on Google+ 
New Forum Posts
Popular Reviews

Latest VGA Drivers

ATI Catalyst 12.1 WHQL

XP32 | XP64 | W7 32 | W7 64

NVIDIA GeForce 295.73 WHQL

XP32 | XP64 | W7 32 | W7 64