3TB's Partitioned As NTFS With MBR Out There?

[Big_Al_C]

Guys,

Windows 7 Pro SP1 64-Bit with an ASRock P67 PRO3 (B3) MoBo

that has a UEFI BIOS, i5-2500K and Corsair Vengeance 16 Gigs.


My C, D and E partitions are on a 120 GB NTFS SSD with a MBR.

My present STORAGE HDD is a 2TB Toshiba with a MBR.


I recently purchased a Toshiba PH3300U-1I72 3TB to replace the 2TB.


I always Ghost with DOS Bootable CDs I make with custom

Autoexec.bat files I write, never Windows.

I found out from Symantec that Ghost has issues with GPT.


I found a way to make my 3TB FULLY accessible and set as MBR.

It's Acronis True Image, aka Seagates DiskWizard aka WD's version

of DiskWizard. It puts an "Extended Capacity Manager" in the boot

sector so you get one 2.1TB and one 700+GB partition, BOTH MBR.

See: Seagate DiscWizard CloneDisc for drives larger than 3TB_Part-2

I just found this and would like some input before opening the

Toshiba 3TB's box:

Make SURE the 3TB is EMPTY as this will wipe ALL data on the drive

To make a fully accessible 3TB with 4k sector:


1. Boot to desktop.

2. Open "My Computer" in Windows Explorer.

3. Click on the EMPTY 3TB HDD.

4. If the factory made some partitions on it, delete them all.

5. Once it is just one disk, right-click it and click "Format"

6. Select "4096", "NTFS" and "Format".

7. Click OK. Since the 3TB is EMPTY, it should be real quick.

8. It's now ready to be partitioned to your liking up to 2.7 or so

TB's total and is set as MBR.

The reason that I'm posting this is to get feedback from anyone who

has used these programs or the "4096", "NTFS" and "Format" method

to see if the 3TBers work as any other HDD would or are there any

quirks that have come up since partitioning your 3TB?

Please post to me.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Big Al

 

[Steevo]

Is there a actual question in there somewhere?


http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/gg463525.aspx

 

[Big_Al_C]

The reason that I'm posting this is to get feedback from anyone who

has used these programs or the "4096", "NTFS" and "Format" method

to see if the 3TBers work as any other HDD would or are there any

quirks that have come up since partitioning your 3TB?

 

[Steevo]

4096 is the sector size, which is a function of the hardware, not software and should be left at default to match the sector sizes on the disk(s) think of it as the maximum number of papers that will fit inside a folder in the file cabinet, NTFS has nothing to do with what you are asking, it is the most used and stable version of a file system for windows, think of NTFS as the file cabinet that stores your files. All of this is transparent to your use, meaning it happens without any need for you to make decisions, or worry about when and where the files are, the NTFS driver takes care of it all.

I use GPT on all my disks, an efficient setup IMHO is to have your windows installation on your fastest disk(s), then to move all your critical files to disk(s) that will be backed up, and all of your "My" folders. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/redirect-folder-new-location#1TC=windows-7

Then when you reinstall a new or different version of windows just remap your folders, all of your games, and files will remain safe, you can choose what to backup (I don't backup my steam games), but I do backup my videos, pictures, music, and other data.

There is never a need to clone this second disk, as windows will be able to copy the data without issues with simple point and click, or with a command line if you want to feel old school.

 

[Big_Al_C]

Sorry to say that I've heard from numerous people with 3+ TB's

and they have grave reservations about Acronis/Seagate/WD's

Extended Capacity Manager to get full MBR 3TB HDD's and they

say that the "4096", "NTFS" and "Format" won't work.


Well, I HATE to admit defeat, but since I CANNOT find the

Ghost v11.5.1.2298 from GSS 2.5.1 that DOES see GPT HDD's,

I've concluded that my only recourse is to relegate my 3TB to

GPT and to BACKUP status to my 2TB Toshiba and dusted-off 1TB

Hitachi MBR HDD's that I'll be using as my main drives.


After numerous E-Mails to a bunch of Cloning Software companies,

I've settled on MiniTool Partition Wizard v8.1.1 from

http://www.partitionwizard.com (To top it off, it's FREE!!!)

to pre-partition my 3TBer and to do the "Copy partitions from

my 1 and 2TB MBR's to partitions on my 3TB GPT" and use my

Ghost v11.5.1.2269's Make and Restore Bootable CD's to do my

MBR C and D Drive imaging chores.

It's been fun--NOT!

 

[Steevo]

Glad it all worked out, still not sure exactly what the *%$# you are trying to do by cloning. I haven't cloned a drive with any software like that since the mid 2000's. But however you want to make it more difficult, your story bro.

 

[Jetster]

MBR has a 2 Tb limitation. And Acronis will clone a GPT with the bootable disk. I just did one

 

[Steevo]

If you already had those disks why did you get a 3TB? Why not short stroke the 2TB to 1 then create a RAID 0 pair with them and use that for your OS, and the single 3TB for your files? Faster and just as secure and safe as what you are planning now.