Partitioning a 4 TB desktop drive

[dg27]

I run Win 7 Pro, 64-bit, SP 1.

I'm gearing up to reconfigure my storage drives and replace my old and small backup drives [all data is on non-OS drives and I do redundant backups for everything]. I've been using an HGST 4 TB in an external case as a data [not backup] drive and am considering reformatting this an external backup drive.

I had serious issues with 4TB drives in this system last year: no matter what I did they weren't recognized [system wouldn't even boot].

I have had an open HDD bay/SATA connection in my desktop since this whole mess started and I'd really like to put it to good use with a 4TB WD CB HDD [on sale right now at a very good price].

Given the mysterious issues I had previously, I was wondering whether getting the naked drive, installing it in an external case temporarily, and creating two 2 TB partitions might avoid the issues. Once it was partitioned and formatted I'd take it out of the case and install in the machine.

Does this seem like a logical workaround?

I don't want to get involved with the hassle of my Win 7 install recognizing it. Also, I have a WD TV Live networked to this system [hard-wired to the router]. That device doesn't recognize a 4 TB drive anyway, so 2 + 2 would be fine.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Unless your mobo's SATA connectors / controllers have a hard 2TB limit (some older Silicon Image PCI RAID controllers did, I think), then you should be able to simply connect the 4TB HDD internally, go into Disk Management in Win7 64-bit, initialize as GPT (important), and then create volumes from there. If you initialize as MBR, you will be limited to only using 2TB of space on that drive.

 

[greenhawk]

I had serious issues with 4TB drives in this system last year: no matter what I did they weren't recognized [system wouldn't even boot].


installing it in an external case temporarily, and creating two 2 TB partitions might avoid the issues. Once it was partitioned and formatted I'd take it out of the case and install in the machine.

for the first, does your board support 4tb drives as boot? IIRC it is only a feature added to systems a few years back. Before that they only just reconized 4TB as storage drives, not boot. A good indication is the motherboard bios, is it graphical or the old keyboard one.

As to the external case idea, that will not work as the usb -> sata controller of the external case does some shifty things to get >2TB drives to work, which basically means when you remove the drive, it is not readable by any other device.

 

[Cerb]

A motherboard should be able to address a >2TB drive without any problem, but booting from one may require not using half of it.

 

[dg27]

for the first, does your board support 4tb drives as boot? IIRC it is only a feature added to systems a few years back. Before that they only just reconized 4TB as storage drives, not boot. A good indication is the motherboard bios, is it graphical or the old keyboard one.

I have the latest BIOS for my machine, but it's an older machine (Dell Studio XPS 9100). From speccy:

Operating System
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1
CPU
Intel Core i7 930 @ 2.80GHz 68 °C
Bloomfield 45nm Technology
RAM
24.0GB Triple-Channel DDR3 @ 666MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard
Dell Inc. 05DN3X (CPU 1)

Keep in mind I'm not trying to boot from it or use it as an OS drive.

As to the external case idea, that will not work as the usb -> sata controller of the external case does some shifty things to get >2TB drives to work, which basically means when you remove the drive, it is not readable by any other device.

I find this odd: do these sata controllers do anything shifty to drives below 2 TB? The reason I asked is that I've previously pulled drives from cases (in this case a Sabrent) and installed them inside machines.

The weirdest thing is that before I switched to an SSD boot drive I had an HSGT 4 TB drive in the machine for storage (same model). After I did a clean install to an SSD I could never get the machine to even recognize the drive.

Thanks for your help.

dg

 

[dg27]

Unless your mobo's SATA connectors / controllers have a hard 2TB limit (some older Silicon Image PCI RAID controllers did, I think), then you should be able to simply connect the 4TB HDD internally, go into Disk Management in Win7 64-bit, initialize as GPT (important), and then create volumes from there. If you initialize as MBR, you will be limited to only using 2TB of space on that drive.

I did initialize as GPT. Machine just froze and would never boot while the 4 TB drive was in there.

Here's what happened:

Upon physically installing the drive, Windows recognized the drive and indicated that it needed to be initialized.

After initializing as GPT, I selected Quick Format as a simple new volume. Win 7 started formatting and formatting hung for 15 minutes then crashed, resulting in a BSOD. When I have formatted other drives it usually takes a couple of minutes at most.

The system will not boot when that drive is connected. It freezes at the Windows screen.

As soon as the drive is disconnected, the system boots in under 10 seconds.

Thanks for your help.

dg

 

[VirtualLarry]

Then the drive is bad, and needs to be RMAed.

 

[Shmee]

Hmm, that is a possibility, I would use something to check smart data.

 

[greenhawk]

I have the latest BIOS for my machine, but it's an older machine (Dell Studio XPS 9100).



Keep in mind I'm not trying to boot from it or use it as an OS drive.



I find this odd: do these sata controllers do anything shifty to drives below 2 TB?


The weirdest thing is that before I switched to an SSD boot drive I had an HSGT 4 TB drive in the machine for storage (same model). After I did a clean install to an SSD I could never get the machine to even recognize the drive.

As a data it should be fine then all things considered.

This was from a quick search online
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/disk-drives/f/3534/t/19462893

basically, I suspect upon doing a reinstall of windows, only the default windows drivers from intel where installed, in which case, you will need to download the more up to date motherboard drivers from intel directly to get 4Tb drives working again.


As to the USB - sata cases, below 2 tb they are fine. It is not the drive they do anything shifty to, it is how the data is recorded. So anything you copy to the drive and want later, moving the drive with data will not work.

Though if you had the normal external USB drive docks they are all fine. It is just the controllers in the cases that are not "meant" to be opened.

As to the drive stopping working once you installed a SSD, that is odd. Anything else change like the sata port the drive was on or any settings in the bios changed for the ssd to work better?

 

[dg27]

As a data it should be fine then all things considered.

This was from a quick search online
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/disk-drives/f/3534/t/19462893

basically, I suspect upon doing a reinstall of windows, only the default windows drivers from intel where installed, in which case, you will need to download the more up to date motherboard drivers from intel directly to get 4Tb drives working again.

Thanks--this is very, very helpful. I am always very organized when doing clean installs on any of my machines; I have folders with the drivers I installed. I checked and it appears I did install the correct drivers from the Intel site.

As to the drive stopping working once you installed a SSD, that is odd. Anything else change like the sata port the drive was on or any settings in the bios changed for the ssd to work better?

Nothing else changed. I only followed the procedures for installing a Samsung 840 Pro as the boot. The first HGST I bought to use once I went SSD was RMA'd. I have been using the replacement in a Sabrent enclosure ever since and have never had any issues.

As a workaround, I'm wondering whether installing a separate controller card might resolve the issue. I'd use one of the internal ports for a 4 TB drive and one external for one of my backup enclosures. Like this:

http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Port-Express-eSATA-Controller/dp/B00952N2DQ/ref=cm_wl_huc_item

Thanks for all the help, everyone.