4TB drive with Win7, x64?

[drjones]

I'm looking to build a PC and it needs a lot of internal storage; are there any unusual/different steps needed in order to get Windows 7 x64 to load onto a 4TB drive and use it as a boot disk?

If there are any different steps involved, I'd rather just get a small boot disk and use the 4TB as a secondary.

Thanks!

 

[SAG]

I'm looking to build a PC and it needs a lot of internal storage; are there any unusual/different steps needed in order to get Windows 7 x64 to load onto a 4TB drive and use it as a boot disk?

If there are any different steps involved, I'd rather just get a small boot disk and use the 4TB as a secondary.

Thanks!

I'm pretty sure you'll need a UEFI and format GPT.
Even then, your BIOS will need to be supported and make sure you get the latest storage drivers.

4TB? That's alot of internal storage this thing needs that you are risking to a single disk.

 

[drjones]

I'm pretty sure you'll need a UEFI and format GPT.
Even then, your BIOS will need to be supported and make sure you get the latest storage drivers.

4TB? That's alot of internal storage this thing needs that you are risking to a single disk.

This machine is going to be an offsite backup destination for Crashplan.

Unfortunately, Crashplan doesn't allow you to span backup archives across multiple disks; it must be on one single logical drive.

You can, fortunately, specify which disk crashplan is to store backups on, whether it's a USB or internal other than the OS disk.

I'm not going to fuss with RAID, so one single physical disk it is....and a small primary/OS disk, with a 4TB internal looks like what I'll be doing.

I'll probably be repurposing an older PC for this; any special needs there to have the 4TB as a secondary disk, or are the BIOS needs only if I wanted to boot off the 4TB?

Thank you!

 

[SAG]

This machine is going to be an offsite backup destination for Crashplan.

Unfortunately, Crashplan doesn't allow you to span backup archives across multiple disks; it must be on one single logical drive.

You can, fortunately, specify which disk crashplan is to store backups on, whether it's a USB or internal other than the OS disk.

I'm not going to fuss with RAID, so one single physical disk it is....and a small primary/OS disk, with a 4TB internal looks like what I'll be doing.

I'll probably be repurposing an older PC for this; any special needs there to have the 4TB as a secondary disk, or are the BIOS needs only if I wanted to boot off the 4TB?

Thank you!

Ahhh, I see. Budget offsite backup.
Initialize the secondary disk as GPT, and make sure the BIOS supports supports it. The BIOS is key on an older computer. Quite a bit do not support 4TB disks.

You could save a few bucks by using Linux instead of a good Windows 7 license for the backup "server"... can even do it headless and remotely connect the Crashplan UI to it.

 

[drjones]

Ahhh, I see. Budget offsite backup.
Initialize the secondary disk as GPT, and make sure the BIOS supports supports it. The BIOS is key on an older computer. Quite a bit do not support 4TB disks.

You could save a few bucks by using Linux instead of a good Windows 7 license for the backup "server"... can even do it headless and remotely connect the Crashplan UI to it.

I'm going to reinstall the same key that was on the sticker.

Thank you though!

 

[NYJimbo]

Can you deal with Linux ? If Crashplan allows for different "folders" then you could mount the hell out of it with 4TB drives.

 

[SAG]

Can you deal with Linux ? If Crashplan allows for different "folders" then you could mount the hell out of it with 4TB drives.

I've looked at it, and for basic backup it's actually rather cool.
Limitation of the free version though (and maybe paid? I dunno) is that it backs up to one location. Something like C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Crashplan by default. You can change it, but still only get one location... one folder.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

I think its always best to have the os drive separate if you can.

 

[Altster]

Here is some info you will want to look at before you go any further with this setup!

And I agree with having the O/S on a separate boot drive - that's the way I have it on my Linux AND 2003 server setups.

 

[drjones]

Here is some info you will want to look at before you go any further with this setup!

And I agree with having the O/S on a separate boot drive - that's the way I have it on my Linux AND 2003 server setups.

Thanks, but again; everyone I've run this past agrees to always keep my OS separate from storage disks, so my boot disk will be a 500GB drive.

The link you posted - thanks for that - says there aren't any issues whatsoever with Win7 reading a 3 or 4TB disk as purely a secondary/data drive like I want to do....

 

[SAG]

Thanks, but again; everyone I've run this past agrees to always keep my OS separate from storage disks, so my boot disk will be a 500GB drive.

The link you posted - thanks for that - says there aren't any issues whatsoever with Win7 reading a 3 or 4TB disk as purely a secondary/data drive like I want to do....

Initialize the secondary disk as GPT

Just keep this point in mind.

 

[Knightsman]

Take a look at crashplan proe. It will allow you to backup offsite for up to 4 of those computers for $60 yr license. It will allow you to choose different storage locations.

Let me add, your not restricted, you can backup as many computers as you want as long as you have the licences.