Windows Drive Size

[Mike McCall]

The vast majority of systems I see have drives of 1TB or less. Occasionally I'll see a 2TB drive, but they're mostly external.

I'm setting up an internal use machine for video surveillance using a WD Purple 4TB drive. I noticed that only 2TB is usable, and the other 2TB is unavailable. I've read where some say it's a limitation of MBR vs. GPT. Others have said it's due to 512 sector NTFS limitation.

It seems, from what I'm reading, that I should be able to convert the disk from MBR to GPT and get around this limitation. However, AOMEI wants me to purchase their "Professional" version to convert a partition with an OS. I don't mind buying tools, but for something that's very likely a one-off use, it doesn't appeal to me. So, what are my options? Is it easier to wipe the drive and reinstall, or is there an easier approach?

 

[sapphirescales]

You can always keep it MBR and create another 2TB partition on the drive, thus freeing up all 4TB to be used. That being said, did you intentionally format it as MBR? Windows automatically formats drives larger than 2TB in GPT.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Incorrect, the MBR has a 2TB limit. That's a partition limit... not a size limit of logical drives.

If you want to use anything beyond the first 2TB, you have to be GPT. Windows has tools built in for that: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...management/change-an-mbr-disk-into-a-gpt-disk

 

[Mike McCall]

Initially, I assumed (I know, I know), that Windows would simply see the whole disk and format accordingly. However, it seems it only saw 2TB and I was asleep at the wheel. Since I had just set it up yesterday there wasn't anything important on the drive, so I wiped it, made it GPT, and am reinstalling now.

@Sky-Knight, I did see that a few minutes ago, but I chose to wipe and reload.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@Mike McCall Your system behaved normally, you can only use the first 2TB of a disk that's MBR. That's... well MBR!

A clean install is still better, because you wind up with an EFI partition scheme which has many benefits. But you can convert, and it will work, it's just a little slower and less efficient.

 

[Mike McCall]

I find that information I rarely use I sometimes forget about, such as partition limitations. Didn't use to be true, but this is a good example. Not a big deal, except it's frustrating to recall something after the fact, or completely forget stuff I really do know. It also makes me look dumb. I suspect it's largely due to the medications I'm on due to my HA last year. I'm not the same as I was prior to that.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@Mike McCall For those of us working this job, being stupid on something forgotten is akin to waking up in the morning. I blame age myself, but let's be honest... I've forgotten far more than I'll ever know.

It's top of mind for me only because I recently updated the installation images Nexgen uses for its networking appliances. I forget how wonderfully lazy Windows makes me until I need to setup a lightly customized partition structure for Linux.

But most of the time it just doesn't matter because the Windows installer deals with it, and stuff just works.