> 2 TB in BIOS mode

[Randybob01]

Just got the parts in today, among them a GA-Z77X-UD5H and a 2 TB WD Caviar Black HD. My intention is to boot from the 2 TB drive, and dual-boot using Windows 7 64-bit and Linux - maybe triple boot Windows XP if I have bad luck with the guest additions in Virtualbox. Anyway, will I need to set this up to boot in UEFI mode if I wish to add a larger HD later, but not boot from that larger drive, only the 2 TB one I have currently? Assume that I would want to add a 5 TB or 10 TB or whatever in the future and not have to chop it up into 2 TB partitions.

 

[mikeymikec]

What was your question again?

AFAIK there isn't an option to "boot in UEFI mode", either it does or it doesn't, surely?

 

[Randybob01]

Windows and Linux can be installed either in UEFI mode (GPT formatted) or in BIOS mode (MBR formatted), from my understanding. If I install them to a 2 TB drive in BIOS mode, will I be able to add a larger hard drive down the road and have partitions of greater than 2 TB on that larger drive?

 

[mv2devnull]

You are mixing to things: the BIOS/UEFI and the partition tables (DOS/GPT).

UEFI has to boot from a GPT disk. BIOS can use either table. UEFI motherboard can support BIOS-style boot too.

DOS partition table cannot address more than 2 TB. For example, it cannot define three 1TB partitions, because that is more than 2TB. GPT can address larger disks.

BIOS can load a bootloader from GPT disk. The bootloader has to be able to load an OS from GPT disk.

The OS has to support GPT. Both Windows 7 and Linux should be able to reside on GPT disk, and they most certainly can use GPT disk for data.

Summary: It does not matter how you install now. You can later add a data disk, partition it with GPT, and use it.