3TB external drive, do I need to prep it somehow?

[AlexAL]

Silly question, but have to ask it.

I just got a 3T external hard drive, the Seagate Expansion USB3.0 (connected to my laptop's USB 2.0 port). Laptop is the one in signature, runs Win 7 Pro x64.

From reading the forums, I thought that I would somehow struggle with getting the drive to be recognized as one 2.7T partition, that I would need an EFI BIOS, convert to GPT, and all other kinds of nightmares.

However, I just plugged the drive in the USB, it was recognized within seconds, and the whole 2.7T NTFS partition is showing. This exactly what I need, but to sound stupid, is it this easy? Will I run into any trouble down the line? When I pass the 2.2T limit on the drive? I definitely don't to boot off it.

I am ready to start reorganizing my backups and starting a new projects, so if someone could lay aside my worries or tell me what to do, please jump in.

 

[Lonyo]

3TB USB drives are fine.

Trying to put it inside a computer on the other hand, is where issues appear.
Should be no problems unless down the line you want to make it an internal drive in a desktop system.

 

[AlexAL]

3TB USB drives are fine.

Trying to put it inside a computer on the other hand, is where issues appear.
Should be no problems unless down the line you want to make it an internal drive in a desktop system.

That is awesome to hear. I'll just go ahead and stop freaking out now.

 

[lamedude]

XP doesn't support GPT but otherwise GPT data drives are easy. Booting off one is when fun begins.