How do I get the full 3TB volume?

[lsquare]

I recently bought a Seagate 3TB HDD. I know that in order to get the full 3TB volume, I'll have to format it with GPT. I also have Windows 7 64-bit installed. Under Disk Management, there are two volumes. One is 2047.9 GB and the other is 746.52 GB. Can someone tell me how to merge the two volumes and then format it with GPT so that I get the full 3TB? I only intend to use this as a "data drive". The OS will boot off an SSD.

 

[serpretetsky]

You shouldn't have to merge them (unless you aready have important data on them). Erase both of them and reformat the entire drive as a single GPT Volume

 

[lsquare]

You shouldn't have to merge them (unless you aready have important data on them). Erase both of them and reformat the entire drive as a single GPT Volume

How do I erase both of them and reformat the entire drive as a single GPT volume?

 

[serpretetsky]

in disk management, right click the volume you want to delete and select "delete volume". Once you've deleted the volumes, right click the unallocated space and select "format" or "create new volume"

 

[Rackmountsales]

With drivers or programs that don't allow a full 3TB partition, you can use Windows dynamic volumes to combine two partitions into a single drive letter.

 

[lsquare]

in disk management, right click the volume you want to delete and select "delete volume". Once you've deleted the volumes, right click the unallocated space and select "format" or "create new volume"

I did, but I don't see any option to delete volume. I tried following Seagate's advice, but it still doesn't work!

 

[taltamir]

You do not format it in GPT you convert it to GPT.

1. Rightclick ALL existing partitions and select "delete volume".
2. When the drive is nothing but free space right click on the square box on the right that says "disk 1" "basic" "online" "XGB" and has a little drive image and select "convert to GPT".
3. Rightclick on the free space and select "create volume".

If windows is being iffy about it then use gparted. Its how I converted my intel SSD 520 into GPT.

 

[lsquare]

You do not format it in GPT you convert it to GPT.

1. Rightclick ALL existing partitions and select "delete volume".
2. When the drive is nothing but free space right click on the square box on the right that says "disk 1" "basic" "online" "XGB" and has a little drive image and select "convert to GPT".
3. Rightclick on the free space and select "create volume".

If windows is being iffy about it then use gparted. Its how I converted my intel SSD 520 into GPT.

It doesn't work. There is no option to delete the volume. It doesn't work. There is no option to delete because there isn't a volume per se. Right now it just says 2047.90GB unallocated. 746.52GB unallocated as well. However, it does say 2794.52GB and it's online. The option to convert it to GPT is greyed out. This is really starting to piss me off! I've never been in a situation like this before!

 

[taltamir]

It doesn't work. There is no option to delete the volume. It doesn't work. There is no option to delete because there isn't a volume per se. Right now it just says 2047.90GB unallocated. 746.52GB unallocated as well. However, it does say 2794.52GB and it's online. The option to convert it to GPT is greyed out. This is really starting to piss me off! I've never been in a situation like this before!

1. Can you provide a screenshot? (hit prt scr (above the insert button) and then past into paint, save as a jpg or png and upload to photobucket and paste the img code link here.)

2. you can always try gparted, its what I used to do the conversion on my drive.
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

 

[lsquare]

Something doesn't look right too. I think I may know why I can't convert the two volumes to GPT. I'm sure most of you guys know that Windows 7 creates a 100MB partition on the primary drive. The weird part is that I see that 100MB partition in the HDD. How did that happen? I know for a fact that I picked the SSD as the primary drive to install Windows 7. Yet, I don't see that partition on the SSD and instead it's on the HDD.

What's going on?

 

[taltamir]

Yea, you need to delete that "System Reserved" partition before you can convert the drive to GPT.

Of course, if you delete it then your OS will not boot anymore.

Windows somehow always manages to install its bootloader (NTLDR & 100MB system reserved partition) on the wrong drive, always. It doesn't care what the BIOS boot order, it doesn't care what the SATA numbers are... if there are 2 drives or more it will install it on the wrong drive.

The only way to avoid it is to unplug ALL drives except one when installing windows. then when you are done plug them back in.

What you should do is:
1. Unplug all drives except the 3TB one.
2. run gparted, deleted all partitions, convert to GPT.
3. Unplug 3TB drive, plug in SSD. Only SSD should be connected.
4. Reinstall windows to SSD.
5. Plug all drives back in.
6. Use Disk Management to partition 3TB drive and to change drive letters as desired.

 

[yacoub]

nm, resolved it. thanks! this thread was helpful.

 

[coffeejunkee]

Windows somehow always manages to install its bootloader (NTLDR & 100MB system reserved partition) on the wrong drive, always. It doesn't care what the BIOS boot order, it doesn't care what the SATA numbers are... if there are 2 drives or more it will install it on the wrong drive.

Ehm no? I did plenty of installs with more than 1 drive connected and worked fine. But it seems os drive has to be on first sata port. Still a bit weird, the 100MB partition is to ensure correct alignment on ssd, so put it on the ssd you silly Windows.

 

[serpretetsky]

Ehm no? I did plenty of installs with more than 1 drive connected and worked fine. But it seems os drive has to be on first sata port. Still a bit weird, the 100MB partition is to ensure correct alignment on ssd, so put it on the ssd you silly Windows.

I always put my main drive on the first sata port (usually SATA0 or SATA1). Windows still manages to put the boot information on the other drive :\. I've just learned to unplug the other drive during install, sometimes i still forget though.

 

[murphyc]

I don't see this mentioned anywhere in the thread: Windows on BIOS hardware requires MBR for boot disks, but will use either MBR or GPT partition schemes for non-boot disks. Therefore on BIOS hardware the boot disk is effectively limited to 2TB short of convoluted schemes (some of which are proprietary). This is a disk size limit, not a partition limit.

To support GPT for boot disks requires UEFI hardware in UEFI boot mode (not legacy BIOS mode as some UEFI hardware have a CSM for backward compatibility).

 

[CtoNa]

1. If there is nothing in your data drive, delete it and do Extend Volume in Disk Management.
2. If there are something you need in your data drive, try Merge Partitions feature of free AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. It will create a new folder named in target C drive to store the data on your data drive, no data will be lost.

 

[WilliamM2]

1. If there is nothing in your data drive, delete it and do Extend Volume in Disk Management.
2. If there are something you need in your data drive, try Merge Partitions feature of free AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. It will create a new folder named in target C drive to store the data on your data drive, no data will be lost.

He solved his problem... 5 1/2 YEARS ago.

 

[taltamir]

Ehm no? I did plenty of installs with more than 1 drive connected and worked fine. But it seems os drive has to be on first sata port. Still a bit weird, the 100MB partition is to ensure correct alignment on ssd, so put it on the ssd you silly Windows.

Ensuring that the first (lowest number) SATA port is your OS drive does not actually ensure that it will install there. I quite often had it install the bootloader on, for example, SATA4 when SATA 1 or 0 or was the OS drive

 

[corkyg]

Agree with Taltamir. This week, my OS/boot drive is SATA2. This is all designated in BIOS boot settings.

 

[CtoNa]

He solved his problem... 5 1/2 YEARS ago.

Oh...I'm sorry.