Is it possible to create more than 1 partition on an internal MBR HDD larger than 2 TB?

[eddman]

I've read a lot about MBR's 2 TB limitation, but still am not sure if it's a drive limitation or partition limitation.

Has anyone here ever partitioned such a drive? Can it be done, and if so, can I use it as my main/boot drive or do I have to use it as secondary?

I'm planning on buying a large 3 or 4 TB internal HDD, but do not want to risk wasting money if it's going to be limited to just a single 2 TB partition.

P.S. I have an old, non-UEFI mainboard, so no GPT support. I'm using windows 10 64-bit.

 

[Ratman6161]

Here is what Microsoft has to say about it:

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com...erstanding-the-2-tb-limit-in-windows-storage/

But essentially, yes, its a partition limitation. You would just partition the drive with each individual partition being 2 TB or less.

Here is another thought though. If you con't already have an SSD as your boot drive, spend some money on that first. Get a 2 TB drive for $62 ( https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B013JPKT9O/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ) and if that starts getting full, get a second one later.

 

[eddman]

Here is another thought though. If you con't already have an SSD as your boot drive, spend some money on that first. Get a 2 TB drive for $62 and if that starts getting full, get a second one later.

Thanks. Glad it's just a partition limitation. I should be able to boot from it if the need arises, right? Some people claim it can't be done with >2TB MBR disks on non-UEFI boards, but I don't see why not.

I might buy an SSD in the near future. I already have a secondary internal 2 TB HDD which is near full. If I'm buying another, I'd certainly go for 3, 4 or even larger sizes. That 2 TB filled up rather fast.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Here is what Microsoft has to say about it:

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com...erstanding-the-2-tb-limit-in-windows-storage/

But essentially, yes, its a partition limitation. You would just partition the drive with each individual partition being 2 TB or less.

Nope. Wrong. That writeup is woefully incomplete.

The hard fact is, if you are using MBR partition format, on a drive with 512 bytes per sector, you will be limited to being only able to use the first 2TB of storage space on the physical drive. Regardless of how many partitions you make.

If you want to use a larger than 2TB physical drive, you NEED to use GPT. I believe that Windows 7 64-bit is the first MS OS to be able to boot GPT, when using UEFI boot mode. You can use a GPT-partitioned data-only drive in Windows 7, and maybe even Vista. (Don't think XP 32-bit supports it, XP 64-bit may, for data drives.)

 

[eddman]

Nope. Wrong. That writeup is woefully incomplete.

The hard fact is, if you are using MBR partition format, on a drive with 512 bytes per sector, you will be limited to being only able to use the first 2TB of storage space on the physical drive. Regardless of how many partitions you make.

I see, but all HDDs nowadays have 4096 byte physical sectors, so it shouldn't be an issue.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I see, but all HDDs nowadays have 4096 byte physical sectors, so it shouldn't be an issue.

But consumer HDDs, are still 512e. You would have to use a 4Kn server drive, to get around that limitation.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Just eavesdropping on Larry and Eddman. My old Win 7 systems (Sandy and Ivy) are exclusive to MBR. I finally made the swing to GPT for my Skylake box.

Before that, I would briefly ponder the limitations of this thread-topic, and still walk away a bit puzzled but confirmed that I didn't need physical disks greater than 2TB.

But I just happened to install Acronis True Image 2014 on my server. I might not use it now, but Acronis touted a feature that lets you use drives sized > 2TB. It may be that one has to create additional volumes on those drives -- I don't know, I never pursued it.

Even so, I don't think it's all that wise to introduce the complications of another software package to manage such hardware features. You can look at it, if it floats your boat. You can get later Acronis TI for a very good price . . .

 

[Iron Woode]

if you try using a 3tb hdd with mbr you will get 2 partitions: 2.2tb and 800gb. I did this by mistake when trying to set up a 3tb hdd as a boot drive and windows set the drive up that way. It worked fine as a boot drive but not as one large drive. I learned the hard way I needed to boot the drive in UEFI to create a 3tb boot drive.

 

[eddman]

if you try using a 3tb hdd with mbr you will get 2 partitions: 2.2tb and 800gb. I did this by mistake when trying to set up a 3tb hdd as a boot drive and windows set the drive up that way. It worked fine as a boot drive but not as one large drive. I learned the hard way I needed to boot the drive in UEFI to create a 3tb boot drive.

Ah, so it worked. Were both partitions available to use? I never setup my discs as one whole partition, so having multiple ones is not an issue.

I needed to boot the drive in UEFI

Hmm, so your board is UEFI, and it was simply in legacy BIOS mode, right? My board is BIOS only. I wonder if that makes a difference.

 

[Iron Woode]

Ah, so it worked. Were both partitions available to use? I never setup my discs as one whole partition, so having multiple ones is not an issue.

yes, it worked and windows did the partitioning for me. You must format both drives of course.

Hmm, so your board is UEFI, and it was simply in legacy BIOS mode, right? My board is BIOS only. I wonder if that makes a difference.

yes, my board was UEFI but I booted the hdd in legacy mode while not realizing it. I had to google the issue until I learned what to do. My Asus BIOS (H81M-E) made it tricky to set up UEFI booting for the drive.

In your case you can use windows partition manager while installing. If that is not suitable, there are many free hdd partitioning software that can boot off the USB or even from windows to setup the hdd.

 

[TheELF]

Hmm, so your board is UEFI, and it was simply in legacy BIOS mode, right? My board is BIOS only. I wonder if that makes a difference.

No legacy mode is the same as mbr bios.
Check out your mobo webpage,most of them have a 3tb fix somewhere.
Both my old mbr bios and my new uefi bios mobo has it on their sites.
It's as they said before, if you want to boot off of it it has to be a 2tb maximum boot partition and the rest in partitions.