Is it possible to use 3.0 TB HDD in Windows - 7 ?

[dan99t]

Hi,

Is it possible to use 3.0 TB HDD in Windows -7 ?

I have been using 2.0 TB HDD to store my big files. It has Crashed so I want to replace it with a 3.0 TB Western Digital internal HDD.

I do have a 2.0 TB external USB back up HDD ( Seagate GoFlex ) & want to clone it to 3.0 TB HDD to transfer all the files.

I have Acronis True Image Home to clone the backed Up Seagate 2.0 TB GoFlex HDD to new 3.0 TB WD HDD.

Is this possible & how do I go about it before I purchase a new 3.0 TB WD internal HDD ?

Thanks

 

[hans007]

I have a wd 3tb in my machine and it works fine . If a 3tb didn't work in win 7 what is would it work on?

Make sure your cloning software supports the bigger drives.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I would imagine Windows 7 has a decently high limit, even XP and under had limits beyond what was available at their release time.

The issue is the controller. I've seen controllers that have "3TB support" so I'm guessing it means some controllers do not support 3TB drives, so something to look into before buying a drive.

 

[Carson Dyle]

I do have a 2.0 TB external USB back up HDD ( Seagate GoFlex ) & want to clone it to 3.0 TB HDD to transfer all the files.

If this isn't a system disk, why bother with 'cloning' it? Just copy all of the files to the new drive. If the files were critical I'd probably use Robocopy (/mir) and have it generate a log file that can be reviewed afterward to be sure everything was copied successfully.

 

[BFG10K]

Of course it’ll work, you just have to partition it as GPT instead of MBR if you want to use partitions bigger than 2.19TB.

Also if you haven’t brought the drive yet, get a Red instead of a Green.

 

[taltamir]

You need GPT for a partition over 2TB
You can't convert MBR to GPT without discarding all data on the drive (for some odd reason)
So make sure you convert it to GPT and THEN transfer the files.
No point in cloning though when you can just copy the files (unless its the OS partition)

Make sure to copy rather then move files in case the new drive fails after a few hours of use and you lose data.

 

[mv2devnull]

Of course it’ll work, you just have to partition it as GPT instead of MBR if you want to use partitions bigger than 2.19TB

Not quite. You have to partition as GPT is you want to address more than 2.19TB. It is not about the size of partitions. It is about the addressing and MBR cannot address space beyond 2.19TB.


Yes, Windows 7 can use GPT drives and therefore use 3TB drives.

 

[Carson Dyle]

What happens if a drive with a GPT partition table is read by a computer with an older OS? Is it even possible?

 

[mv2devnull]

"Older" as in Win XP 32-bit or earlier. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/gg463525.aspx

Or in short: OS that does not understand the partition table does not find partitions and therefore does not see the filesystems either. All it sees is a raw disk.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Do all hard drives formatted by Vista and Win7 automatically (i.e. by default) use GPT, or only those over 2.19 TB?

 

[mv2devnull]

No, they don't.

 

[darkfalz]

No, they don't.

Actually it will depend on whether you boot your Windows 7 installation CD in UEFI or Legacy mode.

 

[taltamir]

Actually it will depend on whether you boot your Windows 7 installation CD in UEFI or Legacy mode.

from experience I can tell that win7 is quite stupid about this and also lying.
It gave false warnings and messed things up.
It made it MBR at first on my UEFI mobo even though it said it couldn't. Then I used gparted to delete partitions and make it gpt and then it told me it might not work... except it only says that half the time or so (2 out of 3 attempts). And it works with no issue.

Oh, and the advice of installing windows in RAID and then running it in AHCI is bad for GPT. Windows installs in GPT in such a manner that you cannot change between RAID, AHCI, and IDE modes.

 

[taltamir]

Not quite. You have to partition as GPT is you want to address more than 2.19TB. It is not about the size of partitions. It is about the addressing and MBR cannot address space beyond 2.19TB.


Yes, Windows 7 can use GPT drives and therefore use 3TB drives.

If your drive had 4k native sectors then MBR could address 16TiB instead of 2TiB.

2TiB = 2.199023255552 TB

 

[mv2devnull]

If your drive had 4k native sectors then MBR could address 16TiB instead of 2TiB.

That is also true, but since every component has to support native 4k before that is feasible, I did not consider it necessary to mention at this point in time. We do have enough confusion with what we already do have.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Maybe a small note, that you need an UEFI BIOS for it to be the system drive. Else any BIOS will work for a secondary drive and GPT.

 

[mv2devnull]

"Need" is overrated. Some OS with some bootloaders can boot and run via legacy BIOS from GPT drive. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table#OS_support_of_GPT

Some OS cannot ...