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Partitioned new 3TB HHD and cannot use unallocated space

Duder1no

Duder1no

Senior member
I installed a new 3TB HDD, boot up and successfully install windows 7, then I installed Easus Partition Manager and proceeded to reduce "C" partition to 100 GB (for OS/Programs use) and another "D" partition, but when I was creating it Easus only could create a 2 TB partition, so now there are ~750 GB unallocated HDD space after the 2 TB "D" partition and Easus does not allow me to create a new partition out of it, this is a screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/wNE2SWX.jpg

What can I do to recover this unallocated space please?
 
You can only boot from a GPT drive if you're running 64bit windows and using EUFI based system. If you don't meet those requirements the installer will give you trouble.
 
Duder1no said:
My current Windows 7 installation is 32-bit, it has always been 32-bit, so what are my options then?
Click to expand...
You have to meet this three conditions to use the 3TB partition as a whole.
1. UEFI motherboard
2. 64 bit Windows
3. GPT partitioning

Anything less and it wouldn't work. I've tried on both of my 3TB WD Greens and they work flawlessly.
 
What motherboard and CPU do you have?

Can you have two hard drives? If yes, then have a small primary drive with MBR that Windows boots from. Then have the 3TB with GPT as data drive. Works with the 32-bit Windows without UEFI.
 
If you have nice graphics and mouse control in your bios then it is a uefi one.
You don't have to change anything though,make your first partition smaller,under 2tb, then you will be able to make another partition with the rest of the space.

Mbr isn't able to make partitions on 2tb or beyond.
 
TheELF said:
If you have nice graphics and mouse control in your bios then it is a uefi one.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately I have neither 🙁


mv2devnull said:
What motherboard and CPU do you have?

Can you have two hard drives? If yes, then have a small primary drive with MBR that Windows boots from. Then have the 3TB with GPT as data drive. Works with the 32-bit Windows without UEFI.
Click to expand...

This is a great idea, I will have to look into this since I can install 2 HDDs.

2 questions:

How big can the "small" primary drive be for windows 7 and several installed programs?

How does the 3TB drive have to be formatted in order to be used as a data drive with the 32-bit Windows without UEFI?
 
Last edited:
TheELF said:
make your first partition smaller,under 2tb, then you will be able to make another partition with the rest of the space.

Mbr isn't able to make partitions on 2tb or beyond.
Click to expand...
No.

The partition table in MBR format lists the first and last sector address (LBA) of each partition. The largest LBA value that can be stored in the table points to just above 2TiB, when sector size is 512B. Therefore, you cannot have any part of any partition beyond that limit.

GPT uses a larger integer type and can thus address way more.

Some USB drives report 4kB sectors, so for them the MBR's limit is ~16TiB.

Duder1no said:
how big can the "small" primary drive be for windows 7 and all several installed programs?

How does the 3TB drive have to be formatted in order to be used as a data drive with the 32-bit Windows without UEFI?
Click to expand...
Windows 7 supports symbolic links and therefore one can relocate folders into second drive transparently. How much absolutely has to be on boot volume? I'm not sure.

Create GPT partition table on the 3TB drive. Create partition(s) as necessary. Format them with NTFS.
 
Last edited:
Duder1no said:
Unfortunately I have neither 🙁


This is a great idea, I will have to look into this since I can install 2 HDDs.

2 questions:

How big can the "small" primary drive be for windows 7 and several installed programs?

How does the 3TB drive have to be formatted in order to be used as a data drive with the 32-bit Windows without UEFI?
Click to expand...
Assuming your BIOS supports AHCI mode, you could buy a 128GB SSD and have plenty of room for Win 7 and several programs if they're not too huge. You'll get a big performance boost as well if you have at least a SATA 2 port on the motherboard (SATA 3 is best).

As others have said, the data drive needs to be formatted as GPT to use the full 3TB. Your drive manufacturer probably provided a formatting utility with the drive (don't choose "XP compatible" or you'll get MBR) or you could do it from Win 7 Drive Management.
 
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