Bug_zs Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 Hi, I run Windows 7 Pro 64-Bitwith a ASRock P67 PRO3 (B3) MoBothat has a UEFI BIOS.I have EaseUS Partition Master Pro v9.2.2and EaseUS Partition Wizard Home v8.1.1as well as Acronis Disk Director 11 Home Build 11.0.2121My C, D and E partitions are on a 120 GB NTFS SSD with a MBR.I installed Windows 7 on a pre-partitioned SSD so no hidden"System Partition".I'm getting a Toshiba PH3300U-1I72 3TB HDD that willhave to be GPT Partitioned to get the full 3TBs.It will be used as storage only on partitions "F" thru "M".F will be 2.629 TB's Set As Fat32G will be 1 GB's Set As Fat32H will be 5 GB's Set As Fat32I will be 4 GB's Set As NTFSJ will be 30 GB's Set As Fat32K will be 20 GB's Set As Fat32L will be 50 GB's Set As Fat32M will be 50 GB's Set As Fat32My question: Can my Toshiba 3TB be partitioned as above?Thanks in advance for any help you can be.Bugz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaclaz Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 Strictly speaking, even if you can, it doesn't really mean that you should.Can you provide the background (reasons, requisites, requirements, whatever) that made you design that partitioning scheme?Particularly the 2.629 Tb partition FAT32 is perplexing.The "recommended" max size of a FAT32 filesystem is 32 Gb (which while making sense, can be extended within limits, like the 50 Gb of your volumes L: and M:, using a third party formatting tool) but the issue here is that:http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc938432.aspxThe maximum number of clusters on a FAT32 volume is 4,177,918Approximately 2,629,000,000,000/4,177,918=629260,794would imply 1024 Kb clusters, which - even if they would be supported :unsure. - are HUGE!Compare with common cluster sizes in use:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/140365/en-usMaybe you could consider to make that large volume exFAT should NTFS (which would be a senceful choice), for whatever reasons, doesn't suit you.jaclaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bug_zs Posted December 21, 2013 Author Share Posted December 21, 2013 OK guys, course is changing a little:I would make 5 partitions, 4 NTFS and one small FAT32.I use Norton's Ghost weekly and it has issues with GPT.I proceeded to contact various partitioning/cloning softwarecompanies to see if their products could be used in place ofGhost.The partial exchange below is between TeraByte Unlimited and me:TBU:"If your new drive uses 4K sector sizes youwouldn't need to have a GPT."Me:Please elaborate.BTW, This is what my present Toshiba 2TB looks like:http://i.technet.microsoft.com/dynimg/IC546236.jpgTBU:If you expose the 4K sector size and not the emulatednormal 512 byte sector size, you can use an MBR anduse the entire space (up to 16TiB).0xFFFFFFFF*512=2,199,023,255,0400xFFFFFFFF*4096=17,592,186,040,320Me:With what software and what is the procedure to go aboutdoing this?Can it be done via a Bootable CD or must it be done in Windowswith just my SSD and empty 3TB connected?TBU:It would be a drive feature/option, typically usinga jumper. The BIOS would also have to support the largersizes too so it doesn't crash reading larger sectors, amodern BIOS should be able to handle it.My hunt for answers from Toshiba is a lost cause as theirsupport is a TOTAL joke and does NOT offer E-Mail support.So, I'm here to find out if this "exposing the 4K sector size" can,indeed, be done to my PH3300U-1I72, and if so, EXACTLY how to goabout doing it.Also, are there any shortcomings to having the Toshiba "exposingthe 4K sector size" using 5 partitions, 4 NTFS and one small FAT32?Big Al Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aurgathor Posted December 22, 2013 Share Posted December 22, 2013 You have several options:a) find a SW that works with GPTb) partition tye drive with MBR and lose a little less than 1 TB (you can repartition it with GPT later)c) use a smaller (2TB or less) for Ghosting and then copy the stuff into the 3TB driveWhile you can go bigger, FAT32 partitions should be under 128 gig. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaclaz Posted December 22, 2013 Share Posted December 22, 2013 I am failing to see why a hybrid MBR cannot be used, though as the good Terabyte guys told you if the disk has 4k sectors it should work in pure MBR without issues read here:http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/158361-confirmed-3tb-hdd-usb-drive-on-winxp-32bit/and/or try a hybrid MBR/GPT:http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/hybrid.htmljaclaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bug_zs Posted December 22, 2013 Author Share Posted December 22, 2013 Semi-Good News:I found a way to make my 3TB FULLY accessible and set as MBR.It's Acronis True Image, aka Seagates DiskWizard aka WD's versionof DiskWizard. It puts an "Extended Capacity Manager" in the bootsector so you get one 2.1TB and one 700+GB partition, BOTH MBR.See: Seagate DiscWizard CloneDisc for drives larger than 3TB_Part-2The reason that I'm posting this is to get feedback from anyone whohas used these programs to see if the 3TBers work as any other HDDwould or are there any quirks that have come up since partitioningyour 3TB?Please post to me.Thanks in advance for your help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaclaz Posted December 22, 2013 Share Posted December 22, 2013 Semi-Good News:It puts an "Extended Capacity Manager" in the boot sector so you get one 2.1TB and one 700+GB partition, BOTH MBR.Allow me to doubt that statement.Let's do it like this :Install that thingy, then see if Ghost (from DOS) sees the "Extended Capacity" Volume.If you are going that way, if I were you I would rather use Asrock's utility, instead:http://www.asrock.com/feature/3tb/jaclaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bug_zs Posted December 23, 2013 Author Share Posted December 23, 2013 Allow me to doubt that statement.So software that's been out since 2+ HDDs have been sold by the 2 biggest HDDcompanies is suspect to you? Not to mention how long Acronis has been on the scene.>Guys,>Windows 7 Pro SP1 64-Bit"3TB+ Unlocker tool offers a tweak-friendly feature, breaking the limitation of32-bit operation system that could only detect the hard disk within 2048GB"ASRocks goof.I just found this and would like some input:Make SURE the 3TB is EMPTY as this will wipe ALL data on the driveTo make a fully accessible 3TB with 4k sector:1. Boot to desktop.2. Open "My Computer" in Windows Explorer.3. Click on the EMPTY 3TB HDD.4. If the factory made some partitions on it, delete them all.5. Once it is just one disk, right-click it and click "Format"6. Select "4096", "NTFS" and "Format".7. Click OK. Since the 3TB is EMPTY, it should be real quick.8. It's now ready to be partitioned to your liking up to 2.7 or soTB's total and is set as MBR.So, has anyone used these programs or the "4096", "NTFS" and "Format"method?Big Al Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaclaz Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 No.What I doubt is your statement that "It puts an "Extended Capacity Manager" in the boot sector", maybe it is in the MBR (and I presume in some of the hidden sectors, I doubt in the bootsector).But however, if I had to choose a "software tool", I would personally test first the one produced by the manufacturer of the board and only later a "third party tool".Just for the record, Acronis has in the past produced exceptionally good software but also had some hiccups and caused some issues.To recap, if I were you I would:firstly try without any software add-on, as it is very possible that the Toshiba can exposes 4 kb sectors alright secondly try the motherboard manufacturer tool <- which surely has been tested on the specific motherboard thirdly try third party software - please consider how the Seagate version of the Acronis tool will only work on Seagate disk drives (besides only being licensed for use on them and not on other brand devices) so you will need to either find out if Toshiba provides it or buy a full license form Acroniis for the productjaclaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bug_zs Posted January 5, 2014 Author Share Posted January 5, 2014 Sorry to say that I've heard from numerous people with 3+ TB's and they have grave reservations about Acronis/Seagate/WD's Extended Capacity Manager to get full MBR 3 TB HDD's and they say that the "4096", "NTFS" and "Format" won't work. Well, I HATE to admit defeat, but since I CANNOT find the Ghost v11.5.1.2298 from GSS 2.5.1 that DOES see GPT HDD's, I've concluded that my only recourse is to relegate my 3TB to GPT and to BACKUP status to my 2TB Toshiba and dusted-off 1TB Hitachi MBR HDD's that I'll be using as my main drives. After numerous E-Mails to a bunch of Cloning Software companies, I've settled on MiniTool Partition Wizard v8.1.1 (to top it off, it's FREE!!!) to pre-partition my 3 TB-er and to do the "Copy partitions from my 1 and 2 TB MBR's to partitions on my 3 TB GPT" and use my Ghost v11.5.1.2269's Make and Restore Bootable CD's to do my MBR C and D Drive imaging chores. It's been fun--NOT! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dencorso Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 Just to avoid any wild-goose chases, rest assured that there is no Ghost32.exe (or Ghostexp.exe or GDisk32.exe) v. 11.5.1.2298. 12/14/2010 ========================================================== patch version - GSS 2.5.1 build 2298 - Issues Resolved PROBLEM: ngctw32.exe crashes with a C0000005 error message. Moreover, the upper limit for any MBR using 512 byte sectors is 2,147,483,647 bytes (aka 2 TiB - 1 byte), because of the way in which the MBR is defined and because 2^32 = 2,147,483,648. Using bigger sectors can circunvent this limitation, but most (if not all) existing filesystem drivers for most existing OSes will choke with such sectors. So the biggest commercial HDDs fully usable with a MBR are 2 TB ones, provided they aren't "Advanced Format" or whatever else euphemism one may use for "4 kiB sectored". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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