6TB HDD for XP

[kasfruit]

I'm in the market for a 6 TB HDD (Western Digital or Seagate without SRM)

is anyone in this forum using large internal SATA hard drives under windows XP 32bit ?

I am not 100% sure if it's safe to use 3rd party utilities or drivers during XP installation that can read/write GPT partitions...

I have read somewhere that it's also possible to create 2TB partitions within the same disk but don't know how a 32bit XP could handle this.

I know that the best alternative is using Server 2003 or XP 64bit but the lack of drivers and BSOD is what stop me from switching.

 

[RainyShadow]

XP doesn't support GPT anyways, so forget about installing it on such a drive.

You may be able to use it as a second/non-system disk with the help of Paragon GPT Loader (does another such tool exist?), but when i tried it i always got BSOD on boot...

 

[kasfruit]

I don't want to install XP in it anyway it would require a 64 bit Windows + UEFI

you get a BSOD ? what hard drive were you trying to format with Paragon utility ?

 

[RainyShadow]

I was not trying to format a drive, i was just trying to access the contents of already formatted GPT drives. But my XP won't boot with GPT Loader installed. It may have something to do with the version i tried, but i read about others getting a BSOD too.

In the end i wrote that off and used a Win7 VM to access those drives.

[ED_Sln]

GPT support can be added to XP by copying the disk.sys and partmgr.sys files from Server 2003 x32 and replacing them. I do not know how stable this method works, I have not yet tested disks larger than 2TB.

[RainyShadow]

@ED_Sln Does this need specific versions of these files, or any version for Server2k3 would do?

 

[edit] just downloaded Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (32-bit x86) , it has these two files inside. I may not be able to test them before monday though.

Edited July 18, 2020 by RainyShadow

[kasfruit]

On 7/18/2020 at 2:41 PM, RainyShadow said:

I was not trying to format a drive, i was just trying to access the contents of already formatted GPT drives.

you have to remove the GPT protective partition to access your data but I would not try this method if you don't have a backup of your data. 

I just want to know how safe the Seagate tool (or similar) is for this purpose. https://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/beyond-2tb/

I can create 3 partitions in 6TB HDD but....

¿ is there a way in which Windows might brake the partitions system and all my data becomes inaccessible under XP or W7 ??

[ED_Sln]

9 hours ago, RainyShadow said:

Does this need specific versions of these files, or any version for Server2k3 would do?

Any version of Server 2003 x32 can be used.

[UCyborg]

So this is what SMR means?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shingled_magnetic_recording

Slow write speeds, suitable for backups/archiving, but otherwise behaves like any ordinary HDD?

On 7/18/2020 at 8:33 PM, RainyShadow said:

[edit] just downloaded Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (32-bit x86) , it has these two files inside. I may not be able to test them before monday though.

Link is dead.

Edited May 24, 2021 by UCyborg

[RainyShadow]

8 hours ago, UCyborg said:

Link is dead.

Look for WindowsServer2003-KB914961-SP2-x86-ENU.exe with your favorite search engine.

[realisty]

On 5/25/2021 at 12:48 AM, RainyShadow said:

Look for WindowsServer2003-KB914961-SP2-x86-ENU.exe with your favorite search engine.

readed here: https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=79711&start=20

about file corruption using 2k3 drivers.. anyone can confirm this??

 

interesting article about installing gpt on XP:  hxxps://www.upload.ee/files/15384334/The_XP_system_is_not_outdated_and_teach...pdf.html

Edited June 28, 2023 by realisty

[Milkinis]

16 hours ago, realisty said:

about file corruption using 2k3 drivers.. anyone can confirm this??

if you want to share a link here, take a minute to remove unwanted junk from the url such as your own translation