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    Windows OS and 2.2 and Higher Hard Drives

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by dave-p, Jun 23, 2011.

  1. dave-p

    dave-p Notebook Deity

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    So recently purchased a 3 TB hard drive, and quickly found out that native support for the drive is a bit of a challange.

    In the case of the WD drive i had, they supplied an advanced Sata (PCI) card to use,

    My P67-UD4-B3 mother board could see the drive, but of course windows would not install on a full 3 TB drive.

    Gigabyte says the board supports 3 TB drives, but stll could not get windows to install on the drive (without creating 2 partitions)

    So any one else have any ideals, or is it really a future hardware/software release we have to wait for before a 3Tb drive can be used fully as a boot drive?
     
    dave-p, Jun 23, 2011
    #1
  2. JOSEA

    JOSEA NONE

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    Nice Avatar dave Cats rule. You are on the right tract AFA the answer, your BIOS needs to support UEFI and this link gives other details.
    I wondered what UEFI was when I saw it in my BIOS after an update, this link at least gives me a clue!
    Using GPT Drives

    Bottom line it can be done with a few caveats...
    Hope this helps , Josea
     
    JOSEA, Jun 23, 2011
    #2
  3. Peon

    Peon Notebook Virtuoso

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    Modern systems default to BIOS emulation mode (which only supports MBR, which in turn has a 2.2 TB limit), for compatibility reasons. UEFI booting (which supports GPT) requires you to jump through quite a few hoops.

    For starters, make sure that you're installing from the official Microsoft DVD and that UEFI optical drive is your first boot option. If that still doesn't work, Microsoft has a command that forces the DVD to boot in UEFI mode.
     
    Peon, Jun 24, 2011
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  4. dave-p

    dave-p Notebook Deity

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    That maybe the problem then i was using a USB drive to install windows.

    Your saying it has to be done from the CD ROM ?
     
    dave-p, Jun 24, 2011
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  5. Peon

    Peon Notebook Virtuoso

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    The original DVD has UEFI boot files that don't get copied over when the USB installer is made.
     
    Peon, Jun 25, 2011
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