I had a problem that I have searched on the web and found different solutions. My situation is not usual (yet) so this may not help many people.
I have Windows 8 Pro 64 installed on an Asus Maximus V Gene. This has UEFI that allows booting from a GPT disk greater than 2 TB. I have a 3 TB Seagate installed and it has kind of been a hassle. The default of the UEFI is to boot with legacy BIOS and not UEFI. So every time the bios is updated it will reset and that will make it not boot (since the system disk is larger than 2 TB) and I have to go in and reset it. But now the UEFI of this motherboard is mature so that problem is no longer the issue it was. (Similar to how BIOS used to always default to IDE instead of AHCI.) Now, this setup works great.
But, to get to the problem. I would use "Windows 7 File Recovery" that is kind of hidden in the control panel and then would use a 3 TB external USB 3 drive to make the backup. It would start the backup and after a few hours would state the hard drive doesn't have enough space. But it was obvious that it does.
Here is the solution and it really only applies to people using a GPT system disk bigger than 2 TB with UEFI that supports booting from this.
I had to go to the USB external 3 TB hard drive and quick format it (deleting everything on it) and then deleting the volume in disk manager. Then right click the left side of the menu that shows the drive and make it into a GPT drive. Then create and expand the volume like usual.
Now it works just fine. Here is what may have happened. (Just a guess.) The MBR type disk will have too many partitions that are too small to put in the 3 TB hard drive even though the total storage measurements are the same size. (2.7 TB really)
But there is a danger to doing this. I also have two other computers but they will not boot with UEFI with a greater than 2 TB system disk. If I were to make the external backup 3 TB drives that are hooked up to them into GPT drives then the computers would not boot from them if they were used as the backup boot drive. (But maybe Windows Recovery would just look for the necessary files and move them onto the system disk.)
A long winded explanation for a problem that probably afflicts very few users.
I have Windows 8 Pro 64 installed on an Asus Maximus V Gene. This has UEFI that allows booting from a GPT disk greater than 2 TB. I have a 3 TB Seagate installed and it has kind of been a hassle. The default of the UEFI is to boot with legacy BIOS and not UEFI. So every time the bios is updated it will reset and that will make it not boot (since the system disk is larger than 2 TB) and I have to go in and reset it. But now the UEFI of this motherboard is mature so that problem is no longer the issue it was. (Similar to how BIOS used to always default to IDE instead of AHCI.) Now, this setup works great.
But, to get to the problem. I would use "Windows 7 File Recovery" that is kind of hidden in the control panel and then would use a 3 TB external USB 3 drive to make the backup. It would start the backup and after a few hours would state the hard drive doesn't have enough space. But it was obvious that it does.
Here is the solution and it really only applies to people using a GPT system disk bigger than 2 TB with UEFI that supports booting from this.
I had to go to the USB external 3 TB hard drive and quick format it (deleting everything on it) and then deleting the volume in disk manager. Then right click the left side of the menu that shows the drive and make it into a GPT drive. Then create and expand the volume like usual.
Now it works just fine. Here is what may have happened. (Just a guess.) The MBR type disk will have too many partitions that are too small to put in the 3 TB hard drive even though the total storage measurements are the same size. (2.7 TB really)
But there is a danger to doing this. I also have two other computers but they will not boot with UEFI with a greater than 2 TB system disk. If I were to make the external backup 3 TB drives that are hooked up to them into GPT drives then the computers would not boot from them if they were used as the backup boot drive. (But maybe Windows Recovery would just look for the necessary files and move them onto the system disk.)
A long winded explanation for a problem that probably afflicts very few users.
My Computer
System One
-
- OS
- Windows 8 Pro 64
- Computer type
- PC/Desktop
- System Manufacturer/Model
- Asus Maximus V Gene
- CPU
- i73770K
- Motherboard
- Asus Maximus V Gene
- Memory
- ADATA 32 GB
- Graphics Card(s)
- Nvidia GT 610
- Browser
- IE 10
- Antivirus
- Avast