4TB hard drive with Windows 8.1 questions

djsigma

Banned
Messages
103
I have just bought a 4TB external USB 3.0 hard drive. The plan is to copy all of the data from my current internal 2TB drive to the 4TB, then I'm going to crack the case of the external hard drive open, take the drive out, and put it in my PC to replace the 2TB drive that's in there now (which I know will void the warranty). This isn't going to be a boot drive as I have an SSD for that.

I had read that Windows does not support large drives of this size and that it would show up as 2 partitions, so I was prepared to convert the drive to GPT in order to have 1 large partition. However, I connected the drive up to my Windows 8.1 machine and it shows as 1 large partition of 3.63TB, which is about what I expected.

Does this mean I don't have to convert the drive after all? Can I do what I'm planning to do and everything will work fine? Or do I need to convert it to GPT before I copy all of my data over and if so, how do I do that exactly?

Thanks.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center (64 bit)
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    Asus Maximus V Gene
    Memory
    Corsair 4 x 4 GB 1,600 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte GTX 670
    Sound Card
    RME HDSPe AIO
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell U2713HM
    Screen Resolution
    2,560 x 1,440
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 830 SSD 128 GB
    Hitachi 7K3000 2 TB
    PSU
    Seasonic X-760
    Case
    Silverstone TJ08-E
    Cooling
    Noctua NH-D14 Special Edition
    Keyboard
    Logitech K800
    Mouse
    Logitech M570
    Internet Speed
    60 Mbps/3 Mbps cable
    Browser
    Opera 12.16
Already set by the manufacturer to GPT.

I had read that Windows does not support large drives of this size and that it would show up as 2 partitions,


With MBR there would be 2 Partitions, but only 1 partition would be useable.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    ME, XP,Vista,Win7,Win8,Win8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Other Info
    Notebooks x 3

    Desktops x 5

    Towers x 4
Thanks for the reply. I have one more question: -

Currently I have a regular MBR HDD that's used as a storage drive for music, videos etc. and my Steam games. If I was to copy all of the data from that drive to my new 4TB GPT drive, then swap them over, so the 4TB GPT drive replaces my old 2TB MBR drive, would everything continue working as normal? I assume the answer would be "yes", but I don't know if the MBR/GPT thing makes any difference.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center (64 bit)
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    Asus Maximus V Gene
    Memory
    Corsair 4 x 4 GB 1,600 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte GTX 670
    Sound Card
    RME HDSPe AIO
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell U2713HM
    Screen Resolution
    2,560 x 1,440
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 830 SSD 128 GB
    Hitachi 7K3000 2 TB
    PSU
    Seasonic X-760
    Case
    Silverstone TJ08-E
    Cooling
    Noctua NH-D14 Special Edition
    Keyboard
    Logitech K800
    Mouse
    Logitech M570
    Internet Speed
    60 Mbps/3 Mbps cable
    Browser
    Opera 12.16
Should still work OK.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    ME, XP,Vista,Win7,Win8,Win8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Other Info
    Notebooks x 3

    Desktops x 5

    Towers x 4
Cool, thanks man. I'll give it a go anyway.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center (64 bit)
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    Asus Maximus V Gene
    Memory
    Corsair 4 x 4 GB 1,600 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte GTX 670
    Sound Card
    RME HDSPe AIO
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell U2713HM
    Screen Resolution
    2,560 x 1,440
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 830 SSD 128 GB
    Hitachi 7K3000 2 TB
    PSU
    Seasonic X-760
    Case
    Silverstone TJ08-E
    Cooling
    Noctua NH-D14 Special Edition
    Keyboard
    Logitech K800
    Mouse
    Logitech M570
    Internet Speed
    60 Mbps/3 Mbps cable
    Browser
    Opera 12.16
It didn't work.

I had an internal 2TB drive and the new 4TB external. The external showed up as GPT in diskpart and was a single partition of 3.63TB. All of the data from the 2TB drive was copied to the 4TB so their contents was the same. I then cracked open the case of the 4TB external drive, took the HDD out and swapped it with the 2TB drive in my PC.

When I rebooted the PC, only my C drive (SSD) was showing. I went into Disk Management and it showed a 2TB partition on the new drive marked as "GPT Protective Partition" and a 1.63TB partition showing as "Unallocated". I had to use diskpart's clean command and basically format the drive and start over. What a waste of several hours. Oh well.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center (64 bit)
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    Asus Maximus V Gene
    Memory
    Corsair 4 x 4 GB 1,600 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte GTX 670
    Sound Card
    RME HDSPe AIO
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell U2713HM
    Screen Resolution
    2,560 x 1,440
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 830 SSD 128 GB
    Hitachi 7K3000 2 TB
    PSU
    Seasonic X-760
    Case
    Silverstone TJ08-E
    Cooling
    Noctua NH-D14 Special Edition
    Keyboard
    Logitech K800
    Mouse
    Logitech M570
    Internet Speed
    60 Mbps/3 Mbps cable
    Browser
    Opera 12.16
Back
Top