Re: Can't see full 3 TB of new Seagate hard drive


There are two ways to do disks.

You can use traditional MBR (2.2TB limited by 32 bit sector numbering).

Or prepare with GPT partitioning. You need GPT.

Are you saying that the techniques that Seagate claims will work for Windows XP SP3, involving Disk Wizard, don't actually work at all? I'm not doubting your words as you've demonstrated really good knowledge of these issues in previous posts but I'm just a little stunned that Seagate could get away with telling people on their website that their Disk Wizard approach will do the job if it isn't true. I've even seen reviews of their large drives claiming that Disk Wizard will do the job. Wouldn't that leave them open to lawsuits or charges of consumer fraud that would give Seagate a very black eye, something they surely wouldn't want?


The problem with GPT as a means of preparation, is not many OSes can boot
from a GPT disk. If your new disk is "data-only", then GPT is the answer.

This drive will be "data-only"; I have no need at all to boot from it.

You can test with GPT, and at least prove you can see the entire disk,
then flatten and do something else if you don't like it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table

"The MBR partition table restricts partition sizes to a maximum of 2.19 terabytes"

If an OS had native support for 4K sectors, and the drive exposed the
native 4K sectors, then the limit would no longer be 2.2TB. But I
imagine that wouldn't be that easy to arrange, and even if you set
things up that way, booting some other OS could trash it. You have
to be careful when mixing stuff like that.

GPT has a protective MBR installed, to help prevent damage from
MBR based OSes.

Something I'm not seeing in the article is how do I set up the drive with GPT? I assume I need some kind of program to set up the drive for GPT. Where do I find this program?

Hmm, I just had a look at the references in the Wikipedia article and followed the link to the Windows and GPT FAQ. It says the article applies only to Windows XP x64 edition.

I'm running 32-bit Windows XP SP3. According to the Wikipedia article, it has "no native support on this architecture and version". Does this mean that GPT is not an option for me after all??

This question in the Q&A suggests that I am out of luck:
Q.Can the 32-bit version of Windows XP read, write, and boot from GPT disks?
A.No. The 32-bit version will see only the Protective MBR. The EE partition will not be mounted or otherwise exposed to application software.

Unless I'm misreading this, I'll need to upgrade the OS, at least to XP 64 bit, if I want to see all of this drive.

Or make it MBR and be limited to 2.2 TB. That's starting to look like a less unattractive option overall if I have to pay for an OS upgrade.....
*******

Disks have traditionally had all sorts of artificial capacity limits.
The last one was >137GB support on IDE interfaces. The other day,
I got caught, when I took a Firewire IDE enclosure from the junk
pile, put a 160GB IDE disk in it, started it up, and had the partition
corrupted by the 137GB limit on the Firewire chip. I never would
have suspected the enclosure had a limit, until I discovered it
the hard way :-( And even the recommended firmware flash, didn't
fix it.

Yeah, I can remember other such limits over the years. I don't remember the numbers but wasn't there a fairly low limit, like 2 GB or even several hundred MB on drives when 800 MB or 10 GB were considered incomprehensibly huge?

--
Rhino

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Cant see full 3 TB of new Seagate hard drive
    ... You can use traditional MBR. ... Or prepare with GPT partitioning. ... I'm not doubting your words as you've demonstrated really good knowledge of these issues in previous posts but I'm just a little stunned that Seagate could get away with telling people on their website that their Disk Wizard approach will do the job if it isn't true. ... "The MBR partition table restricts partition sizes to a maximum of 2.19 terabytes" ...
    (alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus)
  • Re: Cant see full 3 TB of new Seagate hard drive
    ... You can use traditional MBR. ... Or prepare with GPT partitioning. ... I'm not doubting your words as you've demonstrated really good knowledge of these issues in previous posts but I'm just a little stunned that Seagate could get away with telling people on their website that their Disk Wizard approach will do the job if it isn't true. ... "The MBR partition table restricts partition sizes to a maximum of 2.19 terabytes" ...
    (alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus)
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