Having a strange partition issue that I can't figure out

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DemisE

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 21, 2004
Messages
164
I just got two WD 1.5TB drives that I setup in a RAID0. After installing windows I went to create different partitions and discovered that there is 746GB unallocated that I cannot do anything with.

Any logical reason why?


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The OS is Win 7 64bit.

I don't have a big issue with a 2TB max partition. But I can't even allocate the 746GB
 
Last edited:
Verify and/or try converting the disk to GPT. you will only be able to boot newer Windows OSs on a GPT volume, but if you are running the one single OS that should be fine.
 
pontiac6000 said:
Verify and/or try converting the disk to GPT. you will only be able to boot newer Windows OSs on a GPT volume, but if you are running the one single OS that should be fine.
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I thought GPT was a hardware feature. Meaning you need a motherboard that supports EFI to boot a GPT partition.
 
pontiac6000 said:
Does not appear so. See point #5 in the MS article I linked in the previous reply.
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Point 5 does not mention booting to a GPT partition. After some searching I found this article that someone wrote.

Unfortunately, Windows 7 (at least as of the Release Candidate, or RC, version) is no better than its predecessors in terms of GPT support. In my own tests, Windows 7 RC (x86-64 version) refuses to install on a GPT disk, at least on a BIOS-based system. Installing on MBR and converting to GPT renders Windows unbootable, even with the help of a patched GRUB 0.97 or GRUB 2 (Windows loads enough to complain and sulk like a recalcitrant toddler). Extensive Googling about this problem has turned up no solution. My guess (and it's only a guess) is that Windows remains chained, welded, and superglued to the BIOS for the initial parts of its boot process, and this is preventing it from using GPT. This really is stunningly short-sighted of Microsoft. Do they really expect that nobody will need to replace a failed hard disk on a BIOS-based computer during Windows 7's lifetime, and opt to install an over-2TiB drive? With any luck somebody will come out with a workaround at some point. (Hybrid MBRs aren't really a good option, although they can be barely adequate to achieve certain multi-booting goals.) In the meantime, the combination of GPT, a legacy BIOS, and Windows just isn't a good one.
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http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/booting.html
 
One work around is to use the BIOS (or RAID card firmware) to set up two volumes within the array. Set up one large enough for the OS (80gb in your example) and configure it as MBR. Then setup a second volume using the remainder and configure it as GPT. Yours looks like just one volume spanning the whole RAID0 set and that's what is keeping you from getting to the >2tb portion of the set.

Many newer BIOS or card RAID setups support making more than one volume within an array. This is key to using the larger drives. I've got several machines setup this way, but usually with a RAID1 or RAID10 setup. The OS boots into the first one and then sees the 2nd large GPT one just fine.

Be warned, however, that some BIOS setups won't recognized drives larger than 2TB individually, and some won't properly make an array greater than 2tb. I have an EVGA 780 that won't deal with anything larger than 1.5tb drives when trying to make an array, that and it will only make one volume per array set. Thus I went with an Areca hardware RAID card for it instead.
 
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