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W7 system disk issues (partitions, cluster size)

M

Morlock

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 8, 2012
Messages
509
OK, I'll skip the sob story and get right to the point: my current system drive is on the way out (dying), and W7 install disc rejected the new 4tb drive when I formatted it with GPT. But when I create an MBR partition (I want a 200gb system partition, and the rest of the disk space on a second, data partition; I like being able to back up the whole system partition), neither Windows Disk Management nor EaseUS Partition Master will let me use the remaining space for a single partition. They both insist on making it into two partitions, the old 2tb limit I suppose.

How do I get around this? I could just roll over and take it, but I already run like a thousand USB drives on this device so I have drive partitions going all the way to "Q". The remaining letters feel like precious real estate what with how I'm always plugging in a thumb drive, an old internal drive into my Sabrent external housing, mounting volumes, etc. So I'd rather figure this out if it isn't a big deal to work around.

My mobo is ASRock Z87 Extreme3. The "bios" setup says something about UEFI, and I've heard that UEFI should allow W7 to install to a GPT, so if there's some way to get my install disc working with GPT partitions, I'm listening (though I'll probably go with MBR anyway because I don't like the idea of less compatibility for a system partition).
 
Sean's Win7 Install Guide has very detailed step-by-step instructions on what to do. Expand the spoilers for "How to make a bootable Windows 7 USB for the UEFI motherboard and GPT format install" and "Configure drive using an UEFI motherboard and GPT format". There are probably a few hoops you didn't know you needed to jump through, because UEFI was in early days for Win7 and the normal setup then was MBR.
 
I followed that tut but got stuck on the early steps of the command line, because there are no instructions on how I should set up the drive, and it doesn't show up in the list without a partition.

It did set me onto the path of GPT/UEFI W7 installations, though, and I found a tut for using Rufus (makes bootable USB flash drive Windows installer), so I'm going to try that. Not sure how I'm supposed to handle creating the partition, though, so I guess I'll start by keeping the drive blank and running the USB stick that way.
 
Hmm, never mind on that, Rufus doesn't like non-standard Windows ISOs, apparently. I went back and got the original recommended tut going though.
 
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