KatGamer Posted May 4, 2018 Share Posted May 4, 2018 I have a 3TB HDD drive that I use for storing media. However, it’s only letting me access 2TB. In the EaseUs Partition Master screenshot below, you can see there’s 746GB of unallocated space. I know that 2TB is the limit for partition size in NTFS, but it won’t give me an option to create another partition in the unallocated space. (I’ve tried in Windows disk management as well; the options for New Simple, New Spanned, and New Striped volume are grayed out.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BudMan MVC Posted May 4, 2018 MVC Share Posted May 4, 2018 23 minutes ago, KatGamer said: I know that 2TB is the limit for partition size in NTFS Where you pick up that little nugget of misinformation? Did you set your cluster size to 512? Why would you have done that? https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/askcore/2010/02/18/understanding-the-2-tb-limit-in-windows-storage/ What I would suggest you do is use the built in disk management and just expand your partition into the allocated space https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/disk-management/extend-a-basic-volume Mando 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Spark99 Subscriber² Posted May 4, 2018 Subscriber² Share Posted May 4, 2018 (edited) EaseUS Partition Master Free Edition can convert from MBR to GPT Disk without data loss (as long as it isn’t the System Disk) Right Click Disk 0 > Convert to GPT and you will be able to access your entire drive Do not convert from within Microsoft Disk Management or you will lose all the data on your Media Drive goretsky, satukoro and sc302 3 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BudMan MVC Posted May 4, 2018 MVC Share Posted May 4, 2018 There is ZERO reason to do that - unless they set their cluster size to 512... I would just change the cluster size and then extend the partition.. The default cluster size has been 4k for years and years and years. Mando 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
satukoro Posted May 4, 2018 Share Posted May 4, 2018 You must convert your disk to GPT (GUID Partition Table) before you can use your entire drive. MBR (Master Boot Record) drives have a partition size limit of 2TB. As Spark99 said, if you convert your drive from MBR to GPT within Microsoft's Disk Management software, all data will be erased. I am unfamiliar with EaseUS Partition Manager, but I know you can convert from MBR to GPT using AOMEI Partition Assistant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mando Posted May 4, 2018 Share Posted May 4, 2018 36 minutes ago, KatGamer said: I have a 3TB HDD drive that I use for storing media. However, it’s only letting me access 2TB. In the EaseUs Partition Master screenshot below, you can see there’s 746GB of unallocated space. I know that 2TB is the limit for partition size in NTFS, but it won’t give me an option to create another partition in the unallocated space. (I’ve tried in Windows disk management as well; the options for New Simple, New Spanned, and New Striped volume are grayed out.) https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/askcore/2010/02/18/understanding-the-2-tb-limit-in-windows-storage/ As budman has said you only get a 2Tb max limit if you pick 512byte cluster size (baad idea) for a normal data drive, go at least 4096bytes or 8192bytes for a max theoretical volume of 16Tb or 32Tb I have NTFS vols at work into the hundreds of Tb (65536byte cluster). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
satukoro Posted May 4, 2018 Share Posted May 4, 2018 6 minutes ago, Mando said: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/askcore/2010/02/18/understanding-the-2-tb-limit-in-windows-storage/ As budman has said you only get a 2Tb max limit if you pick 512byte cluster size (baad idea) for a normal data drive, go at least 4096bytes or 8192bytes for a max theoretical volume of 16Tb or 32Tb I have NTFS vols at work into the hundreds of Tb (65536byte cluster). I don't think it's an issue with partition format, I think it's the partition table that's the problem here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mando Posted May 4, 2018 Share Posted May 4, 2018 5 minutes ago, satukoro said: I don't think it's an issue with partition format, I think it's the partition table that's the problem here. if it was me id copy whatever i wanted off that drive and nuke it in disk manager, not a fan of eresus PM im also assuming its an older Pc, as ugh to MBRs and non secure boot these days no ta! GPT always where possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BudMan MVC Posted May 4, 2018 MVC Share Posted May 4, 2018 26 minutes ago, satukoro said: MBR (Master Boot Record) drives have a partition size limit of 2TB. As Spark99 said Utter Nonsense - why the OP wold of created the partition with 512 is moronic.. post up fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo driveletter: from an admin elevated prompt. Mando and goretsky 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mando Posted May 4, 2018 Share Posted May 4, 2018 you should see similar info to below. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KatGamer Posted May 4, 2018 Author Share Posted May 4, 2018 Indeed, my PC is 8 years old, although I'm only using it as a media server now. (I just got a brand new laptop last week so it's not my sole computer.) I'm just trying to salvage a bit more usability in it until I can save up to upgrade or replace it. I've already copied everything on that drive to another drive before even thinking of messing with partitions. Thanks for teaching me about GPT vs MBR, I'll give that a try. Mando 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KatGamer Posted May 4, 2018 Author Share Posted May 4, 2018 That worked, thanks! Mando 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BudMan MVC Posted May 4, 2018 MVC Share Posted May 4, 2018 3TB drives back in 2010 when they first came out... So that disk is 8 years old? Must of been pricey ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
satukoro Posted May 4, 2018 Share Posted May 4, 2018 2 hours ago, BudMan said: Utter Nonsense - why the OP wold of created the partition with 512 is moronic.. post up fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo driveletter: from an admin elevated prompt. I imagine they used file explorer's quick format utility to initially format the drive with default settings and just started using it without realizing they weren't using the whole drive. So after putting ~750GB of stuff on the drive and reading that there was only 1.2TB left it finally clicked that they weren't allocating the entire drive. I think it's unlikely someone would have done this on purpose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+BudMan MVC Posted May 4, 2018 MVC Share Posted May 4, 2018 Format would default to 4k.. Even 8 years ago.. Have no idea what they did.. And since they didn't post up output of fsutil just guessing it was 512 anyway. Mando 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mando Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 On 5/4/2018 at 11:11 PM, BudMan said: Format would default to 4k.. Even 8 years ago.. Have no idea what they did.. And since they didn't post up output of fsutil just guessing it was 512 anyway. suspect it was probs done with Erasus, as I cant think of any way in win setup you could do it, but im not long up after a heavy sesh last night so head could well be up rear end atm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KatGamer Posted May 10, 2018 Author Share Posted May 10, 2018 I don’t recall how much I paid for it or formatting it. It’s been 8 years. ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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