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Author Topic: Partition help needed  (Read 8463 times)

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A10 Tactical

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    Partition help needed
    « on: May 15, 2016, 09:43:16 AM »
    Hello

    I purchased a 5TB Western Digital "Black" internal HD a month ago and noticed something odd when I booted from the CD to install Windows 7. Upon loading the installer I noticed that it was partitioned into 2 separate partitions 1 being roughly 2.064TB and the other 2.6TB the remaining chunk listed as "system reserved" I did the fresh windows install and opened My Computer and noticed the only C: listed was the partition I installed to.

    My question is...would there be any way I could delete this other ghost partition and have that storage space be kicked over to my regular partition that I have Windows 7 installed on? Even if I have to reformat the HD it is not a huge deal.

    Thanks

    Added a screenshot of Disk Management for my PC



    [attachment deleted by admin to conserve space]

    patio

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    Re: Partition help needed
    « Reply #1 on: May 15, 2016, 09:49:08 AM »
    This was a brand New WD HDD ? ?

    If you right clik and allocate the un-allocated space you can then use that as a partition...and/or merge it to the working partition.
    " Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist should have his head examined. "

    A10 Tactical

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      Re: Partition help needed
      « Reply #2 on: May 15, 2016, 09:56:02 AM »
      Yeah brand new HD purchased from New Egg.  Here is a SS when I right click the "Unallocated space"

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      patio

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      Re: Partition help needed
      « Reply #3 on: May 15, 2016, 10:04:22 AM »
      New simple volume is what you want...
      Then you have the choices i listed above.

      It must have been done when the OS was installed as i never see new HDD's shipped partitioned that way.
      " Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist should have his head examined. "

      A10 Tactical

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        Re: Partition help needed
        « Reply #4 on: May 15, 2016, 10:07:02 AM »
        Do you know of how I could enable that option since it is grayed out?

        [attachment deleted by admin to conserve space]

        patio

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        Re: Partition help needed
        « Reply #5 on: May 15, 2016, 10:13:06 AM »
        What choices are given in Properties ?

        Seems they have once again changed something in Windows that didn't need it...
        If you select set as active then you should be able to do what you want to do with it...

        Nothing wrong with the old method....allocate/format...then merge or create partition.
        They drive me nuts sometimes.
        " Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist should have his head examined. "

        A10 Tactical

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          Re: Partition help needed
          « Reply #6 on: May 15, 2016, 10:19:42 AM »
          I did a little more research on this and it seems that the C: drive must be initialized as an  GPT disk. MBR disks only support up to 2TB.

          Hmmm...

          As for right clicking properties I am given these tabs: General/Policies/Volumes/Driver/Details. I screenshot the "volumes tab" and low and behold it is listed as MBR not GPT


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          patio

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          Re: Partition help needed
          « Reply #7 on: May 15, 2016, 10:22:18 AM »
          Yes...if you want 1 large partition it would need to be GPT...

          I would make backups before attempting to change it however.
          " Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist should have his head examined. "

          A10 Tactical

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            Re: Partition help needed
            « Reply #8 on: May 15, 2016, 10:23:25 AM »
            Is there any software you would recommend for the job?

            patio

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            Re: Partition help needed
            « Reply #9 on: May 15, 2016, 10:27:09 AM »
            Yes...Easus Partition Manager....there is a Free Home version.

            Bring us good news...
            " Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist should have his head examined. "

            Geek-9pm


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            Re: Partition help needed
            « Reply #10 on: May 15, 2016, 11:46:22 AM »
            Pardon me. May I ask a question?
            Why not just have two large partitions and use it that way?

            patio

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            Re: Partition help needed
            « Reply #11 on: May 15, 2016, 12:08:08 PM »
            I kinda asked that already...
            " Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist should have his head examined. "

            A10 Tactical

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              Re: Partition help needed
              « Reply #12 on: May 15, 2016, 12:21:00 PM »
              Pardon me. May I ask a question?
              Why not just have two large partitions and use it that way?

              I want to have it all one partition I have a huge video game collection as well as movie storage.

              A10 Tactical

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                Re: Partition help needed
                « Reply #13 on: May 15, 2016, 12:24:36 PM »
                Yes...Easus Partition Manager....there is a Free Home version.

                Bring us good news...

                Okay next roadblock I ended up on. I have the Ease US program opened and when I right click it there is no option to convert MBR to GPT.

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                A10 Tactical

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                  Re: Partition help needed
                  « Reply #14 on: May 15, 2016, 12:37:23 PM »
                  Thinking about it...obviosly I shouldn't be allowed to change MBR to GPT for a drive that I currently booted from. Would I have the option to convert it if I ran EaseUS from another one of my hard drives?

                  patio

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                  Re: Partition help needed
                  « Reply #15 on: May 15, 2016, 12:38:41 PM »
                  See Here...
                  " Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist should have his head examined. "

                  Geek-9pm


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                  Re: Partition help needed
                  « Reply #16 on: May 15, 2016, 08:33:11 PM »
                  You will need backup media and a restore method.
                  Quote
                  Back up or move the data on the basic master boot record (MBR) disk you want to convert into a GUID partition table (GPT) disk. Open an elevated command prompt (right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as Administrator) and type diskpart . If the disk does not contain any partitions or volumes, skip to step 6.
                  Change a Master Boot Record Disk into a GUID Partition Table Dis
                  Hope that works for you.

                  A10 Tactical

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                    Re: Partition help needed
                    « Reply #17 on: May 17, 2016, 06:49:14 PM »
                    This is depressing. So I loaded windows from another drive on my pc and did a wipe on the drive I mentioned earlier. The wipe literally took all night. Once it was done I was given the option to "Initialize to GPT" YES! I chose that and literally the screen flashed for 1 second and it said the process was complete :/ I restarted the computer and opened the program up again and it said my hard drive was no longer partitioned. So I went to install windows and low and behold I open my computer and the c:\ is listed at 2.0 TB not 4.5 TB as it should be.

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                    patio

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                    Re: Partition help needed
                    « Reply #18 on: May 19, 2016, 09:12:04 PM »
                    You are looking at it all wrong...you have a 2TB partition which is leftover from the MBR move...because the size limit for MBR is that...
                    Then you have a 2.5TB partition as well...

                    You haven't lost any space at all...
                    " Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist should have his head examined. "

                    A10 Tactical

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                      Re: Partition help needed
                      « Reply #19 on: May 22, 2016, 02:59:32 AM »
                      You are looking at it all wrong...you have a 2TB partition which is leftover from the MBR move...because the size limit for MBR is that...
                      Then you have a 2.5TB partition as well...

                      You haven't lost any space at all...

                      I opened up EasUS and it shows both partitions listed in MBR though. All i want to do is merge the two partitions into one GPT drive.

                      Geek-9pm


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                      Re: Partition help needed
                      « Reply #20 on: May 22, 2016, 10:45:46 PM »
                      For what its worth...
                      We do not know for sure what OS you are using. And even with the right OS, the hardware of your system might prevent you from using GPT.

                      The makers of huge drives partition the drives into two for r a reason. Many older systems just can not do GPT.  So they make it a MBR and that pleases the majority of customers.
                      However, in any version of Windows you can optimize the use of space  to reasonable degree.
                      How much space is lost depends of the size of the files your have. If most files are relatively small, the loose of space is not significant. The issue is when you have huge files, such as with a database server. This is more often a concern for IT pros running huge servers with massive databases that  have to be all on one partition.  Prior to introduction of huge drives, there was away to span drives so that a massive database could be spread over a number of drives.

                      EDIT: Here is slink to materiel by Microsoft about the use of the GPT.
                      https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn640535%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

                      If that stuff is hard to grasp, comeback here ans ask questions.  :)
                      « Last Edit: May 22, 2016, 11:00:27 PM by Geek-9pm »

                      BC_Programmer


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                      Re: Partition help needed
                      « Reply #21 on: May 23, 2016, 12:18:28 PM »
                      As far as I'm aware, Windows 7 will only use the GPT partitioning scheme during installation if UEFI is enabled in the BIOS. UEFI is required to be able to boot to a UEFI partition.

                      We do not know for sure what OS you are using.
                      Well every screenshot they've posted and every mention of the OS so far has been "Windows 7" so seems a safe bet.
                      I was trying to dereference Null Pointers before it was cool.

                      patio

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                      Re: Partition help needed
                      « Reply #22 on: May 23, 2016, 03:16:16 PM »
                       ;)
                      " Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist should have his head examined. "

                      Geek-9pm


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                      Re: Partition help needed
                      « Reply #23 on: May 23, 2016, 03:33:25 PM »
                      As far as I'm aware, Windows 7 will only use the GPT partitioning scheme during installation if UEFI is enabled in the BIOS. UEFI is required to be able to boot to a UEFI partition.
                      Well every screenshot they've posted and every mention of the OS so far has been "Windows 7" so seems a safe bet.
                      Are you sure? It does not say Windows n7.
                      EDIT: Excuse my stupidity.  It does not matter. What matters is the hardware. If he can not boot from it, then he needs to use another, smaller, drive to boot. Then he can make the huge drive a GPT if he wants.
                      But to boot from a GPT requires BIOS (firmware) support.
                      « Last Edit: May 23, 2016, 04:19:59 PM by Geek-9pm »

                      A10 Tactical

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                        Re: Partition help needed
                        « Reply #24 on: May 23, 2016, 07:11:16 PM »
                        I contacted the Western Digital tech support he had mentioned enabling GUID in the BIOS. I have no idea where in BIOS I would find that option nor did he. The BIOS is American Megatrends and the mobo is an ASUS P7P55D-E

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                        Re: Partition help needed
                        « Reply #25 on: May 23, 2016, 10:52:35 PM »
                        Motherboards made five years ago do not have GUID compatible firmware.
                        You need to install another hard drive to boot windows.

                        However, this link says I am wrong again.  :-[
                        http://woshub.com/booting-windows-7-from-a-gpt-disk-using-bios-firmware-non-uefi/

                        What can I say?  :-\

                        A10 Tactical

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                          Re: Partition help needed
                          « Reply #26 on: May 24, 2016, 08:46:55 AM »
                          Motherboards made five years ago do not have GUID compatible firmware.
                          You need to install another hard drive to boot windows.

                          However, this link says I am wrong again.  :-[
                          http://woshub.com/booting-windows-7-from-a-gpt-disk-using-bios-firmware-non-uefi/

                          What can I say?  :-\

                          I have been using a seperate hd to do tasks like deleting partitions, cleaning via ths cmd prompt etc.

                          I have gotton as far as making my drive a single partition as gpt. However when i boot with the windows 7 disk i run into the alert "windows cannot be installed to this disk the selected disk is of the gpt partition style"

                          All of the solutions I have googled are just people converting back to mbr which defeats the purpose of what i'm trying to accomplish.

                          patio

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                          Re: Partition help needed
                          « Reply #27 on: May 24, 2016, 09:54:59 AM »
                          I still see no logic in having 1 huge 2TB partition...but that's just me...
                          " Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist should have his head examined. "

                          BC_Programmer


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                          Re: Partition help needed
                          « Reply #28 on: May 24, 2016, 11:30:07 AM »
                          UEFI must be enabled in the BIOS, And more importantly you must actually boot from the install media through UEFI. Sometimes you might have to open the Boot menu during startup (F12 usually) and explicitly select the option to boot from DVD through UEFI.

                          Also, UEFI (and thus GPT) is only supported by 64-bit Windows.
                          I was trying to dereference Null Pointers before it was cool.

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                          Re: Partition help needed
                          « Reply #29 on: May 24, 2016, 12:20:35 PM »
                          This is from dictation.  8)
                          One more time, I'll try to give a clear and concise answer to the original question.
                          The short answer is, no you can't do what you want.
                          The long answer is: yes, it could be done and has been done with a lot of effort and some additional hardware the old mediated to finish the task.
                          Here are the assumptions I make in providing this response.
                          The poster has an older motherboard that was made a few years ago and does not have the firmware needed to support booting the 64-bit version of Windows on a GPT disk drive. My assumption is that the 0P has a 32-bit version of Windows and wishes to put it on the GPT drive, even though his  B IOS does not have the firmware support needed. Furthermore, the 0P does not wish to add another MBR drive to act as the boot loader for Windows.
                          There are solutions that have been presented on the Internet on different forms. And yes, it is possible to have the drive as a GPT and have Windows 32-bit Windows 7 installed on it. However, it requires some additional hardware. One of the options available is to modify the existing firmware in such a way as to provide some type of extension that will allow the system to boot from the GPT drive. This is not the kind of thing that is supported by Microsoft. This is the kind of thing that is done by experimenters who have experience with both Windows and Linux. Linux has pointed bit of flexibility about how you boot it and make it run. It has been that way for many years.
                          The position that Microsoft takes is that you should have a modern motherboard and you should be using a 64-bit version of Windows. Never expect Microsoft to change this position. Only a small group of individuals would benefit from some kind of change Microsoft might make or could make to their Windows operating system. Therefore, the alternative is to do some kind of thing that is often called a hack. In this context hack means something that is bizarre or unusual or breaks the general rules.
                          Your standard B IOS  wants to boot from a device that has something like an MBR or is either an optical drive or a USB stick.
                          One solution is to make the GPT drive a highbred drive that has a very small MBR loader on it and the rest of the drive is GPT. This is called a hack because it is bizarre and not supported by anybody. The people who do this are independent experimenters who did it just because they wanted to show that it could be done.
                          A less radical approach is to have some kind of boot device inside the system that will start up the boot loader and then switch over to the GPT drive. One candidate would be a Solid-State Drive with about maybe 32 gigabytes of space.  You would start up the system in that configuration and then later work it over so that most of Windows would be actually residing on the GPT drive. Another possibility would be to get a USB stick and eventually mounted somewhere inside the case of the computer and have it connected to one of the USB ports. The system would start from the USB drive and then a special loader would transfer over to the GPT key drive to load the rest of Windows. Again, this is not supported by Microsoft and has been documented by independent experimenters who have posted their results on the Internet and you can find it if you look for. But do not expect to find it in any of the mainstream forms. Like I said, it is considered a hack and is not considered to be something that the average future would attempt to do.
                          This is somewhat akin to the problem that commercial server operators have had when using RAID  array. It is just not practical to try to boot the operating system from
                           RAID  array.  So then, the commercial operator will try to create some kind of highbred boot scheme to give the operating system the advantage of the speed of the array. Again, it is not something that most people would want to attempt because there is no support from Microsoft or anybody else as far as I know. And yes, I could be wrong. Maybe there is somebody somewhere that actually offers commercials support for a highbred system that starts out acting like an MBR and then switches over to something else during the boot up process.
                          I have carefully researched this material to the best of my ability, and I believe that the comments that made above are representative of the state-of-the-art at this time.
                          As mentioned, there is little modification for Microsoft or others to try to solve this problem for you because the problem can be solved simply by getting a new motherboard. The cost of a new motherboard would be much less than even the minimum wage you have to pay for a technician or engineer to figure this out for you.
                          This may sound like sarcasm, but that is not my intent. I'm trying to be as frank and concise as possible. Frankly, you are trying to do something that is probably beyond your abilities. As for myself, I don't know if I can do it. I do know that I would not be motivated to do it if I could just go out and buy new motherboard and solve the problem. If I did, I would probably sell the old motherboard or maybe give it to a school as a gift.
                          Again, no disrespect is intended here. I think you're trying to do something that is beyond a reasonable effort.
                          This was done from dictation, and has not been thoroughly proofread. Please understand that I have some limitations that don't allow me to spend a lot of time proofreading things like this.   :)
                          End of dictation.

                          BC_Programmer


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                          Re: Partition help needed
                          « Reply #30 on: May 24, 2016, 02:07:33 PM »
                          Yes, it's looking like the Motherboard doesn't Support UEFI, reading it's manuals and support information. This means it cannot use the GPT partition scheme nor can it use partitions larger than 2TB.
                          I was trying to dereference Null Pointers before it was cool.