3TB drives and X58 mobos? Issues involving UEFI, GPT, etc.

[LocutusX]

Hi,

I was thinking of buying a 3TB SATA drive this holiday for media storage - to use as an INTERNAL drive.
But then I learned about all sorts of interesting potential issues with drives larger than 2.2TB.

[ My mobo is EX58-UD4P. BIOS F14p. Win7 SP1 64-bit. Drive will be connected to Intel ICH10R. AHCI is ENABLED, currently using msahci driver, I can upgrade to Intel RST if necessary. ]


1. UEFI bios vs. non-uefi bios. What's this about? I don't think UD4P has a UEFI bios yet... will it ever?

2. MBR partition vs GPT partition. What's this about? Looks like I'll need to format it as GPT (new feature)?

3. Found lots of posts via Google about people who had Intel RAID enabled (not AHCI) and could only see the first platter of the drive! (750GB). WTF! Is that still going on? If so, it means I can never enable Intel RAID if I attach a 3TB drive?

4. Although initially I won't be booting from the 3TB, in future I want that option to be open to me. Is my system so old that it'll never support booting from 3TB drive? This issue also shows up via Googling.


Wow! Pretty complicated stuff! If anyone has any useful insights which apply to Intel X58 mobos please post :)

[Acebmxer]

1. No X58 or p55 or p67 or z68 will have a UEFI bios. They all have EFI.

2. Anything over 2tb I belive has to be GPT. MBR has a size limitation of 2tb.

3. Since you are already set to ahci you will be fine. Raid will work also as I have 4x2tb drives in raid 10 working. I see a total of 4tb. I would suggest Installing IRST and use it Ahci driver.

4. Not a option. Win7 can read from a GPT partitioned drive but can not boot from it. If you format in MBR then yes you can boot but remember MBR can only see up to 2tb.

[LocutusX]

Thanks. It's actually quite complicated and I can't believe the computing industry didn't come up with a better solution. I think I might just buy 2 x 2TB drives or something, lol

[Reggie]

The IRST driver version that was included on the Windows 7 DVD is too old for drives over 2.2TB. Use IRST version 10.1 or higher for a single drive and version 10.5 or higher for RAID.

High Capacity (≥2.2tb) technology brief .pdf
http://www.hitachigst.com/tech/techl..._TechBrief.pdf

[PiaRowley]

It's actually quite complicated

[LocutusX]

The IRST driver version that was included on the Windows 7 DVD is too old for drives over 2.2TB. Use IRST version 10.1 or higher for a single drive and version 10.5 or higher for RAID.

High Capacity (≥2.2tb) technology brief .pdf
http://www.hitachigst.com/tech/techl..._TechBrief.pdf

Nice PDF.

There was an RST driver on the Win7 DVD? I didn't know. I'd probably just use the latest Intel RST from intel's website anyways (10.8.0.1003).

But at the moment I'm sticking with msahci. I haven't yet gotten a 3TB drive, just using a pair of 1TB's for now.

[Vinster]

I fear drives this large... I do IT for people I know and I talk ppl out of 2TB drives... just because that is a lot of data to lose...

Vin

[wazza300]

i would much rather have one big 2tb or 3tb drive than two or three 1tb drives,as the more you have the more chances of one of them failing,they are pretty reliable now,i wouldnt use them in raid though unless you can back up your data ect

[iNDi]

1. No X58 or p55 or p67 or z68 will have a UEFI bios. They all have EFI.

I think you mean a normal BIOS.

With the exception of Intel Manufactured Boards and 1 Asus board that had an upgrade to UEFI

4. Not a option. Win7 can read from a GPT partitioned drive but can not boot from it. If you format in MBR then yes you can boot but remember MBR can only see up to 2tb.

Windows 7 X64 Edition can boot fine from GPT disks.

[Acebmxer]

I think you mean a normal BIOS.

With the exception of Intel Manufactured Boards and 1 Asus board that had an upgrade to UEFI

My statment was inreguards of Gigabyte boards. Only Gigabyte boards that have UEFI bios is X79 all other boards have EFI bios or Hybrid EFI bios.

Windows 7 X64 Edition can boot fine from GPT disks.

Yes you are correct Win7 x64 and x32 can boot from GPT disks but I believe UEFI bios is needed. EFI or Hybrid EFI can not boot to GPT disks.


Here read this. Windows and GPT FAQ