Ext 4TB HD not shown in Win XP

Da Mail Man

Active Member
Does "my computer" show the partition that is 2tb?

So are you saying you installed xp to this partition?
********************************

(if I understood you)...YES -

1)installed 4tb hd into computer.

2) inserted win xp disc into optical drive.

3) xp "went in w/out incident.
 
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johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
So when you installed xp to external did the OS see the remaining part of the drive? Did you use disk management to partition/format the balance?
 

Da Mail Man

Active Member
Short answer - "NO".....Went to disc management and it gives me really no options (in effect) - saying that there is only 1 partition and that partition is "used"....

I show 1 partition where the newly installed xp is and nothing else. (see attached picts). Strange though, it shows that the rest of the drive is "used"....Drive shows up in "my computer" as a single drive containing xp.
 

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Cromewell

Administrator
Staff member
Source https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca...port-for-hard-disks-that-are-larger-than-2-tb
Overall requirements for a bootable system volume
Assume that you want to meet the following conditions:
  • Have a storage device on which you can install Windows.
  • Make the storage device bootable.
  • Enable the operating system to address a maximum storage capacity for that device of greater than 2 TB.
To meet these conditions, the following prerequisites apply:
  • The disk must be initialized by using GPT.
  • The system firmware must use UEFI.
  • The Windows version must be one of the following (64-bit only, but including all SKU editions):
    • Windows Server 2008 R2
    • Windows Server 2008
    • Windows 7
    • Windows Vista

You can abuse larger cluster sizes to get all 4TB on a data drive on XP. But as a boot drive you are out of luck.
 

Da Mail Man

Active Member

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Right click on the unallocated part and see if you can create simple volume. Disk management is showing some weird numbers though. I understand this is when its bootable and doesn't help as far as a data drive.

So you may have to sell this drive and get a 2tb drive in order to use it with XP. It's an OS limitation, has nothing to do with the hardware. You can always confirm this by going to a library with newer computers and plug the drive in to see what it registers or use a friends pc that has a newer OS.
 

Da Mail Man

Active Member
Right click on the unallocated part and see if you can create simple volume.
OK...WILL AFTER A BIT (gotta shut down as lightning and storms rolling in (florida)..

Disk management is showing some weird numbers though.
WELL, THEY DEFINITELY DON'T "JIVE" WITH WHAT THE USED PART IS COMPARED TO WHAT SHOULD BE "FREE/EMPTY".

I understand this is when its bootable and doesn't help as far as a data drive.
BUT, I DON'T WANT A BOOTABLE DRIVE.I WANT A DRIVE THAT I CAN BACK UP MY COMPUTER TO AND POSSIBLY STORE SOME PROGRAMS AND PICTS AND BE ABLE TO RESTORE BACK INTO MY COMPUTER SHOULD THE NEED BE. I DON'T EVEN WANT XP ON THIS DRIVE, JUST SOME PROGRAMS AND PICTS.

So you may have to sell this drive and get a 2tb drive in order to use it with XP.
UGH!

It's an OS limitation, has nothing to do with the hardware.
$HIT!

You can always confirm this by going to a library with newer computers and plug the drive in to see what it registers or use a friends pc that has a newer OS.
NOT SURE THEY WILL ALLOW IT.

**I JUST REALIZED SOMETHING AND NOT SURE IT WOULD MAKE A DIFFERENCE OR NOT...SP3 IS NEEDED FOR LARGER DRIVES AND I HAVE NOT YET INSTALLED SAME...NOT SURE IF NEEDED TO "SHOW" A LARGER EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE.
 
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Cromewell

Administrator
Staff member
**I JUST REALIZED SOMETHING AND NOT SURE IT WOULD MAKE A DIFFERENCE OR NOT...SP3 IS NEEDED FOR LARGER DRIVES AND I HAVE NOT YET INSTALLED SAME...NOT SURE IF NEEDED TO "SHOW" A LARGER EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE.
If the disk has 512 byte sectors it doesn't matter. You can't address that much with 32 bit XP.
 

Da Mail Man

Active Member
Ok, didn't know that...learn something every day.

ADDITIONAL:
If xp can take a large hd and have it partitioned in half and see 2 separate drives out of the big 4TBsingle drive, I am still confused as to why it cannot then see 4 separate drives out of that very same drive.....Does not the partitioning make the XP OS think there are 4 smaller drives below it's 2tb limit?

OUT OF CURIOSITY;
If I were running win 7 (and won't be), would I be having all these issues?

If i were running "7", and "7" could see the external hd as a 4tb drive or, even 2-2TBhdd's after partitioning, if i were to try and do a back up of win xp, would not that be full of issues also?
 
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Cromewell

Administrator
Staff member
If xp can take a large hd and have it partitioned in half and see 2 separate drives out of the big 4TBsingle drive, I am still confused as to why it cannot then see 4 separate drives out of that very same drive.
It's been mentioned before, but not in detail. It's part of how MBR works. This is why GPT is a thing.
Since block addresses and sizes are stored in the partition table of an MBR using 32 bits, the maximal size, as well as the highest start address, of a partition using drives that have 512-byte sectors (actual or emulated) cannot exceed 2 TiB−512 bytes (2,199,023,255,040 bytes or 4,294,967,295 (232−1) sectors × 512 (29) bytes per sector).

If I were running win 7 (and won't be), would I be having all these issues?
No.
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Basically the same thing we've been telling you. XP can't utilize a GPT partition and has a 2tb limit. So basically sell the drive to somebody running a newer OS and then buy a 2tb drive.
 

Da Mail Man

Active Member
So,
There is no partition,
or group of partitions,
or type of partitions,
or anything on earth that I could use this 4tb xhdd, possibly partitioned into multiple partitions under 2tb's, that I could connect to my Win XP computer to do incremental back ups of win xp in case of computer crash or, to use to store data on same such as picts, programs, etc???
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
As a storage drive XP will only see the first 2tb of the drive and thats it from what I've read and what Cromewell has posted. I thought it just wouldn't read anything bigger then 2tb partition and you would need to partition the drive into smaller sections but thats not true.
 

Da Mail Man

Active Member
As a storage drive XP will only see the first 2tb of the drive and thats it from what I've read and what Cromewell has posted. I thought it just wouldn't read anything bigger then 2tb partition and you would need to partition the drive into smaller sections but thats not true.

*********************************

yeah, I know!....I thought that a larger drive (4tb) on it's own, xp would not see (after I was reminded)but, figured it WOULD if that drive was partitioned into 2 2tb discs to which I thought that xp would now see 4 separate drives with different drive letters.
 
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Cromewell

Administrator
Staff member
figured it WOULD if that drive was partitioned into 2 2tb discs to which I thought that xp would now see 4 separate drives with different drive letters.
The MBR record cannot address a partition starting past the 32 bit limit. It's not a partition size limit - well it is - but it is also an address of partition starting point limit as well. The only way to be bigger is to have a logical block size larger than 512b but I am not sure if there are any tools set it up that way under XP.
scream-jpg.8955
My thoughts exactly.
 
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