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I have an old AMD system running Windows 7 x64.

I recently upgraded to a 3TB drive (from 512GB), cloning my old drive contents over with Acronis.

Long story short, it shows up as a 748GB disk.

Yes, the disk is MBR. My mobo doesn't support UEFI, so I can't go to GPT.

I booted into GParted, and I can see the full size of the drive, 3TB. I resized the partition to 1.9TB...

It won't boot into Windows.

What am I missing here? Apparently it's my windows installation that won't accept a drive larger than 748GB.

I see other topics talking about this, and GParted fixes the issue. In windows my drive can't be any larger than 748, or it won't boot.

I see people talking about needing Intel RST, but my chipset is AMD64.

Is there a patch I can install to get my OS to work with a boot drive that is larger than 748GB?

Gorchestopher H
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  • You may create some more partitions to use the remaining space - I'm really not sure -. The limit for MBR seems to be 2.2TB (?). https://superuser.com/questions/1229390/mbr-2tb-limit-total-storage-or-per-disc –  Nov 10 '18 at 19:55
  • I tried 1.9 TB and still can't boot. – Gorchestopher H Nov 10 '18 at 20:04
  • So keep it like this and create other partitions? Why do you think you need a bigger system partition? You don't. There are laptops being sold right now with Windows 10 in a 64GB drive. The BIOS itself can have limitation too. –  Nov 10 '18 at 20:10
  • @GabrielaGarcia I can't add another partition, any allocation beyond 748 total on the disk prevents boot. In Windows the disk only shows 748 total. – Gorchestopher H Nov 10 '18 at 20:27
  • Let's see if I'm understanding you correctly: Are you saying that creating additional partitions with GParted yet keeping the Windows system partition exactly as it is, prevents booting? If so, that's a BIOS limitation, an update (if available) may or may not solve it. –  Nov 10 '18 at 20:32
  • @GabrielaGarcia Yes, that's exactly the scenario. However, doesn't GParted use the same bios? I'd be fine with it being recognised as a 2TB drive, but 748 is kind of a slap in the face. – Gorchestopher H Nov 10 '18 at 20:41
  • Yes, GParted (in a Linux live session??) surely depends on the same motherboard's firmware and that's why what you describe is hard to understand. By the way, how is it detected by BIOS? And can you post a screenshoot from Windows Disk Management and/or Gparted? –  Nov 10 '18 at 20:45
  • I'll try to get a screenshot later on, but the disk itself in GParted Live CD shows a disk that's 3TB with 748 allocated, the rest unallocated. In Windows it shows that the total disk size is 748GB. – Gorchestopher H Nov 10 '18 at 20:48
  • Those 748GB are a single partition or more? If more, how many? –  Nov 10 '18 at 20:51
  • @GabrielaGarcia 3 partitions. A 100mb Boot partition (don't know what this is) a 40GB system recovery partition, and the rest is the Windows 7 system partition. – Gorchestopher H Nov 10 '18 at 21:07
  • That's a problem. MBR limits it to 4 partitions. So, you can never use the drive's full capacity. By know I'm sure you understand that such big drives for old machines are a very bad idea. –  Nov 10 '18 at 21:10
  • Is this helpful: https://superuser.com/questions/608298/3tb-hard-disk-displayed-as-746gb? Could it be a driver issue? – Aulis Ronkainen Nov 10 '18 at 21:14
  • @GabrielaGarcia Right, but I do have less than 4 currently, and when I add one I'm still within the limit of 4. – Gorchestopher H Nov 10 '18 at 22:12
  • @AulisRonkainen I have a feeling it is a driver issue, but I have no drivers to look to. I'm running AMD, so I can't do RST. It's a WD drive, so the Seagate drivers don't help me either. – Gorchestopher H Nov 10 '18 at 22:14
  • Yes, theoretically, but it couldn't be of all available free space anyway. And the link above I think sheds a light in this issue and explains a couple of things I was unaware of. Try to find updates for the equivalent driver/tools from the motherboard's and the driver's manufacturers. You may have better results with an updated BIOS. Other than that, reinstalling Windows after removing all the partitions may also give different results (use 84-bit if the hardware supports it). Other that that what to recommended? Nothing, really, except maybe use Linux :). –  Nov 10 '18 at 22:20
  • Does anyone know where to get started with AMD SATA drives? There doesn't seem to be anything as generic as with Intel. – Gorchestopher H Nov 10 '18 at 23:24
  • @GorchestopherH - You don’t need special drivers for a SATA drive. Intel RST is for RAID not SATA – Ramhound Nov 11 '18 at 00:28
  • @Ramhound Yes, SATA drives do not require drivers, but SATA controllers and chipsets do. OP, what is the make and model of your motherboard? Your SATA controller probably can't handle disks larger than 2TB. If you have a spare 2TB disk, you could verify this. Also how have you set the BIOS settings for that drive? – Aulis Ronkainen Nov 11 '18 at 06:08
  • @AulisRonkainen - Even if the SATA controller cannot handle disks larger than 2 TB, they should be able to partition the disk into a 2 TB partition with the rest being unallocated. – Ramhound Nov 11 '18 at 12:12
  • @AulisRonkainen I don't have another large disk. The drive shows up as 3TB in bios and Linux. The processor is an AMD Athlon II Series, having a hard time figuring out exactly what the board is, however, in Linux there is no issue. – Gorchestopher H Nov 11 '18 at 12:48

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