Unlock 3TB+ Harddrive

[zcr07]

I'm having difficulty unlocking the rest of my 4tb harddrive on an ASRock z77. I have already ran ASRock's 3tb+ unlocker utility, and I've had it unlocked before when I used it as my boot drive, but I replaced my boot drive with an SSD and am currently just using this as an extra. Am I missing something? Can only MBR disks exceed 2tb?

 

[i7Baby]

What OS are you using?

 

[zcr07]

What OS are you using?

Windows 7 Ultimate

 

[Hawkeye22]

You need to use a GPT partition in order to access over 2TB. MBR's limit is aproximately 2.2TB. Tou use a GPT partioned disk, you must have an UEFI motherboard and 64bit win7.

Can Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008 read, write, and boot from GPT disks?

Yes, all versions can use GPT partitioned disks for data. Booting is only supported for 64-bit editions on UEFI-based systems.

http/msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn640535%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

 

[zcr07]

You need to use a GPT partition in order to access over 2TB. MBR's limit is aproximately 2.2TB. Tou use a GPT partioned disk, you must have an UEFI motherboard and 64bit win7.

Can Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008 read, write, and boot from GPT disks?

Yes, all versions can use GPT partitioned disks for data. Booting is only supported for 64-bit editions on UEFI-based systems.

http/msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn640535%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

I have an ASRock Z77 extreme4, and it should be a UEFI board. But I believe it's already a GPT partitioned, and I can see it on the same disk as having ~2tb partitioned, and another ~2tb unallocated. Originally when I had it working, I would see this, but then the additional 2tb showed up as an entirely separate disk, and now I'm not seeing that.

 

[Hawkeye22]

if I understand correctly, you have one 2TB partition and 2TB unallocated. Are you able to extend the partition?

http/www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-use-disk-management-to-extend-a-partition-i.html

 

[Y0GI]

I'm having difficulty unlocking the rest of my 4tb harddrive on an ASRock z77. I have already ran ASRock's 3tb+ unlocker utility, and I've had it unlocked before when I used it as my boot drive, but I replaced my boot drive with an SSD and am currently just using this as an extra. Am I missing something? Can only MBR disks exceed 2tb?

If you have anything of value on this drive, I would contact Asrock Tech Support for help.

It would appear that the Asrock Utility has somehow modified the disk partition structure and any actions on the drive outside of the Asrock Utility could result in permanent loss of data.

Beware!

Yogi

 

[popatim]

yogi offers excellent advice.

 

[zcr07]

Here is a screenshot for a little better perspective.

http/i.imgur.com/aN1cbuA.png

In my disk management, I see my 4tb disk (Disk 0) but it shows the large unallocated partition (the image shows my right-click options) and I am very limited on what exactly I can do with it. I also can't simply extend the volume of the existing disk because it will not allow partitions beyond 2tb to be created, hence the need for the ASRock 3TB Unlocker Utility. As I mentioned earlier, it did work for me before, but after changing boot drives, it has not worked for me. Researching more on the 3TB Unlocker Utility, the disk must be converted to a GPT drive, which it is. After I did this the first time, I believe all I did was restart it and it just showed up.

 

[Hawkeye22]

My apologies. I didn't notice that you had used the 3TB unlocker utility. In this case, yogi's advice makes good sense.