The fundamental problem is this *IS* a system using UEFI bios and a 64-bit OS,
so it *SHOULD* be able to partition a 4TB drive as a single volume.
And it did so for the first 4TB drive attached to SATA 1. It had no problems
formatting that volume and it did so NTFS.
BUT, it would NOT DO SO for an IDENTICAL 4TB drive attached to SATA 2. And it
would not format ANY size volume on the drive attached to SATA 2.
THIS computer has Windows 7. It also has a 4TB drive partitioned into a single
volume and formatted NTFS ... or at least that's what Windoze is calling it.
I didn't have to jump through any hoops to get it to work. I physically
installed the 4TB disk & used Windows Disk Manager to partition it into a single
volume and then format the volume however Windows wanted to do so.
What it wanted was NTFS.
I know a little bit about building computers. I bought a computer in the late
1980s. That was the last pre-built computer I bought before the new one I'm
bitching about.
In between, I don't know how many computers I've built. But I know I built my
first one some time in the early 90s BEFORE I was hired by the IBM PC Company in
1994.
While I was at IBM I did telephone support for Operating Systems (I even got a
call from NASA one time relaying to the Space Shuttle because they needed help
with DOS memory management on a 755CD Thinkpad they had along with them).
Then, I worked in manufacturing as a debugger - fixing whatever was wrong with
computers that failed the final test before being packed for shipping.
After that I worked as internal tech support for the department that developed
the software subsystem (preload) for the computers IBM was going to manufacture
during their next product cycle (IBM released new computers twice a year) and
handled export logistics to get those software preloads to the manufacturing
plants world wide.
After IBM decided to cease manufacturing PCs in the U.S. (about three or four
years before selling the brand to Lenovo) I worked as a contractor for the USPS,
doing telephone support for their Point of Sale systems.
I'm not a computer scientist, and NOT a programmer, but I have enough experience
as a computer tech that I know what I'm doing when I have to set one up.
At the moment, the hard drive problem is MOOT, because the video card failed.
Today NOT being a Federal Holiday, I was able to talk to their Customer Support.
From what he said, that happens A LOT. They're shipping an advance replacement
with a "return label" so I can send the failed unit back.
The fundamental problem is that a file system using 32-bit segment
addressing and 512-byte segments can't be larger than 2TB.
While Microsoft do now have file systems that can use 64-bit
segment numbers, they aren't compatible with older firmware (and,
in particular, older BIOSes), so by default file system partitions
will be initialized with the backwards-compatible format.
You need a system using UEFI rather than an older BIOS if you want
to boot off a volume larger that 2TB.
On 10/12/2021 12:00:20, John Francis wrote:
On Tue, Oct 12, 2021 at 01:08:40AM -0700, Larry Colen wrote:
On Oct 11, 2021, at 8:22 PM, John <[email protected]> wrote:
This is *NOT* a computer that I put together myself.
This is a computer that I bought pre-assembled with the OS pre-installed. It
only came with a 1TB SSD M.2 module (which I have not touched). But I knew I
would have to add additional drives.
You might be able to diagnose it with a live boot linux CD.
The fundamental problem is that a file system using 32-bit segment addressing
and 512-byte segments can't be larger than 2TB.
While Microsoft do now have file systems that can use 64-bit segment numbers,
they aren't compatible with older firmware (and, in particular, older BIOSes),
so by default file system partitions will be initialized with the
backwards-compatible format.
You need a system using UEFI rather than an older BIOS if you want to boot off
a volume larger that 2TB.
There are a couple of extra hoops you need to jump through to be able to put a
file sytem larger than 2TB on a drive.
Presumably this is partly an effort to stop you making a drive you can't
actually use, and partly because at least some of the tools being used date
back to the days when NTFS was the new large-disk system, and a 2GB drive was
considered large!
The disk partitioning software is quite happy with large physical volumes, so
it's capable of making a raw partition larger than 2TB. The problem comes when
you try and put a file system on it, because the default is NTFS.
Note that Windows 11 requires UEFI
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