Question 4TB HDD installed, now only 2TB of space shown after Windows 10 installation

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hughjass09

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Dec 22, 2007
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I've done a little digging and it looks like I need to make a switch with my Bios from Legacy to UEFI. Not sure I want to do this. I'm wondering if there would be any future problems with Windows 10 only recognizing 2TB of space on a 4TB HDD. The first thing that comes to mind is disk de-fragmenting. Seems like it would be an issue to run a defrag on partially recognized HDD.
 
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I think I'll go ahead with this and make the conversion in the next day or two. I am wondering, though, would there be any problems with continuing to use a partially recognized HDD? Would an occasional de-fragment of the drive be an issue, or would anything else pop up in the future because of this?
 
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Main issue is you would be giving up roughly half of the capacity.

Is "partially recognized" only a reference to capacity? Or to something more than that?

There are differences between MBR and GPT, but you can certainly use MBR if you insist as far as I know...at least on Windows 10.
 
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hughjass09 said:
I think I'll go ahead with this and make the conversion in the next day or two. I am wondering, though, would there be any problems with continuing to use a partially recognized HDD? Would an occasional de-fragment of the drive be an issue, or would anything else pop up in the future because of this?
Click to expand...

Defragmenting is basically small potatoes. Certainly compared to not being able to use half the capacity of your drive.
 
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Is "partially recognized" only a reference to capacity?

Yes, just capacity

Defragmenting is basically small potatoes. Certainly compared to not being able to use half the capacity of your drive.

Gotchya

Thanks for the replies. I'll let you know if I run into any issues in the next couple days.
 
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Succesfully made the change from MBR to GPT using the MBR2GPT.exe through the command prompt. Went into Bios and changed the boot option from Legacy to UEFI, however, my HDD is still only showing 2TB of storage.
 
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Once I open up Disk Management it shows the following, Disk 0 - Basic 3726 GB / System Reserve 50 MB / C: 2047 GB NTFS / 100MB Healthy / 505 MB Healthy / 1678 GB Unallocated. When I open "This PC" my Local disk (C: ) is showing 1.95 TB free of 1.99 TB. I can upload some pictures later tonight.
 
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The 1678 unallocated can be added to C.

Several methods.

Minitool Partition Wizard for one.

A 2 minute job.

Probably can't do it directly from Disk Management due to the intervening 100 and 505 mb partitions.


Or you could make another partition from the 1678 if you'd prefer that.
 
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hughjass09 said:
Great, that's good news. I'll probably go with another partition. Is that pretty simple?
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Right clicking the unallocated space should allow you to make a new "simple volume" of any size up to 1678.

Directly from Disk Management. No other software needed.


HOWEVER....not the most efficient way to manage space on a drive. But maybe you have an over-riding reason to use a second partition rather than a folder structure on a single partition????
 
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It looked a bit easier to create a second partition and without downloading extra software. Are there some big cons to this? If so I'll look into that Minitool Wizard you mentioned.
 
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Your first decision should be: do I have a specific need for a second partition or not?

If yes, do so.

If no, add the space to C.

Minitool is one way.

The other way is to move existing partitions so that the 100 and 505 mb partitions are NOT intervening as you look at them in Disk Management. At that point, you could add the 1678 to C using Disk Management, with no need for other software.

Neither way is complex, but neither way is as simple as making another partition.

Suit yourself, depending on your preference for "easier".

A 20 second job to make another partition. A few minutes, maybe with some instruction, to add the unallocated to C.

I'd use a single partition.
 
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The other way is to move existing partitions so that the 100 and 505 mb partitions are NOT intervening as you look at them in Disk Management. At that point, you could add the 1678 to C using Disk Management, with no need for other software.

If you have the time I'll follow your instructions for this. Appreciate all your help so far, will be back on later tonight.
 
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Lafong said:
Your first decision should be: do I have a specific need for a second partition or not?

If yes, do so.

If no, add the space to C.

Minitool is one way.

The other way is to move existing partitions so that the 100 and 505 mb partitions are NOT intervening as you look at them in Disk Management. At that point, you could add the 1678 to C using Disk Management, with no need for other software.

Neither way is complex, but neither way is as simple as making another partition.

Suit yourself, depending on your preference for "easier".

A 20 second job to make another partition. A few minutes, maybe with some instruction, to add the unallocated to C.

I'd use a single partition.
Click to expand...
Left out some info from Disk Management, here's a pic
https://imgur.com/lcEbO3p
View: https://imgur.com/lcEbO3p


100 mb is EFI system partition and the 505 mb is a recovery partition. If you have the time to post a single partition guide I'm ready for it.
 
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hughjass09 said:
Left out some info from Disk Management, here's a pic
https://imgur.com/lcEbO3p
View: https://imgur.com/lcEbO3p


100 mb is EFI system partition and the 505 mb is a recovery partition. If you have the time to post a single partition guide I'm ready for it.
Click to expand...
To connect partitions you can't have any in between. and without one of them windows wont work.
Best way would be to reinstall windows from scratch after deleting all partitions.
 
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On any of my hard disks which still have a bootable operating system, I prefer to split them into two logical drives. Drive C: with enough room for programs and Windows. Drive D:, the remainder of the disk, for data (photos, movies, music, installation files, etc.).

By keeping most of my data separate from the OS partition, if anything goes badly wrong with Windows, I can re-clone the OS partion more rapidly, without having gto backup up data first, or rebuild the OS from scratch without touching the data on the D: drive.

I regard keeping all your data files mixed up with programs and OS on one big partition as an uneccessary complication. Keep your data separate from your User Profile and OS, so if/when the main profile or the C: drive get corrupted, you don't have to rescue files from Documents, Photos, Music, Videos, etc. in a damaged profile.
 
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CountMike said:
To connect partitions you can't have any in between. and without one of them windows wont work.
Best way would be to reinstall windows from scratch after deleting all partitions.
Click to expand...
Think I'll bite the bullet and reinstall. In theory, I'll have my Bios set to UEFI before I do the Windows 10 install and my HDD will auto set to GPT?
 
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hughjass09 said:
Think I'll bite the bullet and reinstall. In theory, I'll have my Bios set to UEFI before I do the Windows 10 install and my HDD will auto set to GPT?
Click to expand...

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...
forums.tomshardware.com forums.tomshardware.com
 
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hughjass09 said:
Appreciate that. One last thing I noticed. I went into the Bios and noticed there are now two boot options for my DVD burner.

UEFI: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH24NSC0
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH24NSC0

Leaning towards the UEFI version for obvious reasons but wanted to be super careful before I went ahead.
Click to expand...
Booting from the DVD matters not, unless it doesn't boot.
 
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