RE: 2 TB disk size possible problem

[Crawford, Scott]

Yes.

Sent from my Windows Phone

From: Ben Scott
Sent: 1/31/2013 7:04 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: 2 TB disk size possible problem

On Thu, Jan 31, 2013 at 6:31 PM, Andrew S. Baker  wrote:
>> I have a raid 5 “disk” that is just under 2 TB. ...
>> In Windows, it’s listed as a Basic disk, with MBR Partition style.
>
> You can convert from Basic to Dynamic with no data loss.

  But a "Dynamic disk" hosted on a disk with an MBR partition table is
still limited to 2 TiB, no?

-- Ben

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/>  ~

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Re: 2 TB disk size possible problem

[Ben Scott]

On Thu, Jan 31, 2013 at 6:31 PM, Andrew S. Baker  wrote:
>> I have a raid 5 “disk” that is just under 2 TB. ...
>> In Windows, it’s listed as a Basic disk, with MBR Partition style.
>
> You can convert from Basic to Dynamic with no data loss.

  But a "Dynamic disk" hosted on a disk with an MBR partition table is
still limited to 2 TiB, no?

-- Ben

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~   ~

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Re: 2 TB disk size possible problem

[Ben Scott]

On Thu, Jan 31, 2013 at 3:59 PM, Reimer, Mark  wrote:
> I did some Googling with conflicting answers on whether I can make it bigger
> and how. I think the bottom line is: I can make it bigger, but I have to
> reformat it as a GPT Partition (of course, saving all the data before the
> format, and restoring afterward).

  Hmmm...

  MBR has a hard limit of 2 terabytes.

  Technically speaking, there's nothing that says the OS *has* to
believe the partition table on the disk, but I don't think there's a
way to tell Windows otherwise.

  It may be possible to convert in-place from MBR to GPT.  MBR lives
in sector 0 (zero).  The GPT lives in sectors 1 through N, with a
backup in sectors (X-N) through X (where X=end-of-disk).  Windows
normally leaves some sectors unallocated at the start of a disk; those
may be enough to contain a GPT.  And the end of the newly-extended
disk will of course not be allocated.

  If nothing else, if you first extended the logical disk, then used a
GPT-aware partitioning tool to create GPT entries which exactly match
the start and length of your existing partitions, as long as the size
of the GPT didn't run into the start of your first partition, I think
you'd be okay.  There may even be tools out there to do all that
automatically.

https://www.google.com/search?q=convert+MBR+to+GPT

  Here's one write up I found:

http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/mbr2gpt.html

  I would still make a full backup of everything first.  It's very
easy to wipe out everything in seconds when you start playing with
partition tables.

-- Ben

~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~
~   ~

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RE: 2 TB disk size possible problem

[Ziots, Edward]

Nope we ran into the same thing with HP's was a limit of there RAID 
controllers, so the new partitions we created GPT and got past the 2TB limit.

Z

Edward E. Ziots, CISSP, Security +, Network +
Security Engineer
Lifespan Organization
ezi...@lifespan.org

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From: Reimer, Mark [mailto:mark.rei...@prairie.edu]
Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2013 4:00 PM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: 2 TB disk size possible problem

I have a raid 5 "disk" that is just under 2 TB. The server (Dell 2950) in front 
is Windows 2003 R2, 64 Bit. The raid unit is in a Dell MD1000 with 5 500GB 
disks. In Windows, it's listed as a Basic disk, with MBR Partition style.

I did some Googling with conflicting answers on whether I can make it bigger 
and how. I think the bottom line is: I can make it bigger, but I have to 
reformat it as a GPT Partition (of course, saving all the data before the 
format, and restoring afterward).

Is my research/thinking correct, or is there another option?

Thanks for all help/pointers/tips.

Mark Reimer, A+, MCSA
Servers & Network Administrator
Prairie Bible Institute
Box 4000
Three Hills, AB  T0M-2N0  Canada
Tel: 403-443-5511, Ext. 3476
Fax: 403-443-5540
Email: mark.rei...@prairie.edu
www.prairie.edu


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