wrote:
HOLY**** PAUL.

A LINK TO MICROSOFT describing their supported **** of BIOS would have been enough.

Not Microsoft problem, BIOS problem.

THIS IS SO PAINFULL TO READ. I HATE ADDRESSING LIMITATIONS.

I WISH HARDWARE INDUSTRY WOULD STOP ARTIFICIALLY LIMITATING COMPUTERS:

Apperently BIOS + MASTER BOOT RECORD + WINDOWS XP 32 BIT, though the latter is probably not at fault, CAN'T SUPPORT DRIVES LARGER THAN 2 TB.

Somebody in comments says it can but that only applies to if GPT is used instead of master boot record.

I feel like I wanna shoot myself through the head right now GOD DAMN MOTHER****ING HARDWARE PEOPLE.

At least GPT works somewhat... still working on BIOS based systems, but apperently it needs newer windows vesrion.

Windows 7 64 bit edition works ok ?!

HOLY****

Does this mean windows 10 can't work on 4 TB drives ?! Now I am confused... can't it not read 4 TB drives or what ?! Again confused.

Planning to install windows 10 on smaller partition but still I want it to read bigger drives maybe too.

WHAT A ****ING MESS.

ANYWAY I HATE USB TOO MUCH SO I ENJOYED SCREAMING AT IT A LITTLE BIT TOO MUCH.

Will try USB STICK soon, thanks for warning about shady usb sticks, but have no choice, the plastic will break soon if necessar hahaha.

"
Windows support for hard disks that are larger than 2 TB
Applies to: Microsoft Windows XP Home EditionMicrosoft Windows XP ProfessionalMicrosoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition (32-bit x86) More
Summary
In order for an operating system to fully support storage devices that have capacities that exceed 2 terabytes (2 TB, or 2 trillion bytes), the device must be initialized by using the GUID partition table (GPT) partitioning scheme. This scheme supports addressing of the full range of storage capacity. If the user intends to start the computer from one of these large disks, the system’s base firmware interface must use the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) and not BIOS.

This article outlines Microsoft support across all Windows versions since Windows XP. It also describes the requirements to address the full storage capability of these devices.

Note that this article refers to disk capacity in powers of two instead of powers of 10, which is the more common designation on storage device capacity labels. Therefore, references to “2 TB” actually refer to a product that is labeled as having “2.2 TB” of capacity.

Also note that the operating system-specific behavior that is noted in this article also applies to the server variants of that system. Therefore, a reference to “Windows 7” includes Windows Server 2008 R2, “Windows Vista” includes Windows Server 2008, and “Windows XP” includes Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2.
More Information
The management of modern storage devices is addressed by using a scheme called Logical Block Addressing (LBA). This is the arrangement of the logical sectors that constitute the media. "LBA0" represents the first logical sector of the device, and the last LBA designation represents the last logical sector of the device, one label per sector. To determine the capacity of the storage device, you multiply the number of logical sectors within the device by the size of each logical sector. The current size standard is 512 bytes. For example, to achieve a device that has a capacity of 2 TB, you must have 3,906,250,000 512-byte sectors. However, a computer system requires 32 bits (1s and 0s) of information to represent this large number. Therefore, any storage capacity that is greater than what can be represented by using 32 bits would require an additional bit. That is, 33 bits.

The problem in this computation is that the partitioning scheme that is used by most modern Windows-based computers is MBR (master boot record). This scheme sets a limit of 32 for the number of bits that are available to represent the number of logical sectors.

The 2-TB barrier is the result of this 32-bit limitation. Because the maximum number that can be represented by using 32-bits is 4,294,967,295, this translates to 2.199 TB of capacity by using 512-byte sectors (approximately 2.2 TB). Therefore, a capacity beyond 2.2 TB is not addressable by using the MBR partitioning scheme.

To make more bits available for addressing, the storage device must be initialized by using GPT. This partitioning scheme lets up to 64 bits of information be used within logical sectors. This translates to a theoretical limitation of 9.4 ZB (9.4 zettabytes, or 9.4 billion terabytes). However, the issue that affects GPT is that most currently available systems are based on the aging BIOS platform. BIOS supports only MBR-initialized disks to start the computer. To restart from a device that is initialized by using GPT, your system must be UEFI-capable. By default, many current systems can support UEFI. Microsoft expects that most future systems will have this support. Customers should consult with their system vendor to determine the ability of their systems to support UEFI and disks that have storage capacities that are greater than 2 TB.
"

^

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...rger-than-2-tb

I kinda suspected this already but ARRRGGGHHH I guess I just didn't wanna face reality and first HAD TO SCREAM AT SOME PEOPLE LOL.

Or to lazy to figure it out myself, don't know... I gamed too much my brain a bit fried... getting back into it though =D

THX ! You got me on the right track primarily, and one other guy was hinting at parition table didn't know why though.

Again your amazing PAUL ! =D

The rest of sci.electronics.design was pretty clueless ! HAHA.

Bye,
Skybuck.

Windows 7 supports GPT as far as I know. I think
I've used the backup drive, the big one, with it.

The reason I was using Windows 8, is it was cheap
at the time ($39.95), so I got a copy for both
machines. The Win7 Pro I got, cost more than that,
and only one machine got that.

The most I paid for an OS, was a copy of Win2K. It
was like $300 in local currency. And the store I bought
that at, went bankrupt. How could they go bankrupt
selling OSes for $300 ???

Paul