Computer hard drive help

[BetCheckBet]

Couple of smart guys here so I figured I would ask.

I am pretty much self taught with all computer stuff, which doesn't say much.

Recently upgraded my hard drive to 5TB. Cloned original drive to new 5TB but because original is an MBR, the new drive only can use 2TB of space (it cloned as MBR too). Apparently if I convert my 5TB drive to GPT I should be able to use all of the 5TB.

1. What is best way to change drive from MRB to GPT? Can I use utilities to simply convert the new drive to GPT and still maintain the cloned data and OS that is already on it, rather than having to start the clone all over again?

2. I'm reading that GPT drives are not always easy to boot into windows 7 on. Should I expect difficulties once the conversion is done?

Any suggestions appreciated and please keep in mind my computer knowledge is limited.

[sonatine]

without putting myself in a position to be responsible for the loss of your data, the first thing you should be doing if youre rolling these dice is backing up everything.

then consider doing a fresh format/install/whatever of your 5tb drive in windows and manually copying your old data to it.

otherwise youre playing with fire. the inode gods are fickle and not to be trifled with.

[MumblesBadly]

Couple of smart guys here so I figured I would ask.

I am pretty much self taught with all computer stuff, which doesn't say much.

Recently upgraded my hard drive to 5TB. Cloned original drive to new 5TB but because original is an MBR, the new drive only can use 2TB of space (it cloned as MBR too). Apparently if I convert my 5TB drive to GPT I should be able to use all of the 5TB.

1. What is best way to change drive from MRB to GPT? Can I use utilities to simply convert the new drive to GPT and still maintain the cloned data and OS that is already on it, rather than having to start the clone all over again?

2. I'm reading that GPT drives are not always easy to boot into windows 7 on. Should I expect difficulties once the conversion is done?

Any suggestions appreciated and please keep in mind my computer knowledge is limited.

Is it laptop or desktop? If the latter, is there room for installing another harddrive as a slave, buy another 2TB to clone your original drive onto, and then install that cloned 2TB as a slave to the fresh master 5TB? That way you have ready access to all of your old files, and can migrate items to the 5TB as needed without having to break out and plug in the back-up clone.

[limitles]

Consider the warnings as I too am self taught minus the reading of instruction manuals. Scarred for life is not an exaggeration. I will put in a good word for the software Super Duper. I only used what I could without paying for it, (29.00) lol, and it still does a fair bit and actually promises not to harm what you currently have. It's also used going forward so your ass is covered down the line.

[BetCheckBet]

Couple of smart guys here so I figured I would ask.

I am pretty much self taught with all computer stuff, which doesn't say much.

Recently upgraded my hard drive to 5TB. Cloned original drive to new 5TB but because original is an MBR, the new drive only can use 2TB of space (it cloned as MBR too). Apparently if I convert my 5TB drive to GPT I should be able to use all of the 5TB.

1. What is best way to change drive from MRB to GPT? Can I use utilities to simply convert the new drive to GPT and still maintain the cloned data and OS that is already on it, rather than having to start the clone all over again?

2. I'm reading that GPT drives are not always easy to boot into windows 7 on. Should I expect difficulties once the conversion is done?

Any suggestions appreciated and please keep in mind my computer knowledge is limited.

Is it laptop or desktop? If the latter, is there room for installing another harddrive as a slave, buy another 2TB to clone your original drive onto, and then install that cloned 2TB as a slave to the fresh master 5TB? That way you have ready access to all of your old files, and can migrate items to the 5TB as needed without having to break out and plug in the back-up clone.

Desktop. Just spent 500 bucks upgrading computer and still have to upgrade cpu. Would prefer not to have to get another hard drive.

[BlunderMaker]

Couple of smart guys here so I figured I would ask.

I am pretty much self taught with all computer stuff, which doesn't say much.

Recently upgraded my hard drive to 5TB. Cloned original drive to new 5TB but because original is an MBR, the new drive only can use 2TB of space (it cloned as MBR too). Apparently if I convert my 5TB drive to GPT I should be able to use all of the 5TB.

1. What is best way to change drive from MRB to GPT? Can I use utilities to simply convert the new drive to GPT and still maintain the cloned data and OS that is already on it, rather than having to start the clone all over again?

2. I'm reading that GPT drives are not always easy to boot into windows 7 on. Should I expect difficulties once the conversion is done?

Any suggestions appreciated and please keep in mind my computer knowledge is limited.

You can convert from MBR to GPT easily from the command line utility diskpart, which you can google and find out how to do really quickly. The issue is going to be in booting this drive after converting. You'd have to create the EFI partitons since your MBR formatted drive doesn't have them. It's going to be a pain in the ass. Here's a video that may help:

[LarryLaffer]

how large is that kiddie porn collection if you need a new hard drive.

[BetCheckBet]

without putting myself in a position to be responsible for the loss of your data, the first thing you should be doing if youre rolling these dice is backing up everything.

then consider doing a fresh format/install/whatever of your 5tb drive in windows and manually copying your old data to it.

otherwise youre playing with fire. the inode gods are fickle and not to be trifled with.

Not too worried as the original drive is completely intact so if I mess up the files on 5TB things are good. I just really hate doing a fresh install, mainly because I'm in Canada and have shitty bandwidth limits. I have a lot of programs I would need to reinstall and download since I imagine you can't simply transfer them over. I really don't care much about files/docs.

Couple of smart guys here so I figured I would ask.

I am pretty much self taught with all computer stuff, which doesn't say much.

Recently upgraded my hard drive to 5TB. Cloned original drive to new 5TB but because original is an MBR, the new drive only can use 2TB of space (it cloned as MBR too). Apparently if I convert my 5TB drive to GPT I should be able to use all of the 5TB.

1. What is best way to change drive from MRB to GPT? Can I use utilities to simply convert the new drive to GPT and still maintain the cloned data and OS that is already on it, rather than having to start the clone all over again?

2. I'm reading that GPT drives are not always easy to boot into windows 7 on. Should I expect difficulties once the conversion is done?

Any suggestions appreciated and please keep in mind my computer knowledge is limited.

You can convert from MBR to GPT easily from the command line utility diskpart, which you can google and find out how to do really quickly. The issue is going to be in booting this drive after converting. You'd have to create the EFI partitons since your MBR formatted drive doesn't have them. It's going to be a pain in the ass. Here's a video that may help:

Thanks this is exactly what I cam talking about. the EFI stuff is what I'm worried about given my lack of technical expertise. Will check out video and decide where to go from there (think it may be more trouble than worth for me).

[Belly Buster]

What sonatine said.

[BetCheckBet]

Sorry to rehash old topic.

Installed new motherboard ASAB350M pro4, ryzen 1600 cpu and 16gb ddr4 ram. New motherboard bios screen listed as uefi. But when I tried to install windows 10 (had to buy new version since windows 7 was OEM) it was reporting could not install on gpt drive and I was forced to install on mbr drive like before limited to 2TBs. msinfo listing my bios as legacy... Any idea how to change this and reinstall windows on the drive in gpt? I'm thinking maybe if I disable CMS for USB (by default it is enabled on motherboard) it will force a uefi/gpt install?

I would test but it would mean having to reformat first and I don;t have an extra hard drive to try it on...

Any help appreciated....

[SysOp]

buy 250gb solid state hd, install Windows to it, use 2tb hd for storage.