Can't do anything with unallocated space on new hard drive

andythegeek · Dec 29, 2014

I installed a new 3TB hard drive and formatted it to GBT as it was more than 2TB. I then cloned my existing hard drive to the new drive and now the new drive is booting perfectly. However when I checked in windows it shows as 1.99TB capacity. So I looked in the Disk management and the drive shows 745 GB unallocated and it won't let me do anything with it. I've attached a screenshot which shows how all the options are greyed out. I used Acronis True Image for the clone as that's where the Western Digital info that came with the drive pointed me to.

Any ideas, am I going to have to completely reformat and clone again?

ex_bubblehead · Dec 29, 2014

A clone is just that, an exact replica, including the partition information. If the drive to be cloned is MBT then the clone will be as well, unless the cloning software has an option to convert to GPT on the fly.

andythegeek · Dec 29, 2014

Ah! I've just gone through the software and there's no way to override it to GPT. Arse! So to get the full 3TB out of it the only way is to use it as secondary drive. In which case, how easy is it to move my games and program files without causing problems? I'd like to keep all my games in one place rather than install new ones on the new drive and leave current ones on the C: drive.

ex_bubblehead · Dec 29, 2014

There are methods of migrating an installation from MBR to GPT but they tend to be somewhat convoluted and involve the use of Linux as an intermediary ( here's just one example: http://superuser.com/questions/443561/clone-a-windows-installation-to-a-3tb-hard-drive-mbr-to-gpt ), and if you make a mistake you run the risk of data loss. Best is to use the Easy Transfer Wizard to back up your user profiles, data, & program settings to external storage, then reinstall Windows on the new drive in UEFI mode, run Easy Transfer to migrate your old profiles and data from the backup you made earlier (.mig file), then reinstall programs.

Greenpedro5 · Dec 29, 2014

If you use the disk part tool from cmd you should be able to create a volume from the unallocated space.

Open the Command Prompt as Administrator. Type diskpart and hit Enter.
Once you enter to the diskpart screen type list disk and hit Enter.
Now a list of the disks will be shown, type select disk x (the X is the disk number that has an unallocated space) and hit Enter.
Now, type create partition primary size=x (The X is the number that you got from the Free column on the previous step) and hit Enter.
After the creating is done, type select partition 2 and hit Enter.
Now, you're in the new partition, you need to format it first by typing format fs:ntfs quick and hit Enter.
After that, type assign and hit Enter.
Then, type 'active' and hit Enter.
Now, your new partition is ready to use.

andythegeek · Dec 29, 2014

Greenpedro5 :

If you use the disk part tool from cmd you should be able to create a volume from the unallocated space.

Open the Command Prompt as Administrator. Type diskpart and hit Enter.
Once you enter to the diskpart screen type list disk and hit Enter.
Now a list of the disks will be shown, type select disk x (the X is the disk number that has an unallocated space) and hit Enter.
Now, type create partition primary size=x (The X is the number that you got from the Free column on the previous step) and hit Enter.
After the creating is done, type select partition 2 and hit Enter.
Now, you're in the new partition, you need to format it first by typing format fs:ntfs quick and hit Enter.
After that, type assign and hit Enter.
Then, type 'active' and hit Enter.
Now, your new partition is ready to use.

No luck here as the number in the free column reads as "0"

D_Know_WD · Dec 30, 2014

Hi there andythegeek,

I would agree with ex_bubblehead and say that doing clean install will be the best option(and transferring your old user profiles, settings, etc afterwards).
You can also check this out: http://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/documentation/ATIH2012/index.html#13971.html

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

andythegeek · Dec 30, 2014

D_Know_WD :

That link has sorted it, thank you. The Acronis software's Capacity Extender worked a charm and has allowed me to set up the remaining space as new partition.

Thanks.

D_Know_WD · Dec 30, 2014

I'm glad I was able to help.

D_Know_WD

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