Secondary Hard Drive Size

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Ryan_78
it doesn't matter. you can install a 10TB or even a 1 PTB (sorry doesn't exist, just trying to make a point XD) and it wont matter. it will store data no matter. the size can go as large as hard drive capacity goes.

just don't go wasting money on unneeded space. also remember to get at least a barracuda or WD blue quality. you don't Green quality or other crap HDDs. you'd rather loose data over getting slightly more expensive HDD?
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Ryan_78

Ryan_78

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it doesn't matter. you can install a 10TB or even a 1 PTB (sorry doesn't exist, just trying to make a point XD) and it wont matter. it will store data no matter. the size can go as large as hard drive capacity goes.

just don't go wasting money on unneeded space. also remember to get at least a barracuda or WD blue quality. you don't Green quality or other crap HDDs. you'd rather loose data over getting slightly more expensive HDD?
 
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kansaskutabuddy

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May 22, 2016
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So does this work the same way for laptops? Is there any thing special that I need to do to the secondary hard drive in order to make it work? This is only a storage option for movies an music as I travel alot and do not want to lug around external hard drives
 
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Ryan_78

Ryan_78

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laptops use different hard drives than desktops do. they have their own slim 3.5in HDD and usually doesn't spin above 5400rpm. you would want a docking port for it. it also depends on what config your laptop has and if it supports 2 hard drives or SSDs.

when you get that secondary hard drive, if it is not an external, then you would need to format it. Thankfully windows will have a pop-up upon recognizing the new hard drive and you will format it according to instructions
 
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kansaskutabuddy

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So to make sure I understand this correctly. I have a laptop (Toshiba Qosmio 870) which supports dual hard drives. The size of the hard drive (2TB, 3TB) should not be an issue as when i connect the hard drive it will prompt me to format it correctly.
 
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ArtPog

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Sep 17, 2014
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Just one thing more...

If you do decide to purchase a HDD 3 TB or larger understand that you should initialize/partition/format that disk with the GPT scheme. This, of course, is easily done via Disk Management.

If that > 2 TB disk is not partitioned with the GPT scheme, i.e., contains the MBR partitioning scheme, the OS will not detect any disk-capacity space > 2 TB (actually about 1.63 TB), so the remaining disk-space > 2 TB will be considered "unallocated" and therefore unavailable to your system.

You may wish to do a bit of research re MBR-GPT partitioning if you're unfamiliar with those interfaces.
 
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Ryan_78

Ryan_78

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yea formatting it correctly is important too. you want the most out of it and also as he said, be familiar with how to format and stuff. I don't think windows tells you which to use. you'd have to find that. also remember to get right size hard drive for a laptop,
 
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Solandri

Solandri

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MBR can be used on disks larger than 2 TB, it just limits the maximum partition size to 2 TB. That is, you can use a 4 TB drive MBR formatted as two 2 TB partitions. The inability to access more than 2 TB of disk space was a Windows XP limitation.


There are some esoterics about whether or not your system can boot off a disk larger than 2 TB depending on which OS you have. But based on the age of your laptop and since you're adding this as a second disk (not a boot disk), they won't apply. You can add any sized modern drive to your laptop without issues. For reference:

  • ■XP does not understand GPT at all.
    ■Older versions of XP will only work with 2 TB or smaller drives. This was a NTFS limit which has since been updated.
    ■There's also a 512 byte vs 4k cluster limitation from the XP days which does not apply to newer OSes. Newer HDDs use 4k clusters, and won't work at all or will work at reduced capacity on older OSes.
    ■All versions of Win 7 can read/write GPT formatted drives.
    ■Only 64-bit Win 7 on a UEFI system can boot off a GPT formatted drive. If you have 32-bit Win 7, or 64-bit Win 7 on a non-UEFI motherboard, your boot drive needs to be MBR. Non-boot drives can be GPT, as per the above bullet point.
The other reason to switch to GPT was because MBR only supported 4 partitions. Windows 8.x and 10 use a partition for UEFI data, a boot partition, and a partition for the C: drive. Add a recovery partition and you're already at the 4 partition limit. The kludge in the old days was to make the last partition an extended partition, and create multiple logical partitions on it. These weren't real partitions, just an agreed-upon way to put data that looked like separate partitions onto a single partition. The problem being not everyone agreed on how to do it. GPT supports 128+ partitions on a single drive (more are possible, the spec just requires a minimum 128 be supported).

For SSDs, there's also a 4k cluster alignment issue. The SSD internally addresses flash cells in 4k groups. That is, if you erase data on the SSD to prepare it for future writing, it does it 4k at a time. If the filesystem's 4k clusters do not align with the SSD's 4k grouping, a filesystem erase instruction for a single 4k cluster could require the SSD erase two 4k groups, causing excess wear and slightly slowing down the SSD. Formatting the SSD using Windows 7 or newer should result in the correct alignment.
 
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ArtPog

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