2014-08-23, 08:45 PM
Hey guys, I have been rolling with a 250gb hdd for a while, using win7 32 bit and recently upgraded to a 3TB hard drive without re-installing windows and all the programs. This is how it's possible.
Some background: Win XP and most win7 installations on 2TB or less HDDs will have the disk partitioned using a master boot record partition table (MBR) and NTFS file system. The MBR can only utilize up to 2TB of disk capacity. If you want to use the extra space on disks over that, you'll have to update to the new partition table format, GPT. There are several problems with this: GPT partitions store boot record information completely differently than MBR, your system bios must support UEFI bootloading, the bootable OS partition must be FAT32, and only 64 bit win7 and vista support this booting mode.
So, how does one take an NTFS win7 32-bit install and clone it to run on a 3TB+ GPT disk while booting normally from BIOS without messing with UEFI? Here's how I did it:
required: 1) a small flash drive, 2) your windows install disk
overview: we are going to clone your disk to the new one, non-destructively convert it to GPT and resize to fill the drive, and create a MBR-based flash drive bootloader to run windows from a GPT partition. The flash drive will have to remain in the system for it to boot.
1) Download and burn a live image of clonezilla.
2) Install your new larger HDD into the computer
3) Boot from this cd/dvd you burned (you may have to adjust your bios boot settings) and do a disk-to-disk clone from your old hdd to the new one. Make note of the drive order. If the new drive is listed first, you'll have to turn off computer and swap sata cables at the drive OR motherboard side before the next step.
4) turn off computer and unplug the sata cable from the old drive, turn on computer and ensure your new cloned drive boots properly, shut down
5) re-connect sata cable to your old drive and boot to windows using your old drive
6) Download and install AOMEI partition assistant lite and convert your new disk to GPT, Apply. Then set up/resize your partitions as desired. Apply. I resized my OS partition to 100GB and created a 2.7TB partition for media after it.
7) Shut down, disconnect sata cable from old drive. Boot using your windows install disk. Choose recovery and get to a command prompt. If it complains "System Recovery Option is not compatible with the version of windows you are trying to repair" press shift-F10 to get a command prompt.
8) plug in your USB flash drive. you are almost done!
9) type 'diskpart' and press enter to run the disk partition utility. Caution: track the disk and partition numbers carefully so you don't mess up your hard disk. type 'list disk' you should see your new hdd and your flash drive.
10) type the following commands into diskpart (the <- and text following it is a note. do not type this.):
11)
Install boot files to flash drive (replace flash drive letter as necessary, the middle switch is a lower case L):
12) Install the boot sector to flash drive (replace drive letter with yours):
13) run this, also replacing the drive letter for your flash drive
14) reboot, and ensure your bios is set to boot from USB and the boot order has USB ahead of hdd. You should boot into windows on your new disk!
from here, you can remove the flash drive's drive letter using disk management (run diskmgmt.msc), right click flash drive partition and change (delete) drive letter.
The bootloader instructions are thanks to milindsmart from the win seven forums. This is a new technique that pretty much no one knows of so far, so spread the word.
Some background: Win XP and most win7 installations on 2TB or less HDDs will have the disk partitioned using a master boot record partition table (MBR) and NTFS file system. The MBR can only utilize up to 2TB of disk capacity. If you want to use the extra space on disks over that, you'll have to update to the new partition table format, GPT. There are several problems with this: GPT partitions store boot record information completely differently than MBR, your system bios must support UEFI bootloading, the bootable OS partition must be FAT32, and only 64 bit win7 and vista support this booting mode.
So, how does one take an NTFS win7 32-bit install and clone it to run on a 3TB+ GPT disk while booting normally from BIOS without messing with UEFI? Here's how I did it:
required: 1) a small flash drive, 2) your windows install disk
overview: we are going to clone your disk to the new one, non-destructively convert it to GPT and resize to fill the drive, and create a MBR-based flash drive bootloader to run windows from a GPT partition. The flash drive will have to remain in the system for it to boot.
1) Download and burn a live image of clonezilla.
2) Install your new larger HDD into the computer
3) Boot from this cd/dvd you burned (you may have to adjust your bios boot settings) and do a disk-to-disk clone from your old hdd to the new one. Make note of the drive order. If the new drive is listed first, you'll have to turn off computer and swap sata cables at the drive OR motherboard side before the next step.
4) turn off computer and unplug the sata cable from the old drive, turn on computer and ensure your new cloned drive boots properly, shut down
5) re-connect sata cable to your old drive and boot to windows using your old drive
6) Download and install AOMEI partition assistant lite and convert your new disk to GPT, Apply. Then set up/resize your partitions as desired. Apply. I resized my OS partition to 100GB and created a 2.7TB partition for media after it.
7) Shut down, disconnect sata cable from old drive. Boot using your windows install disk. Choose recovery and get to a command prompt. If it complains "System Recovery Option is not compatible with the version of windows you are trying to repair" press shift-F10 to get a command prompt.
8) plug in your USB flash drive. you are almost done!
9) type 'diskpart' and press enter to run the disk partition utility. Caution: track the disk and partition numbers carefully so you don't mess up your hard disk. type 'list disk' you should see your new hdd and your flash drive.
10) type the following commands into diskpart (the <- and text following it is a note. do not type this.):
Code:
select disk 1 <- replace '1' with your flash disk number from list disk.
clean
create partition primary
format fs=ntfs quick
select partition 1 <- you are selecting the partition you just formatted
active
list volume
select volume E: <- replace E: with the volume of the flash drive
assign
list volume <- make note of the volume letter of your flash drive (F:) and windows partition (C:).
exitInstall boot files to flash drive (replace flash drive letter as necessary, the middle switch is a lower case L):
Code:
bcdboot C:\Windows /l en-us /s F:Code:
bootsect /nt60 F: /mbr /forceCode:
bcdedit /store F:\boot\bcd /set {bootmgr} device bootfrom here, you can remove the flash drive's drive letter using disk management (run diskmgmt.msc), right click flash drive partition and change (delete) drive letter.
The bootloader instructions are thanks to milindsmart from the win seven forums. This is a new technique that pretty much no one knows of so far, so spread the word.