|
|
Post by risman on Nov 2, 2019 13:30:51 GMT -5
In attempting to create a Win 10 USB installation drive, the files were accidentally copied to a 2 TB internal HD. So now the HD shows its size to be 32 GB. There was nothing critical on the HD that was overwritten, but how do I get the full 2 TB back?
|
|
drcard
Software Review Panel
Posts: 580 
|
Post by drcard on Nov 2, 2019 19:40:01 GMT -5
Hi risman,
I assume the drive is accessible thru Windows system you have it hooked up to. If so, then
Type Computer Management in the Search bar and Select the Computer Management application to open it.
In the left pane under Storage click Disk Management. It may take a minute for Windows to load all the disks info.
In the Right pane, the top portion will list all drives and the bottom section shows more details of the drives indicating the partitioning of each drive.
The drive in question should show the small 32 GB partition and a large space labeled Unallocated space.
Place the mouse pointer over the drive in the bottom pane and right click.
From the menu select Extend volume.
This will open the Extend volume wizard. It will open with all the unallocated space selected so don't change the settings. The amounts shown may not add up to your 2 TB, but the difference is counting space decimal one way and binary in the PC.
Click Next and Finish to have the wizard extend the volume.
When finished the dive should have its former size when viewed.
Let me know if you have any problems.
|
|
|
|
Post by risman on Nov 3, 2019 9:03:58 GMT -5
Actually it seems it's a 6 TB drive. It shows as 32 GB FAT32 as the active primary partition. Then there are 2 unallocated partitions, one with 2016 GB and the other with 3541.03 GB. But the Extend Volume option is greyed out in all partitions.
|
|
drcard
Software Review Panel
Posts: 580
|
Post by drcard on Nov 3, 2019 15:56:54 GMT -5
Hi risman,
The 32 GB partition being a FAT32 format changes what must be done. The two large partition are NTFS as 32GB is the largest drive/partition FAT32 can have. You will have to convert the FAT32 to NTFS first. Then you can reclaim all the unallocated space.
To convert FAT32 to NTFS requires a command in the Command Prompt as follows:
Obtain the drive letter assigned to this drive (E, F, G, etc.)
Press Win Key + R to open a Run box.
Type in cmd and press the Enter key to open the Command Prompt.
At the prompt enter the following:
convert_E:_/FS:NTFS
Replace the underscores (_) with a space and replace the E with the drive letter of the drive.
Press the Enter key to run the conversion.
After conversion, see if you can expand the volume.
|
|
|
|
Post by risman on Nov 4, 2019 11:57:40 GMT -5
Thanks. After converting, I have 2 partitions: One is NTFS 1.99 TB; the other is unallocated 3.45 TB. How do I combine them?
|
|
drcard
Software Review Panel
Posts: 580
|
Post by drcard on Nov 4, 2019 18:09:24 GMT -5
Hi risman,
Since the partitions are all NTFS now, the Expand Volume wizard that I gave you first should no longer be greyed out and should allow you to expand as one partition for the whole drive. If you have problems with that let me know and we can always clean and reformat the entire drive.
|
|
|
|
Post by risman on Nov 5, 2019 12:07:22 GMT -5
Extend volume is still greyed out.
|
|
drcard
Software Review Panel
Posts: 580
|
Post by drcard on Nov 5, 2019 16:05:57 GMT -5
Hi risman,
ALERT to risman: Before you do the following read my post that follows this post
For other readers: What follows is the command process to clean and format a drive to make it usable IF the drive is 2 TB or less.
I think the boot files on the drive is causing Disk Management to not allow expansion. Thus, we need to clean and format the drive. this will get rid of all data on the drive.
Before we start, review the drive in Disk management. You will need to know the BIOS number for the drive. This will be 0, 1, 2, etc and will be shown on the drive details in the bottom portion of the Disk management view. We will use commands in the Command Prompt.
In reviewing the commands I give you...replace underscores (_) with a space and use the BIOS drive number of your drive to replace the example number in my commands. Command Prompt must be opened as Administrator.
Open Command Prompt with Administrator's rights: Win key + R to open Run box. Type in cmd. Press and hold the Ctrl and Shift keys and then press the Enter key. Click yes to the User access control box that opens. The Command Prompt title will say Administrator.
At the prompt enter: DISKPART and press Enter key
Prompt will change to DISKPART>
At the prompt enter list_disk and press Enter.
Verify form the list that the drive number you have for the drive to format is correct.
At the prompt enter select_disk_2 (replace the 2 with the drive number for the drive). Press Enter and a message will appear confirming it was selected.
At the prompt enter clean and press Enter. A message will appear when the clean is completed.
At the prompt enter create partition primary and press Enter. A message will appear when the partition has been created. The clean wipes out all info on the drive including partitioning. Any drive used by Windows has to have a partition even if the partition is the whole drive.
At the prompt enter format_fs=ntfs and press Enter. A percent complete will show until the entire drive has been formatted.
At the prompt enter assign and press Enter. A message will confirm that a drive letter has been assigned. BIOS and Windows will treat this drive as a new drive added to the system.
Reboot and check the drive in Disk Management to see if all OK.
Let me know how it goes.
|
|
drcard
Software Review Panel
Posts: 580
|
Post by drcard on Nov 5, 2019 19:06:13 GMT -5
Hi risman,
It took a while for what you said to sink in....2 partitions...one 1.99TB and 3.45 unallocated. A 6 TB drive. The reason the expand volume is greyed out is that with the routine NTFS partition size limit is 2 TB. Since it is at the limit it will not let you expand the volume. The limit is due to the MBR of the NTFS format. There is a way around this limitation by replacing the MBR with a GPT. The GPT has a size limit of 18 exabytes (18 billion GBs).
To convert the drive to GPT you need to run the convert command in Command Prompt.
Follow my instructions of my prior post by
Opening command prompt as Administrator
Change prompt to DISKPART
List drives
Select the drive in question
At the prompt enter convert_gpt and press Enter. It should reply with a message that it was converted.
Reboot
Open Disk Management and see if the drive is whole or see if expand volume function by right clicking the first partition shown for the drive in the details view is available. If so expand the volume. if not let me know.
|
|
|
|
Post by risman on Nov 7, 2019 0:13:25 GMT -5
The drive was reformatted successfully (took hours!) and it shows as a NTFS drive 5589.01 GB size.
|
|
drcard
Software Review Panel
Posts: 580
|
Post by drcard on Nov 7, 2019 7:30:55 GMT -5
Hi risman,
Thanks for letting me know all is fixed. Sorry it took a while to reformat, but 6 TB is a very large drive. This is a situation where the hardware (large drives) has exceeded the software's (NTFS) ability to function smoothly.
If you need any other help, let me know.
|
|
|
|
Post by risman on Nov 7, 2019 13:29:16 GMT -5
Thanks so much for your help with this. But, please explain, if NTFS partitions are limited to 2 TB, why does this drive now show to be NTFS but ~ 6 TB?
|
|
drcard
Software Review Panel
Posts: 580
|
Post by drcard on Nov 7, 2019 14:48:45 GMT -5
Hi risman,
It's not the NTFS that has the 2 TB limit, but the MBR that NTFS by default uses. The MBR (Master Boot Record) is the "Index" for the drive with an address for each individual sector (memory storage unit). The MBR uses 32 bit codes to identify each sector. Think of the different unique combinations of 0's and 1's for a string of 32 digits. While the number of different combinations is large, there are only so many different combinations. The MBR will run out of different 32 digit codes in naming each sector after naming the sectors for about 2.2 TBs of storage. The limit is the MBR's use of 32 bit coding.
Since the NTFS file system can handle unlimited drive size, but the MBR causes a 2 TB and 4 partition limit; the GPT (GUID Partition Table) was created to replace the MBR. This created a new step in preparing a drive for use called initialization. In preparing a brand new drive a user must initialize before formatting. Initializing is selecting the MBR or GPT use. The MBR works more smoothly than GPT, so for any drive under 2 TB it is the best choice. As you have learned, GPT is the only choice for drives larger than 2 TB. The NTFS formatting is the same after the initialization selection has been made. In your situation the FAT32 formatting over wrote the GPT that was on the drive and it became a repair job rather than a new drive setup. BTW, to do what you were trying to do, you need to partition a 2 GB partition on the drive first and then you can format that 2 GB partition to FAT32 for booting files....that leaves the GPT for the rest of the drive intact.
Another important fact to know about drives greater than 2 TBs: Drives over 2 TBs can't use BIOS because BIOS uses the MBR for communication with the drive. This causes BIOS to have the same 2 TB and 4 partitions limit. Motherboards that can recognize drives over 2 TB are using UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) and is the second "BIOS" page that pops up while booting up. UEFI uses the GPT for communication with the drive...GPT usage means no drive size or partition limits. Thus, any PC that doesn't have UEFI can't use drives larger than 2 TBs. It appears that in the future UEFI will replace BIOS and PCs will be sold that have no BIOS at all.
I hope this helps you understand what went wrong.
|
|
