4TB Windows Server Boot Drive MBR vs GPT

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Larson

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Nov 10, 2015
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Hi all,

Can someone help me on this? I currently have a lenovo ThinkServer TS140 running Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials on a 2x1TB HDDs RAID1 volume. The RAID1 volume is MBR and is partitioned into two partitions (1 for OS, 1 for data), but I want to replace the entire volume with larger drives (2x4TB HDDs). When I do this, I'll effectively have a 4TB boot drive. The TS140 has a UEFI Bios, but the volume is MBR. Will that work, or does the volume have to be GPT in order to boot from it? Bottom line, I guess: With an UEFI Bios, can you boot from a 4TB MBR volume?
 

i386

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Mar 18, 2016
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You will need for everything over 2tb gpt (mbr size limit = (2^32) * sector size (most hdds use or emulate 512 byte sectors))
 
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cesmith9999

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Mar 26, 2013
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I do not recommend doing a booting GPT system. it causes too many issues if you want to P2V the system .

just giving you warning. I would recommend a separate OS and data drive if you can do that in that system.

Chris
 

Larson

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Nov 10, 2015
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I do not recommend doing a booting GPT system. it causes too many issues if you want to P2V the system .

just giving you warning. I would recommend a separate OS and data drive if you can do that in that system.

Chris
Hi Chris, does "P2V" mean partition into two volumes? Thanks.
 

Larson

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Nov 10, 2015
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Physical to virtual
Oh, okay. Well, it's a real simple setup, just two partitions (1 for OS, 1 for Data). It's Server 2012 R2 Essentials which is just being used for a file server, client computer backups, and a few applications (accounting program, etc.). Do you think a GPT boot drive would be okay for that, or still better not to do?
 

cesmith9999

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Mar 26, 2013
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GPT is great for data drives. not so much unless you are building a secure environment.

You are not planning on any raid for the data?

Chris
 

Larson

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Nov 10, 2015
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The system/OS/boot/data drive is all one 1TB HDD with C: (OS) and D: (data) partitions. So everything is on RAID1. It's not an ideal setup. I'd rather have a separate OS drive and Data drive, but I'm just working with what came before me. Trying to increase storage space with minimal downtime.
 

manfri

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Nov 19, 2015
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if i can physicaly, and if the existing drive are ok i would add the new drive, move the data to the new drive and decommission the old d: partition.
WIth this setup backup & restore with windows backup will be much easier.
But the idea to do a P2V conversion alse have a lot of advantages...