My Head is Spinning From Researching Hard Drives.

[KLPath]

Lately I've been contemplating buying a 4TB hard drive to replace my current 1TB hard drive which I've had for about
5 years. The problem is my computer is quite outdated and uses BIOS firmware rather than UEFI firmware.
I was aware that there were some challenges involved with using a hard drive that's larger than 2TB when using
a BIOS based motherboard, but was unsure of the specifics, so I decided to do some research on the subject.
After reading information on various websites for the last 2-3 hours, this is the important information that I've compiled.

1) Each physical hard drive can only have 1 partitioning scheme. Master boot record (MBR) or guid partition table
(GPT). (Special hacks not included)

2) Computers that use BIOS firmware can only boot from hard drives that use the (MBR) partition scheme.

3) MBR can only address 2.2TB of hard drive space per hard drive. Using multiple partitions CANNOT work around this
as a single MBR controls all of the partitions on the hard drive.

4) GPT can address 9.4ZB of hard drive space. 9.4 zettabytes is equivalent to 9.4 x 10^21 bytes.

5) It IS possible to install multiple 2TB hard drives to bypass using GPT and still surpass 2TB of usable space.

6) There appears to be certain tools available that can convert a MBR to GPT without data loss however, operations
like this can be risky and data should be moved or backed up.

I was going to post the operating system requirements but those can be googled more easily. (I'm using W7 SP1 x64)

Anyways, the reason for this post is because I still have a question about hard drives larger than 2TBs that I
haven't been able to answer with 100% certainty. Can I boot from my current 1TB hard drive, which is using
MBR partitioning, and then, in W7 disk management, configure a 4TB hard drive as a data storage drive using GPT
partitioning WITHOUT using any special software from the hard drive manufacturer like Seagate's DiscWizard?

Thanks for any help in advance.

If anything I posted is incorrect please tell me. :P

[Samfisher]

Yes to everything except number 6 as I do not know about that. Just got myself a 4TB WD Red last night but it was DoA... Spent 4 hours trying all sorts of things but file transfer will start at a burst speed of 680MBps (???) then slowly drop to 100MBps then it drops to 500Kbps and then it just hangs... Gonna bring it back to the shop at lunch time...

[Deathwing Aspect Of Death]

Yes to everything except number 6 as I do not know about that. Just got myself a 4TB WD Red last night but it was DoA... Spent 4 hours trying all sorts of things but file transfer will start at a burst speed of 680MBps (???) then slowly drop to 100MBps then it drops to 500Kbps and then it just hangs... Gonna bring it back to the shop at lunch time...

that deathwing signature just made me laugh

[KLPath]

I was pretty certain everything I numbered was 100% correct (except for number 6) but you skipped over the question at the bottom that I really made this thread for lol.

[Samfisher]

Well you asked if you can, and I did say yes to everything except number 6 :P

[KLPath]

Well you asked if you can, and I did say yes to everything except number 6 :P

Ah sorry, I was under the impression you only paid attention to the things I numbered :P. Thanks for the help.

[krunksmash]

you can bypass the 4Tb limit using a RAID setup, however you need to look up the information about what RAIDs your board supports and how large a RAID. a possible bypass is to use a RAID card, this card controls the RAID setup and might be a way to get around board limitations but if your system is 5+ years old you need to look into a new system before you get a new storage solution.

[lockblock]

The UEFI requirement is only to boot your operating system off of said drive that is greater than 2.2TB. Assuming you keep booting off the 1TB or other drive that is less than 2.2TB you will be able to use Larger drives such a 3TB+ at full capacity with GPT formating.

For clarification I'm not suggesting you use gpt partitioning on the windows boot drive but you should use it on any large drive that wont be used to boot windows.

[KLPath]

The UEFI requirement is only to boot your operating system off of said drive that is greater than 2.2TB. Assuming you keep booting off the 1TB or other drive that is less than 2.2TB you will be able to use Larger drives such a 3TB+ at full capacity with GPT formating.

For clarification I'm not suggesting you use gpt partitioning on the windows boot drive but you should use it on any large drive that wont be used to boot windows.

This is what I've read to be true in several places, but today I kept on researching and have come across reports that my sata controller/bios may
not properly support hard drives larger than 2.2TB so I've pretty much given up on buying a new hard drive (I don't want to settle for 2TB lol).
Thanks for the help though.