What are some large hard drive issues?

(In a previous article, we discussed issues with purchasing a larger hard drive.  Some of you have asked to be more specific, so we have.)

As hard drive sizes continue to grow, so do their compatibility issues.  In some older operating systems, the maximum recognizable hard drive capacity is 2.2 Terabytes (2,252GB).  Windows 7 and 8 offer the option to change how larger hard drive are used, allowing drives larger than 2TB to be used as secondary storage.  Adding larger hard drives gives you more storage for your data, allowing you to keep your primary hard drive clear.

Generally, when you add a hard drive larger than 2TB, you will not be able to use it to install your primary operating system. In order to boot off a hard drive larger than 2 TB, the drive must be formatted using a GUID Partition Table (GPT) and the motherboard must support Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) BIOS.  If your motherboard does not support UEFI, you are still able to use a 3 or 4 TB drive as a secondary storage device either internal or external.

Operating systems that support drives larger than 2TB are Windows 7 and 8 and any Mac OS after OSX 10.4.  These operating systems are able to boot off of 3TB hard drives as long as they are formatted correctly.

If you have any questions regarding this article, or any computer related issue, feel free to contact us.