UEFI & GPT Boot Problem

[AlainGr]

Peter,

I am not sure if this will help, but this Microsoft article could explain a few things...
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa363785%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

A basic disk is normally how a disk is when we buy it. If someone wants to switch it to "Dynamic", it would be to have RAID or Spanning (with the notion of a "volume" that could for example take more than one drive)...

So for me, it would be best to leave it to "Basic", otherwise we will all be barking at the moon

Alain

[PeterSt]

Hey Alain,

I guess that happens when you never in your (also professional) life used RAID4-5 etc.

Aha ...

Thanks !
Peter

[AlainGr]

You are right... I still have an LSI RAID controller card that I removed from my All Purpose PC after playing with RAID 0 for a while... I would not recommend this, since I would tend to believe that it must be quite noisy electronically speaking...

It did that since I was curious and at the time the Intel software for RAID was unstable on my motherboard (ICHR9)... But RAID 0 ? It's fast, but there is absolutely no integrity with RAID 0... As soon as something fails, all fails... Got to have backups !

I still think that 2TB should be the maximum for a drive (even 1TB should be better with only one platter instead of multiple ones)... I thought about that for a while in the event I would need more than 2TB, but I can still hold all I like into this capacity... For the moment.

And from what I see, it would prevent a lot of headaches

Alain

[Scroobius]

Meanwhile downloaded Seagate SeaTools to check the disk, hoping that it would re-initialise the disk somehow, after trying to upgrade the firmware (not possible) so that would re-initialise.
Nothing helped.

...........................................................

Trying another USB3 dock in the USB2 port - nothing nowwhere. Plugging that into an USB3 port ...

These look like all the problems I had with my ASRock PC which is why I ended up in UEFI. But before I sorted out UEFI at one point I did boot up and randomly was able to see 4T - however on next reboot I lost it and was only able to see one partition with 2.2T and could do nothing with the unallocated remaining space which was when I gave up and booted to UEFI.

So yes your experience looks entirely consistent with mine!! either the disc sucks or Microsoft sucks!!

[stefanobilliani]

There are some things to consider :

some HDD just tell you lies about the format when it comes to 4k vs 512  ( notice also the compatibility with the old u$ OS - I couldn't even name it , s*** ) . Truly formatting a 4k disk is not all that easy for beginners and also since u$ doesn't offer tools at the installation . I am not aware of true 4k disk right now , all of them *claimed* are a mix between 512 and 4k ...

Uefi works good to me . I can install in UEFI  from both DVD or USB stick .

Today I can't see why use MBR , which is not bad of course  .... but this is year 2014 .

Many of the troubles also arise when the disks have some broken sectors , and rarely, u$ or even the dedicated software from HDD producer  tell that the disk is to trow in the trash .

Just my thinking ....

Edit : to me there are differences using 4k HDD in performance ( look at some 500GB going around these days ) no matter what you do, some things are just different with that respect to the 512. If and only if the 4k is properly formatted it will  reach its speed , otherwise poor performance is in order .

[PeterSt]

Thank you for that insight Stefano.

My wonderful 4TB by now is fully loaded without further problems (though the UEFI XXHighEnd PC and 2x 2TB, SATA connected), except for the minor issue that the other XXHighEnd PC doesn't even see the disk through SATA. Nothing nada anywhere. Should be a PC issue, though other disks just work.
One difference I see is that the PC where it works has an older BIOS (UEFI) (v1.x) than the PC where it does not work (v3.x). Oh, and what I only think of now ... the PC where it works is W8, the others are W7 ...
Hmm ... I think Paul said something about that too.

Stupid stuff.
Peter

[PeterSt]

All,

(not really 100% related to the topic's title)

A bit of an older topic, but after obtaining another 4TB disk I now may now where it can go wrong, implying all the further issues I had with this.

First off : always connect such a disk to normal SATA; at least at the very first time of connecting I think this is crucial.

When you boot up the system, a small (normal) message pops up that says "You must restart your computer to apply these changes". See first screenshot below.
Now notice that such message appears in such way that you *will* think "uh, what ?". Because remember, you acutaully didn't do a thing, and no balloon appears (appeared) anywhere to tell you that you installed something. Well, you only attached a new disk.

What I now think is that when such a disk is first connected, it will install a driver for it, like you see this happening for USB devices (disks the same). But for SATA this is different, and I think that for USB this (driver) doesn't even exist. Also notice that this will be about the "writing" capabilities, or better how it can be partioned and formatted later, and not so much about reading once all is properly organized on the disk.

When this step is skipped, meaning or you don't reboot after this message, or you connect it through a means which doesn't even install this "driver", and next you are going to partion it, hell will be yours. Well, like I encountered it as described in this topic.

While the 4TB disk I used in this topic was a Seagate, I ws sure to now obtain a WD in order to avoid the problems. Also notice that the Seagate comes along with the notification that it needs the Seagate driver, while a WD does not tell about such thing.
So that did it now for me ? I don't think so because I also obtained a 6TB from Seagate. That went was OK too and the very same message showed after connecting it (only then I was 100% sure that this message has to be about such large disk).
One thing : I did not format the 6TB into one 6TB partition because I just wanted 3x 2TB (eliminating some disks from my "server" without changing Gallery references). But if I look back on the issues I had with the 4TB - even formatting into 2 2TB partitions wasn't possible.

What I already told in this topic I think, is to stay far away from anything that smells like USB docks. They just never ever do any job when it is about partitioning. Making (clone) backups to them - same thing. No Acronises can deal with it, which also tells something.

Anyway I now have my first 6TB in the system. All good so far.

Peter