the most important thing is to align the drive correctly, and you should use the cegate tool to do this, I know that with some of them, for them to be most efficient, they can only have one partition even though windows will allow you to create four primary partitions ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Mehler" To: "Blind sysadmins list" Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2013 4:05 PM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive

Hello,

It's a Seagate ST3000DM001-1CH166.

Thanks. Dave.

On 12/26/13, Isaac wrote:

...

what brand ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Mehler" To: "blind-sysadmins" Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2013 10:22 AM Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive

...

Hello,

To anyone with a 3TB internal or external drive, though internal is what I'm dealing with.

This is going to be in a system running windows7sp1, which is not detecting the drive. I've read that the drive needs to be prepared outside of windows, partitioned gpt and formatted ntfs then windows will see it.

I have also read about drive alignment and that this is crucial on larger drives and also the 4k boundaries on these larger drives instead of 512 byte boundaries.

The end result is I'm a little confused. The primary goal of these drives are going to be Windows data storage drives, with probably some Linux systems talking to them as well again for data storage.

I want to ensure that all operating systems can see them, that they are properly aligned, and have the correct 4k boundaries set.

What all do you use for this?

Thanks. Dave.

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_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

Hello, It's a Seagate ST3000DM001-1CH166. Thanks. Dave. On 12/26/13, Isaac wrote:

what brand ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Mehler" To: "blind-sysadmins" Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2013 10:22 AM Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive

...

Hello,

To anyone with a 3TB internal or external drive, though internal is what I'm dealing with.

This is going to be in a system running windows7sp1, which is not detecting the drive. I've read that the drive needs to be prepared outside of windows, partitioned gpt and formatted ntfs then windows will see it.

I have also read about drive alignment and that this is crucial on larger drives and also the 4k boundaries on these larger drives instead of 512 byte boundaries.

The end result is I'm a little confused. The primary goal of these drives are going to be Windows data storage drives, with probably some Linux systems talking to them as well again for data storage.

I want to ensure that all operating systems can see them, that they are properly aligned, and have the correct 4k boundaries set.

What all do you use for this?

Thanks. Dave.

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

Hi, Andrew hit the nail on the head; just stick it in & set it up like you would do any other disk - Windows 7 will take care of everything when you create a partition. If you can't see it, perhaps see if something like GRML can? Can you hear / feel the drive powering on? Cheers, Ben. On 12/26/13, Andrew Hodgson wrote:

David,

Is the drive showing up at all in Windows 7? As it is a data drive only, you need only initialise the disk as GPT, then create your 3TB partition. You don't need to worry about the alignment. If you are using it as a boot drive, then you need to use an UEFI BIOS.

If you can't see the disk using Disk Manager or Diskpart, then something else is wrong. Can the BIOS see the disk?

Andrew.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of David Mehler Sent: 26 December 2013 16:23 To: blind-sysadmins Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive

Hello,

To anyone with a 3TB internal or external drive, though internal is what I'm dealing with.

This is going to be in a system running windows7sp1, which is not detecting the drive. I've read that the drive needs to be prepared outside of windows, partitioned gpt and formatted ntfs then windows will see it.

I have also read about drive alignment and that this is crucial on larger drives and also the 4k boundaries on these larger drives instead of 512 byte boundaries.

The end result is I'm a little confused. The primary goal of these drives are going to be Windows data storage drives, with probably some Linux systems talking to them as well again for data storage.

I want to ensure that all operating systems can see them, that they are properly aligned, and have the correct 4k boundaries set.

What all do you use for this?

Thanks. Dave.

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

Hello, Thanks. Diskpart can see the drive. How do I deal with creating a gpt partition as opposed to an mbr partition? I'd also like to deal with the alignment issue if possible now since one of these drives might at some future time be a boot drive. Thanks. Dave. On 12/26/13, Ben Mustill-Rose wrote:

Hi,

Andrew hit the nail on the head; just stick it in & set it up like you would do any other disk - Windows 7 will take care of everything when you create a partition.

If you can't see it, perhaps see if something like GRML can? Can you hear / feel the drive powering on?

Cheers, Ben.

On 12/26/13, Andrew Hodgson wrote:

...

David,

Is the drive showing up at all in Windows 7? As it is a data drive only, you need only initialise the disk as GPT, then create your 3TB partition. You don't need to worry about the alignment. If you are using it as a boot drive, then you need to use an UEFI BIOS.

If you can't see the disk using Disk Manager or Diskpart, then something else is wrong. Can the BIOS see the disk?

Andrew.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of David Mehler Sent: 26 December 2013 16:23 To: blind-sysadmins Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive

Hello,

To anyone with a 3TB internal or external drive, though internal is what I'm dealing with.

This is going to be in a system running windows7sp1, which is not detecting the drive. I've read that the drive needs to be prepared outside of windows, partitioned gpt and formatted ntfs then windows will see it.

I have also read about drive alignment and that this is crucial on larger drives and also the 4k boundaries on these larger drives instead of 512 byte boundaries.

The end result is I'm a little confused. The primary goal of these drives are going to be Windows data storage drives, with probably some Linux systems talking to them as well again for data storage.

I want to ensure that all operating systems can see them, that they are properly aligned, and have the correct 4k boundaries set.

What all do you use for this?

Thanks. Dave.

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

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Hi, Diskpart on Win7 SP1 will deal with alignment issue for you. Run the following commands: Diskpart List disk Get the ID of the disk you want to work with Select disk id Convert gpt Create part pri Format fs=NTFS quick Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of David Mehler Sent: 27 December 2013 01:26 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive Hello, Thanks. Diskpart can see the drive. How do I deal with creating a gpt partition as opposed to an mbr partition? I'd also like to deal with the alignment issue if possible now since one of these drives might at some future time be a boot drive. Thanks. Dave. On 12/26/13, Ben Mustill-Rose wrote:

Hi,

Andrew hit the nail on the head; just stick it in & set it up like you would do any other disk - Windows 7 will take care of everything when you create a partition.

If you can't see it, perhaps see if something like GRML can? Can you hear / feel the drive powering on?

Cheers, Ben.

On 12/26/13, Andrew Hodgson wrote:

...

David,

Is the drive showing up at all in Windows 7? As it is a data drive only, you need only initialise the disk as GPT, then create your 3TB partition. You don't need to worry about the alignment. If you are using it as a boot drive, then you need to use an UEFI BIOS.

If you can't see the disk using Disk Manager or Diskpart, then something else is wrong. Can the BIOS see the disk?

Andrew.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of David Mehler Sent: 26 December 2013 16:23 To: blind-sysadmins Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive

Hello,

To anyone with a 3TB internal or external drive, though internal is what I'm dealing with.

This is going to be in a system running windows7sp1, which is not detecting the drive. I've read that the drive needs to be prepared outside of windows, partitioned gpt and formatted ntfs then windows will see it.

I have also read about drive alignment and that this is crucial on larger drives and also the 4k boundaries on these larger drives instead of 512 byte boundaries.

The end result is I'm a little confused. The primary goal of these drives are going to be Windows data storage drives, with probably some Linux systems talking to them as well again for data storage.

I want to ensure that all operating systems can see them, that they are properly aligned, and have the correct 4k boundaries set.

What all do you use for this?

Thanks. Dave.

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

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Hello, Thanks. Diskpart can see the drive. How do I deal with creating a gpt partition as opposed to an mbr partition? I'd also like to deal with the alignment issue if possible now since one of these drives might at some future time be a boot drive. Thanks. Dave. On 12/26/13, Ben Mustill-Rose wrote:

Hi,

Andrew hit the nail on the head; just stick it in & set it up like you would do any other disk - Windows 7 will take care of everything when you create a partition.

If you can't see it, perhaps see if something like GRML can? Can you hear / feel the drive powering on?

Cheers, Ben.

On 12/26/13, Andrew Hodgson wrote:

...

David,

Is the drive showing up at all in Windows 7? As it is a data drive only, you need only initialise the disk as GPT, then create your 3TB partition. You don't need to worry about the alignment. If you are using it as a boot drive, then you need to use an UEFI BIOS.

If you can't see the disk using Disk Manager or Diskpart, then something else is wrong. Can the BIOS see the disk?

Andrew.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of David Mehler Sent: 26 December 2013 16:23 To: blind-sysadmins Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive

Hello,

To anyone with a 3TB internal or external drive, though internal is what I'm dealing with.

This is going to be in a system running windows7sp1, which is not detecting the drive. I've read that the drive needs to be prepared outside of windows, partitioned gpt and formatted ntfs then windows will see it.

I have also read about drive alignment and that this is crucial on larger drives and also the 4k boundaries on these larger drives instead of 512 byte boundaries.

The end result is I'm a little confused. The primary goal of these drives are going to be Windows data storage drives, with probably some Linux systems talking to them as well again for data storage.

I want to ensure that all operating systems can see them, that they are properly aligned, and have the correct 4k boundaries set.

What all do you use for this?

Thanks. Dave.

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

but he may want it as ntfs and not gpt ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrew Hodgson" To: "Blind sysadmins list" Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2013 5:39 PM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive

David,

Is the drive showing up at all in Windows 7? As it is a data drive only, you need only initialise the disk as GPT, then create your 3TB partition. You don't need to worry about the alignment. If you are using it as a boot drive, then you need to use an UEFI BIOS.

If you can't see the disk using Disk Manager or Diskpart, then something else is wrong. Can the BIOS see the disk?

Andrew.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of David Mehler Sent: 26 December 2013 16:23 To: blind-sysadmins Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive

Hello,

To anyone with a 3TB internal or external drive, though internal is what I'm dealing with.

This is going to be in a system running windows7sp1, which is not detecting the drive. I've read that the drive needs to be prepared outside of windows, partitioned gpt and formatted ntfs then windows will see it.

I have also read about drive alignment and that this is crucial on larger drives and also the 4k boundaries on these larger drives instead of 512 byte boundaries.

The end result is I'm a little confused. The primary goal of these drives are going to be Windows data storage drives, with probably some Linux systems talking to them as well again for data storage.

I want to ensure that all operating systems can see them, that they are properly aligned, and have the correct 4k boundaries set.

What all do you use for this?

Thanks. Dave.

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_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

Hi, The drive alignment is taken care of in the Windows 8.1 installer when you partition the drives. Converting the boot process to UEFI is a different process. Are you going to install from a CD or USB? Does the BIOS support UEFI or Secure Boot? Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss Sent: 27 December 2013 04:04 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive NTFS is the file system, not the partition type. So you can have a GPT partition that is formatted as NTFS. And can someone please explain to me the alignment issue? I ask because I'm going to be switching my Latitude E6530 to use UEFI when I reinstall this weekend Windows 8.1. Right now, it's using legacy BIOS, though that's a holdover from Windows 7, and I didn't switch it. I'm switching it now though just before I reinstall, and I want to ensure that I reinstall it correctly. I mean, I might have to look up on UEFI.org the prompts and what they mean, especially coming from a BIOS world, though I have never heard anything about the drive alignment. I was under the impression that Windows was smart enough to handle everything itself. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Isaac Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2013 9:13 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive but he may want it as ntfs and not gpt ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrew Hodgson" To: "Blind sysadmins list" Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2013 5:39 PM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive

David,

Is the drive showing up at all in Windows 7? As it is a data drive only, you need only initialise the disk as GPT, then create your 3TB partition. You don't need to worry about the alignment. If you are using it as a boot drive, then you need to use an UEFI BIOS.

If you can't see the disk using Disk Manager or Diskpart, then something else is wrong. Can the BIOS see the disk?

Andrew.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of David Mehler Sent: 26 December 2013 16:23 To: blind-sysadmins Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive

Hello,

To anyone with a 3TB internal or external drive, though internal is what I'm dealing with.

This is going to be in a system running windows7sp1, which is not detecting the drive. I've read that the drive needs to be prepared outside of windows, partitioned gpt and formatted ntfs then windows will see it.

I have also read about drive alignment and that this is crucial on larger drives and also the 4k boundaries on these larger drives instead of 512 byte boundaries.

The end result is I'm a little confused. The primary goal of these drives are going to be Windows data storage drives, with probably some Linux systems talking to them as well again for data storage.

I want to ensure that all operating systems can see them, that they are properly aligned, and have the correct 4k boundaries set.

What all do you use for this?

Thanks. Dave.

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

To answer your question, the computer currently boots from legacy BIOS, though my goal is to switch it to use UEFI, which I can do; it's a toggle of sorts under boot options. I saw it once, though the prompts were gibberish to me, and I didn't understand what kind of information the system was looking for in order to make the switch successfully. My goal now is to use a Winstaller image off of a DVD Rom, though that's only because I don't have a USB drive large enough, and it will be moved to USB in future. Not to mention, I'm not even sure how to boot this thing off USB. I know that this particular model supports UEFI (I gave it a bios update that said so), though how do I tell if it also supports secure boot, and if so, what does that mean? Do I have to have secure boot enabled? I'd rather not. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson Sent: Friday, December 27, 2013 6:52 AM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive Hi, The drive alignment is taken care of in the Windows 8.1 installer when you partition the drives. Converting the boot process to UEFI is a different process. Are you going to install from a CD or USB? Does the BIOS support UEFI or Secure Boot? Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss Sent: 27 December 2013 04:04 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive NTFS is the file system, not the partition type. So you can have a GPT partition that is formatted as NTFS. And can someone please explain to me the alignment issue? I ask because I'm going to be switching my Latitude E6530 to use UEFI when I reinstall this weekend Windows 8.1. Right now, it's using legacy BIOS, though that's a holdover from Windows 7, and I didn't switch it. I'm switching it now though just before I reinstall, and I want to ensure that I reinstall it correctly. I mean, I might have to look up on UEFI.org the prompts and what they mean, especially coming from a BIOS world, though I have never heard anything about the drive alignment. I was under the impression that Windows was smart enough to handle everything itself. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Isaac Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2013 9:13 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive but he may want it as ntfs and not gpt ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrew Hodgson" To: "Blind sysadmins list" Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2013 5:39 PM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive

David,

Is the drive showing up at all in Windows 7? As it is a data drive only, you need only initialise the disk as GPT, then create your 3TB partition. You don't need to worry about the alignment. If you are using it as a boot drive, then you need to use an UEFI BIOS.

If you can't see the disk using Disk Manager or Diskpart, then something else is wrong. Can the BIOS see the disk?

Andrew.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of David Mehler Sent: 26 December 2013 16:23 To: blind-sysadmins Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive

Hello,

To anyone with a 3TB internal or external drive, though internal is what I'm dealing with.

This is going to be in a system running windows7sp1, which is not detecting the drive. I've read that the drive needs to be prepared outside of windows, partitioned gpt and formatted ntfs then windows will see it.

I have also read about drive alignment and that this is crucial on larger drives and also the 4k boundaries on these larger drives instead of 512 byte boundaries.

The end result is I'm a little confused. The primary goal of these drives are going to be Windows data storage drives, with probably some Linux systems talking to them as well again for data storage.

I want to ensure that all operating systems can see them, that they are properly aligned, and have the correct 4k boundaries set.

What all do you use for this?

Thanks. Dave.

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

Thanks for that. I asked Levi, and he's not had a single issue with UEFI. He also told me that the toggle is automatic once I switch the system and then reboot from DVD rom. And the image is not taken from this system, it's actually taken and created from an ISO mounted onto the system. In other words, I don't create the image through what is already installed on this computer, but using the Windows DVD. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson Sent: Saturday, December 28, 2013 10:23 AM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive Hi, Ok, addressing some of the points: I don't know whether Winstaller supports UEFI installations, you will need to ask the developer. If you are using an image taken from an existing legacy system, it won't work, it needs to be a new installation. The way that UEFI boots is to scan the media devices for FAT32 or CDs, then it reads files from the /EFI directory. If SecureBoot is enabled (which it probably will be on a Dell system), then the digital signature is verified. This won't be an issue with Windows 8.1 installation media or anything that uses the WinPE/Microsoft boot loader. Once booted into the operating system, if you run the OS setup from within a PE booted from UEFI, and the disk is a GPT disk (not sure whether the second requirement needs meeting, or whether the disk is converted on installation), when Windows is being installed, it creates the relevant EFI boot partition as well as the OS and Recovery partitions. To check whether the system uses EFI, you can run some commands, here is the output from my system: DISKPART> list volume Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------- Volume 0 D DVD-ROM 0 B No Media Volume 1 C NTFS Partition 118 GB Healthy Boot Volume 2 Recovery NTFS Partition 300 MB Healthy Hidden Volume 3 FAT32 Partition 99 MB Healthy System Volume 4 E My Passport NTFS Partition 1862 GB Healthy Volume 5 F Seagate Bac NTFS Partition 2794 GB Healthy The FAT32 is the EFI boot partition which contains the boot loader. You can also run bcdedit.exe /enum: C:\>bcdedit /enum Windows Boot Manager -------------------- identifier {bootmgr} device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume2 path \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi description Windows Boot Manager locale en-GB inherit {globalsettings} integrityservices Enable default {current} resumeobject {f18cb81b-35dd-11e3-ae88-a28fcb3f8bec} displayorder {current} toolsdisplayorder {memdiag} timeout 30 Windows Boot Loader ------------------- identifier {current} device partition=C: path \Windows\system32\winload.efi description Windows 8.1 locale en-GB inherit {bootloadersettings} recoverysequence {f18cb81d-35dd-11e3-ae88-a28fcb3f8bec} integrityservices Enable recoveryenabled Yes isolatedcontext Yes allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075 osdevice partition=C: systemroot \Windows resumeobject {f18cb81b-35dd-11e3-ae88-a28fcb3f8bec} nx OptIn bootmenupolicy Standard So you can see here that the system runs the boot loader from the EFI partition, then loads Windows 8.1 from the boot partition. Using this setup means you don't need to interact with any EFI shells etc. Hope this helps. Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss Sent: 28 December 2013 01:38 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive To answer your question, the computer currently boots from legacy BIOS, though my goal is to switch it to use UEFI, which I can do; it's a toggle of sorts under boot options. I saw it once, though the prompts were gibberish to me, and I didn't understand what kind of information the system was looking for in order to make the switch successfully. My goal now is to use a Winstaller image off of a DVD Rom, though that's only because I don't have a USB drive large enough, and it will be moved to USB in future. Not to mention, I'm not even sure how to boot this thing off USB. I know that this particular model supports UEFI (I gave it a bios update that said so), though how do I tell if it also supports secure boot, and if so, what does that mean? Do I have to have secure boot enabled? I'd rather not. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson Sent: Friday, December 27, 2013 6:52 AM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive Hi, The drive alignment is taken care of in the Windows 8.1 installer when you partition the drives. Converting the boot process to UEFI is a different process. Are you going to install from a CD or USB? Does the BIOS support UEFI or Secure Boot? Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss Sent: 27 December 2013 04:04 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive NTFS is the file system, not the partition type. So you can have a GPT partition that is formatted as NTFS. And can someone please explain to me the alignment issue? I ask because I'm going to be switching my Latitude E6530 to use UEFI when I reinstall this weekend Windows 8.1. Right now, it's using legacy BIOS, though that's a holdover from Windows 7, and I didn't switch it. I'm switching it now though just before I reinstall, and I want to ensure that I reinstall it correctly. I mean, I might have to look up on UEFI.org the prompts and what they mean, especially coming from a BIOS world, though I have never heard anything about the drive alignment. I was under the impression that Windows was smart enough to handle everything itself. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Isaac Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2013 9:13 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive but he may want it as ntfs and not gpt ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrew Hodgson" To: "Blind sysadmins list" Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2013 5:39 PM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive

David,

Is the drive showing up at all in Windows 7? As it is a data drive only, you need only initialise the disk as GPT, then create your 3TB partition. You don't need to worry about the alignment. If you are using it as a boot drive, then you need to use an UEFI BIOS.

If you can't see the disk using Disk Manager or Diskpart, then something else is wrong. Can the BIOS see the disk?

Andrew.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of David Mehler Sent: 26 December 2013 16:23 To: blind-sysadmins Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive

Hello,

To anyone with a 3TB internal or external drive, though internal is what I'm dealing with.

This is going to be in a system running windows7sp1, which is not detecting the drive. I've read that the drive needs to be prepared outside of windows, partitioned gpt and formatted ntfs then windows will see it.

I have also read about drive alignment and that this is crucial on larger drives and also the 4k boundaries on these larger drives instead of 512 byte boundaries.

The end result is I'm a little confused. The primary goal of these drives are going to be Windows data storage drives, with probably some Linux systems talking to them as well again for data storage.

I want to ensure that all operating systems can see them, that they are properly aligned, and have the correct 4k boundaries set.

What all do you use for this?

Thanks. Dave.

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

Hi, Yeah, reading more on Winstaller now I see how that would work, since you are running the original Windows setup with an unattended install. Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss Sent: 30 December 2013 17:51 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive Thanks for that. I asked Levi, and he's not had a single issue with UEFI. He also told me that the toggle is automatic once I switch the system and then reboot from DVD rom. And the image is not taken from this system, it's actually taken and created from an ISO mounted onto the system. In other words, I don't create the image through what is already installed on this computer, but using the Windows DVD. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson Sent: Saturday, December 28, 2013 10:23 AM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive Hi, Ok, addressing some of the points: I don't know whether Winstaller supports UEFI installations, you will need to ask the developer. If you are using an image taken from an existing legacy system, it won't work, it needs to be a new installation. The way that UEFI boots is to scan the media devices for FAT32 or CDs, then it reads files from the /EFI directory. If SecureBoot is enabled (which it probably will be on a Dell system), then the digital signature is verified. This won't be an issue with Windows 8.1 installation media or anything that uses the WinPE/Microsoft boot loader. Once booted into the operating system, if you run the OS setup from within a PE booted from UEFI, and the disk is a GPT disk (not sure whether the second requirement needs meeting, or whether the disk is converted on installation), when Windows is being installed, it creates the relevant EFI boot partition as well as the OS and Recovery partitions. To check whether the system uses EFI, you can run some commands, here is the output from my system: DISKPART> list volume Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------- Volume 0 D DVD-ROM 0 B No Media Volume 1 C NTFS Partition 118 GB Healthy Boot Volume 2 Recovery NTFS Partition 300 MB Healthy Hidden Volume 3 FAT32 Partition 99 MB Healthy System Volume 4 E My Passport NTFS Partition 1862 GB Healthy Volume 5 F Seagate Bac NTFS Partition 2794 GB Healthy The FAT32 is the EFI boot partition which contains the boot loader. You can also run bcdedit.exe /enum: C:\>bcdedit /enum Windows Boot Manager -------------------- identifier {bootmgr} device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume2 path \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi description Windows Boot Manager locale en-GB inherit {globalsettings} integrityservices Enable default {current} resumeobject {f18cb81b-35dd-11e3-ae88-a28fcb3f8bec} displayorder {current} toolsdisplayorder {memdiag} timeout 30 Windows Boot Loader ------------------- identifier {current} device partition=C: path \Windows\system32\winload.efi description Windows 8.1 locale en-GB inherit {bootloadersettings} recoverysequence {f18cb81d-35dd-11e3-ae88-a28fcb3f8bec} integrityservices Enable recoveryenabled Yes isolatedcontext Yes allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075 osdevice partition=C: systemroot \Windows resumeobject {f18cb81b-35dd-11e3-ae88-a28fcb3f8bec} nx OptIn bootmenupolicy Standard So you can see here that the system runs the boot loader from the EFI partition, then loads Windows 8.1 from the boot partition. Using this setup means you don't need to interact with any EFI shells etc. Hope this helps. Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss Sent: 28 December 2013 01:38 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive To answer your question, the computer currently boots from legacy BIOS, though my goal is to switch it to use UEFI, which I can do; it's a toggle of sorts under boot options. I saw it once, though the prompts were gibberish to me, and I didn't understand what kind of information the system was looking for in order to make the switch successfully. My goal now is to use a Winstaller image off of a DVD Rom, though that's only because I don't have a USB drive large enough, and it will be moved to USB in future. Not to mention, I'm not even sure how to boot this thing off USB. I know that this particular model supports UEFI (I gave it a bios update that said so), though how do I tell if it also supports secure boot, and if so, what does that mean? Do I have to have secure boot enabled? I'd rather not. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson Sent: Friday, December 27, 2013 6:52 AM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive Hi, The drive alignment is taken care of in the Windows 8.1 installer when you partition the drives. Converting the boot process to UEFI is a different process. Are you going to install from a CD or USB? Does the BIOS support UEFI or Secure Boot? Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss Sent: 27 December 2013 04:04 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive NTFS is the file system, not the partition type. So you can have a GPT partition that is formatted as NTFS. And can someone please explain to me the alignment issue? I ask because I'm going to be switching my Latitude E6530 to use UEFI when I reinstall this weekend Windows 8.1. Right now, it's using legacy BIOS, though that's a holdover from Windows 7, and I didn't switch it. I'm switching it now though just before I reinstall, and I want to ensure that I reinstall it correctly. I mean, I might have to look up on UEFI.org the prompts and what they mean, especially coming from a BIOS world, though I have never heard anything about the drive alignment. I was under the impression that Windows was smart enough to handle everything itself. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Isaac Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2013 9:13 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive but he may want it as ntfs and not gpt ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrew Hodgson" To: "Blind sysadmins list" Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2013 5:39 PM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive

David,

Is the drive showing up at all in Windows 7? As it is a data drive only, you need only initialise the disk as GPT, then create your 3TB partition. You don't need to worry about the alignment. If you are using it as a boot drive, then you need to use an UEFI BIOS.

If you can't see the disk using Disk Manager or Diskpart, then something else is wrong. Can the BIOS see the disk?

Andrew.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of David Mehler Sent: 26 December 2013 16:23 To: blind-sysadmins Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive

Hello,

To anyone with a 3TB internal or external drive, though internal is what I'm dealing with.

This is going to be in a system running windows7sp1, which is not detecting the drive. I've read that the drive needs to be prepared outside of windows, partitioned gpt and formatted ntfs then windows will see it.

I have also read about drive alignment and that this is crucial on larger drives and also the 4k boundaries on these larger drives instead of 512 byte boundaries.

The end result is I'm a little confused. The primary goal of these drives are going to be Windows data storage drives, with probably some Linux systems talking to them as well again for data storage.

I want to ensure that all operating systems can see them, that they are properly aligned, and have the correct 4k boundaries set.

What all do you use for this?

Thanks. Dave.

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

Okay thanks. Well, I'm using the unattended install since I'm a lazy butt, for one, and I don't feel like answering prompts, and two, I want to film it LOL. I'll keep you guys updated since we were a bit delayed over the weekend both with Winstaller having a bunch of errors, as well as my windows 8.1 iso which I downloaded as a trial from Microsoft, and I'll use my Windows 8.0 key I have to activate it, being corrupte enough to where the system won't mount it properly. I've got no idea what's going on there, but I'll have to just get another one, I think. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson Sent: Monday, December 30, 2013 7:24 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive Hi, Yeah, reading more on Winstaller now I see how that would work, since you are running the original Windows setup with an unattended install. Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss Sent: 30 December 2013 17:51 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive Thanks for that. I asked Levi, and he's not had a single issue with UEFI. He also told me that the toggle is automatic once I switch the system and then reboot from DVD rom. And the image is not taken from this system, it's actually taken and created from an ISO mounted onto the system. In other words, I don't create the image through what is already installed on this computer, but using the Windows DVD. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson Sent: Saturday, December 28, 2013 10:23 AM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive Hi, Ok, addressing some of the points: I don't know whether Winstaller supports UEFI installations, you will need to ask the developer. If you are using an image taken from an existing legacy system, it won't work, it needs to be a new installation. The way that UEFI boots is to scan the media devices for FAT32 or CDs, then it reads files from the /EFI directory. If SecureBoot is enabled (which it probably will be on a Dell system), then the digital signature is verified. This won't be an issue with Windows 8.1 installation media or anything that uses the WinPE/Microsoft boot loader. Once booted into the operating system, if you run the OS setup from within a PE booted from UEFI, and the disk is a GPT disk (not sure whether the second requirement needs meeting, or whether the disk is converted on installation), when Windows is being installed, it creates the relevant EFI boot partition as well as the OS and Recovery partitions. To check whether the system uses EFI, you can run some commands, here is the output from my system: DISKPART> list volume Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------- Volume 0 D DVD-ROM 0 B No Media Volume 1 C NTFS Partition 118 GB Healthy Boot Volume 2 Recovery NTFS Partition 300 MB Healthy Hidden Volume 3 FAT32 Partition 99 MB Healthy System Volume 4 E My Passport NTFS Partition 1862 GB Healthy Volume 5 F Seagate Bac NTFS Partition 2794 GB Healthy The FAT32 is the EFI boot partition which contains the boot loader. You can also run bcdedit.exe /enum: C:\>bcdedit /enum Windows Boot Manager -------------------- identifier {bootmgr} device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume2 path \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi description Windows Boot Manager locale en-GB inherit {globalsettings} integrityservices Enable default {current} resumeobject {f18cb81b-35dd-11e3-ae88-a28fcb3f8bec} displayorder {current} toolsdisplayorder {memdiag} timeout 30 Windows Boot Loader ------------------- identifier {current} device partition=C: path \Windows\system32\winload.efi description Windows 8.1 locale en-GB inherit {bootloadersettings} recoverysequence {f18cb81d-35dd-11e3-ae88-a28fcb3f8bec} integrityservices Enable recoveryenabled Yes isolatedcontext Yes allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075 osdevice partition=C: systemroot \Windows resumeobject {f18cb81b-35dd-11e3-ae88-a28fcb3f8bec} nx OptIn bootmenupolicy Standard So you can see here that the system runs the boot loader from the EFI partition, then loads Windows 8.1 from the boot partition. Using this setup means you don't need to interact with any EFI shells etc. Hope this helps. Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss Sent: 28 December 2013 01:38 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive To answer your question, the computer currently boots from legacy BIOS, though my goal is to switch it to use UEFI, which I can do; it's a toggle of sorts under boot options. I saw it once, though the prompts were gibberish to me, and I didn't understand what kind of information the system was looking for in order to make the switch successfully. My goal now is to use a Winstaller image off of a DVD Rom, though that's only because I don't have a USB drive large enough, and it will be moved to USB in future. Not to mention, I'm not even sure how to boot this thing off USB. I know that this particular model supports UEFI (I gave it a bios update that said so), though how do I tell if it also supports secure boot, and if so, what does that mean? Do I have to have secure boot enabled? I'd rather not. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson Sent: Friday, December 27, 2013 6:52 AM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive Hi, The drive alignment is taken care of in the Windows 8.1 installer when you partition the drives. Converting the boot process to UEFI is a different process. Are you going to install from a CD or USB? Does the BIOS support UEFI or Secure Boot? Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss Sent: 27 December 2013 04:04 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive NTFS is the file system, not the partition type. So you can have a GPT partition that is formatted as NTFS. And can someone please explain to me the alignment issue? I ask because I'm going to be switching my Latitude E6530 to use UEFI when I reinstall this weekend Windows 8.1. Right now, it's using legacy BIOS, though that's a holdover from Windows 7, and I didn't switch it. I'm switching it now though just before I reinstall, and I want to ensure that I reinstall it correctly. I mean, I might have to look up on UEFI.org the prompts and what they mean, especially coming from a BIOS world, though I have never heard anything about the drive alignment. I was under the impression that Windows was smart enough to handle everything itself. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Isaac Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2013 9:13 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive but he may want it as ntfs and not gpt ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrew Hodgson" To: "Blind sysadmins list" Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2013 5:39 PM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive

David,

Is the drive showing up at all in Windows 7? As it is a data drive only, you need only initialise the disk as GPT, then create your 3TB partition. You don't need to worry about the alignment. If you are using it as a boot drive, then you need to use an UEFI BIOS.

If you can't see the disk using Disk Manager or Diskpart, then something else is wrong. Can the BIOS see the disk?

Andrew.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of David Mehler Sent: 26 December 2013 16:23 To: blind-sysadmins Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive

Hello,

To anyone with a 3TB internal or external drive, though internal is what I'm dealing with.

This is going to be in a system running windows7sp1, which is not detecting the drive. I've read that the drive needs to be prepared outside of windows, partitioned gpt and formatted ntfs then windows will see it.

I have also read about drive alignment and that this is crucial on larger drives and also the 4k boundaries on these larger drives instead of 512 byte boundaries.

The end result is I'm a little confused. The primary goal of these drives are going to be Windows data storage drives, with probably some Linux systems talking to them as well again for data storage.

I want to ensure that all operating systems can see them, that they are properly aligned, and have the correct 4k boundaries set.

What all do you use for this?

Thanks. Dave.

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

Hi, Ok, addressing some of the points: I don't know whether Winstaller supports UEFI installations, you will need to ask the developer. If you are using an image taken from an existing legacy system, it won't work, it needs to be a new installation. The way that UEFI boots is to scan the media devices for FAT32 or CDs, then it reads files from the /EFI directory. If SecureBoot is enabled (which it probably will be on a Dell system), then the digital signature is verified. This won't be an issue with Windows 8.1 installation media or anything that uses the WinPE/Microsoft boot loader. Once booted into the operating system, if you run the OS setup from within a PE booted from UEFI, and the disk is a GPT disk (not sure whether the second requirement needs meeting, or whether the disk is converted on installation), when Windows is being installed, it creates the relevant EFI boot partition as well as the OS and Recovery partitions. To check whether the system uses EFI, you can run some commands, here is the output from my system: DISKPART> list volume Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------- Volume 0 D DVD-ROM 0 B No Media Volume 1 C NTFS Partition 118 GB Healthy Boot Volume 2 Recovery NTFS Partition 300 MB Healthy Hidden Volume 3 FAT32 Partition 99 MB Healthy System Volume 4 E My Passport NTFS Partition 1862 GB Healthy Volume 5 F Seagate Bac NTFS Partition 2794 GB Healthy The FAT32 is the EFI boot partition which contains the boot loader. You can also run bcdedit.exe /enum: C:\>bcdedit /enum Windows Boot Manager -------------------- identifier {bootmgr} device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume2 path \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi description Windows Boot Manager locale en-GB inherit {globalsettings} integrityservices Enable default {current} resumeobject {f18cb81b-35dd-11e3-ae88-a28fcb3f8bec} displayorder {current} toolsdisplayorder {memdiag} timeout 30 Windows Boot Loader ------------------- identifier {current} device partition=C: path \Windows\system32\winload.efi description Windows 8.1 locale en-GB inherit {bootloadersettings} recoverysequence {f18cb81d-35dd-11e3-ae88-a28fcb3f8bec} integrityservices Enable recoveryenabled Yes isolatedcontext Yes allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075 osdevice partition=C: systemroot \Windows resumeobject {f18cb81b-35dd-11e3-ae88-a28fcb3f8bec} nx OptIn bootmenupolicy Standard So you can see here that the system runs the boot loader from the EFI partition, then loads Windows 8.1 from the boot partition. Using this setup means you don't need to interact with any EFI shells etc. Hope this helps. Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss Sent: 28 December 2013 01:38 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive To answer your question, the computer currently boots from legacy BIOS, though my goal is to switch it to use UEFI, which I can do; it's a toggle of sorts under boot options. I saw it once, though the prompts were gibberish to me, and I didn't understand what kind of information the system was looking for in order to make the switch successfully. My goal now is to use a Winstaller image off of a DVD Rom, though that's only because I don't have a USB drive large enough, and it will be moved to USB in future. Not to mention, I'm not even sure how to boot this thing off USB. I know that this particular model supports UEFI (I gave it a bios update that said so), though how do I tell if it also supports secure boot, and if so, what does that mean? Do I have to have secure boot enabled? I'd rather not. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson Sent: Friday, December 27, 2013 6:52 AM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive Hi, The drive alignment is taken care of in the Windows 8.1 installer when you partition the drives. Converting the boot process to UEFI is a different process. Are you going to install from a CD or USB? Does the BIOS support UEFI or Secure Boot? Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss Sent: 27 December 2013 04:04 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive NTFS is the file system, not the partition type. So you can have a GPT partition that is formatted as NTFS. And can someone please explain to me the alignment issue? I ask because I'm going to be switching my Latitude E6530 to use UEFI when I reinstall this weekend Windows 8.1. Right now, it's using legacy BIOS, though that's a holdover from Windows 7, and I didn't switch it. I'm switching it now though just before I reinstall, and I want to ensure that I reinstall it correctly. I mean, I might have to look up on UEFI.org the prompts and what they mean, especially coming from a BIOS world, though I have never heard anything about the drive alignment. I was under the impression that Windows was smart enough to handle everything itself. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Isaac Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2013 9:13 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive but he may want it as ntfs and not gpt ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrew Hodgson" To: "Blind sysadmins list" Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2013 5:39 PM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive

David,

Is the drive showing up at all in Windows 7? As it is a data drive only, you need only initialise the disk as GPT, then create your 3TB partition. You don't need to worry about the alignment. If you are using it as a boot drive, then you need to use an UEFI BIOS.

If you can't see the disk using Disk Manager or Diskpart, then something else is wrong. Can the BIOS see the disk?

Andrew.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of David Mehler Sent: 26 December 2013 16:23 To: blind-sysadmins Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive

Hello,

To anyone with a 3TB internal or external drive, though internal is what I'm dealing with.

This is going to be in a system running windows7sp1, which is not detecting the drive. I've read that the drive needs to be prepared outside of windows, partitioned gpt and formatted ntfs then windows will see it.

I have also read about drive alignment and that this is crucial on larger drives and also the 4k boundaries on these larger drives instead of 512 byte boundaries.

The end result is I'm a little confused. The primary goal of these drives are going to be Windows data storage drives, with probably some Linux systems talking to them as well again for data storage.

I want to ensure that all operating systems can see them, that they are properly aligned, and have the correct 4k boundaries set.

What all do you use for this?

Thanks. Dave.

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_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

NTFS is the file system, not the partition type. So you can have a GPT partition that is formatted as NTFS. And can someone please explain to me the alignment issue? I ask because I'm going to be switching my Latitude E6530 to use UEFI when I reinstall this weekend Windows 8.1. Right now, it's using legacy BIOS, though that's a holdover from Windows 7, and I didn't switch it. I'm switching it now though just before I reinstall, and I want to ensure that I reinstall it correctly. I mean, I might have to look up on UEFI.org the prompts and what they mean, especially coming from a BIOS world, though I have never heard anything about the drive alignment. I was under the impression that Windows was smart enough to handle everything itself. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Isaac Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2013 9:13 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive but he may want it as ntfs and not gpt ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrew Hodgson" To: "Blind sysadmins list" Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2013 5:39 PM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive

David,

Is the drive showing up at all in Windows 7? As it is a data drive only, you need only initialise the disk as GPT, then create your 3TB partition. You don't need to worry about the alignment. If you are using it as a boot drive, then you need to use an UEFI BIOS.

If you can't see the disk using Disk Manager or Diskpart, then something else is wrong. Can the BIOS see the disk?

Andrew.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of David Mehler Sent: 26 December 2013 16:23 To: blind-sysadmins Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive

Hello,

To anyone with a 3TB internal or external drive, though internal is what I'm dealing with.

This is going to be in a system running windows7sp1, which is not detecting the drive. I've read that the drive needs to be prepared outside of windows, partitioned gpt and formatted ntfs then windows will see it.

I have also read about drive alignment and that this is crucial on larger drives and also the 4k boundaries on these larger drives instead of 512 byte boundaries.

The end result is I'm a little confused. The primary goal of these drives are going to be Windows data storage drives, with probably some Linux systems talking to them as well again for data storage.

I want to ensure that all operating systems can see them, that they are properly aligned, and have the correct 4k boundaries set.

What all do you use for this?

Thanks. Dave.

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

Hi, Yep, GPT is the partition storage mechanism, the previous disks were MBR. NTFS is the disk format, and on a 3TB drive you need NTFS. Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Isaac Sent: 27 December 2013 02:13 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive but he may want it as ntfs and not gpt ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrew Hodgson" To: "Blind sysadmins list" Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2013 5:39 PM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive

David,

Is the drive showing up at all in Windows 7? As it is a data drive only, you need only initialise the disk as GPT, then create your 3TB partition. You don't need to worry about the alignment. If you are using it as a boot drive, then you need to use an UEFI BIOS.

If you can't see the disk using Disk Manager or Diskpart, then something else is wrong. Can the BIOS see the disk?

Andrew.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of David Mehler Sent: 26 December 2013 16:23 To: blind-sysadmins Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Preparing a 3TB drive

Hello,

To anyone with a 3TB internal or external drive, though internal is what I'm dealing with.

This is going to be in a system running windows7sp1, which is not detecting the drive. I've read that the drive needs to be prepared outside of windows, partitioned gpt and formatted ntfs then windows will see it.

I have also read about drive alignment and that this is crucial on larger drives and also the 4k boundaries on these larger drives instead of 512 byte boundaries.

The end result is I'm a little confused. The primary goal of these drives are going to be Windows data storage drives, with probably some Linux systems talking to them as well again for data storage.

I want to ensure that all operating systems can see them, that they are properly aligned, and have the correct 4k boundaries set.

What all do you use for this?

Thanks. Dave.

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins