Going past the 2Tb limit for a boot drive in Windows10

[loninapleton]

Does a UEFI BIOS with a correctly formatted hard drive break the Windows 2 TB restriction if configures as a boot drive?
An old question but I'm just exploring it now.

[mr44er]

https://learn.microsoft.com/de-de/troub ... eding-2-tb

mentions Vista and upwards, but x64 as required.

[loninapleton]

Thanks for answering.
Can I use the normal quick format through Windows 7 or 10-- maybe only 10 and what
is entered ? This may be at Microsoft, I'd just rather have you answer that one simply.

[mr44er]

What do you mean by 'what is entered'?

You boot into the wizard, choose the edition, click next until you see the disk overview. There sata0 should be listed as disk0 with partitions (if existent). If this disk has no partitions, it should be shown as single entry and 'raw', but maybe I don't remember this right.
If it has old partitions, you want to delete anyway, double-check for the right disk, choose, delete, repeat until only this single/raw disk0 is left. Just click next onto this, Windows will create GPT with 1M alignment,EFI, quick format and begin to install.

[loninapleton]

Ok that's helpful. I just didn't know how GPT vs MBR was selected as the boot type. I've seen it of course in Win7 and may have seen it on the few formatting jobs I've done on Windows 10.
It's only my newest board that has UEFI.

[mr44er]

I just didn't know how GPT vs MBR was selected as the boot type.

Ah, there is one thing more to pay attention (maybe). If you have a DVD or created a USB Stick to boot from it can boot with two modes. New boot (UEFI boot) and old style (legacy boot). On some boards you have then the option to choose between the two of them from one boot medium or it has to be selected explicit. UEFI only/legacy only

When Windows starts this small white bar or the 'press any key to boot from....' that and the writing looks slightly different. It's really hard to tell the difference, once bootet the Windows-Wizard does not tell which mode was booted.

Example:
https://www.windowsphoneinfo.com/thread ... nu.167141/

Sandisk Cruzer is shown 2x
If you have this option 2x or with the DVD-Rom, then choose UEFI for the right boot mode. Then it will write GPT,EFI etc. correct. After the first autoreboot from Windows, this 'UEFI'-Option will also appear for your sata0/disk0, but from there it should do everything automatically. Only the initial boot has to be correct, otherwise restart again.

[loninapleton]

Is the small manual that comes with the ASUS A320M-V clear on this? It's not a new product I know but the BIOS screen(s) whether detailed or the 'simple' default one don't seem to show a lot of good detail. In other words I don't know where to look for it in the book.

[mr44er]

I don't know, try it out. There are only 2 possibilities

Other option:
https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html
Install ventoy-1.0.93-windows.zip, let this tool write onto USB stick. https://www.ventoy.net/en/doc_start.html
Boot this stick as test, check the left corner if there is BIOS or UEFI. https://www.ventoy.net/en/screenshot.html

If autoboot runs UEFI automatically, all good and proceed with win boot medium or copy windows.iso as single file 'as-is' to the ventoy stick and boot from there.
If it shows BIOS, you need to switch.

[loninapleton]

Interesting. I'll have to round up some small USB sticks. I only have a couple-- one has a Windows loader ISO on it.

[mr44er]

Ask friends and family if they still have any old, small USB sticks lying around. Most of the time you can grab them for free.
With ventoy you can upcycle the USB sticks, they are all good for copying a few .isos onto them. Even an old USB2 stick loads faster than if you booted it from a DVD.

[loninapleton]

Good advice, thank you.