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Can gparted format a 3tb drive as NTFS so that win7 and win10 can use it?Hi folks.
@pparks1
Have you tried what I do below --I know you are knowledgeable on Networks etc . !!! Also the BIOS must support handling large capacity HDD's -- File size not a problem NTFS can handle in theory EXABYTES but some BIOS'es cannot handle geometry of large HDD's (nr of sectors, clusters, physical track addresses etc) in some cases. 4 - 5 TB seems the sweet point on a load of machines greater than > 4 / 5 TB all sorts of problems begin to rear their ugly heads unless you have special HDD controllers.
With 6TB you are definitely out of typical home computers BIOS comfort zone on HDD's.
I know this is a Windows Forum but some people have some knowledge of Linux here --so if you don't want to spend 3 days on formatting an HDD. !!!!!
1) Download almost any Live Linux distro -- Linux mint is probably the easiest for novices / Windows users.
2) now format the drive with console command -- mkefs.ext4 /dev/sdx where x is the letter the drive linux sees.
To see what's mounted (the dev/sdx data) just from console type mount. You aren't going to use ext4 file system but you need an initial format of the HDD and ext4 works super fast.
Then you re-do for windows as NTFS using GPARTED as step 5.
3) that format (the ext4) will actually format the HDD really quickly.
4) now ensure package ntfs-3g is installed and also GPARTED.
Ntfs-3g is the Linux Read / write to windows NTFS file systems - it's usually installed by default but depending on your Live Distro it might not be/ Install with package manager -- CENTO / Red HAT --yum SUSE YAST, ubuntu /debian apt-get (or wget) etc etc.
5) run GPARTED and re-format HDD as NTFS.
Sorry folks for a Linux solution on Windows Forum --but I can't see ANYBODY wanting to run a Format job for 3 days.
You'll complete the job with above solution in about 15 - 35 mins !!!!!
Note I'm NOT anti Windows --far from it -- even hardened Linux users use Windows to diagnose a lot of hardware problems etc !!! My main Windows gripe is that I can never get Networking to actually be consistent - some machines work and others refuse resolutely to connect to any sort of network even if Hardware is identical. !!!!!!!
I just as an old fashioned Engineer believe in using the best tool for the job --I mean for example an abacus can yield the same calculation result as an EXCEL spreadsheet -- I know what I'd rather use. !!!!
Cheers.
jimbo
yes that worked great!
Last edited by sdowney717; 17 Nov 2017 at 07:19.