lomapaseo

a couple of questions

1. What key info does one need to know how big an internal hard drive can be run in a desk top? I was wondering if I can install a 3 or 4 TB in the specs below.

Do the following computer specs give the answer or is there something else that limits the drive size?


Windows 7 Home Premium (x64) Service Pack 1 (build 7601)
Install Language: English (United States)
System Locale: English (United States)
Installed: 7/1/2011 12:02:02 PM Dell Inc. Studio XPS 9100 00
System Service Tag: 8MC4HQ1 (support for this PC)
Chassis Serial Number: 8MC4HQ1
Enclosure Type: DesktopProcessor a Main Circuit Board b3.20 gigahertz Intel Core i7 960
32 kilobyte primary memory cache
1024 kilobyte secondary memory cache
8192 kilobyte tertiary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (4 total)
Hyper-threaded (8 total) Board: Dell Inc. 05DN3X A00
Serial Number: ..CN7441513O0696.
Bus Clock: 133 megahertz
BIOS: Dell Computer Corporation A02 05/26/2010

2. Can I run a 3-4 Tb external hard drive off a 3.0 USB controler?

Saab Dastard

Yes and Yes.

See Above 2TB for more info.

SD

__________________
You can't have everything - where would you put it?

lomapaseo

Thanks for the "yes"

From my read it looks like most Win 7 systems running 64 bit will be able to access the 3-4 TB drives.

If there are exceptions let me know.

Saab Dastard

No, ALL Windows 7 64-bit systems!

SD

__________________
You can't have everything - where would you put it?

Bushfiva

Just a few potential boot-related gotchas, I'm sure people will correct me if this info is out of date/just plain wrong.

A boot partition larger than 2TB needs to use GPT rather than MBR.

XPS 9100 has a non-UEFI BIOS, so it won't boot from a GPT partition.

If you're using AHCI (e.g. Intel RAID), then older drivers (early 2011) won't recognise anything bigger than 3TB, so you need to make sure, if you're doing a clean install from older media, that you have a slipstream disk with recent drivers.

E&OE, always wear lead knickers, etc.

Mac the Knife

And how do you plan to back it up?

Better with 2 (or 3) smaller drives.

Mac

lomapaseo

already done that way on 2TB USB drives in caddys. But it's easier to keep track of new stuff in the main computer at that bus speed using less drives

Bushfiva

Incidentally, you're one BIOS version behind, not that there appears to be much changed.