If you are on this page it is most likely because you are trying to create a> 2TB partition on your hard drive but you can’t. Unfortunately, it is a drawback that happens to many users, especially those who are trying to use the Windows Diskpart tool to manage a hard disk larger than 2TB: Diskpart in fact is unable to create partitions larger than 2TB
If you try to do this using the Diskpart commands you get an error like this: “Virtual Disk Service error: only the first 2TB are usable on large MBR disks”. In practice it is said that a partition greater than 2TB cannot be created on an MBR disk, but it does not give any solution to the problem.
The following error message may also appear: The volume cannot be extended because the file system does not support it .
The Cause of the problem
Regardless of the error message you get it has to be said that MBR (Master Boot Record) disks support a maximum space of 2TB and four primary partitions , which means that if you have a disk> 2TB, everything above that limit it will be unusable. To solve the root problem you need to convert MBR disk to GUID Partition Table ( GPT ), which supports disks with a capacity greater than 2 TB without problems.
Another cause of the problem is if there is a FAT32 file system on the disk in question. In fact, this type of file system supports partitions of up to 2TB and if you try with Diskpart to extend partitions over 2TB on it you will surely receive the errors described above. In that case, you will need to convert the file system from FAT32 to NTFS to fix the problem . When creating an NTFS partition, the allocation unit size will also change and the maximum NTFS partition size = allocation unit size * (2 ^ 32 -1).
Solution 1: Convert MBR to GPT disk (without data loss)
As we have already said, a first solution to be able to create partitions larger than 2TB on the disk is to convert the disk from MBR to GPT . If you want to do this conversion WITHOUT LOSING the data on your computer it is advisable to use a third party software called Partition Assistant . On top of that you will also need to make sure that your motherboard supports EFI / UEFI boot mode (almost all of them now support it). Let’s see in detail the procedure to follow.
Step 1 : First DOWNLOAD the program on your PC. Then install and run it.
Step 2 . Right-click the disk and select Convert to GPT disk .
Step 3. Click Apply in the program home to perform the operation.
Once this is done you will be able to extend partitions beyond 2tb both with Diskpart and with Partition Assistant (by clicking on the “Extend Partition” function on the left)
NB: To convert disk from MBR to GPT, you can also use the “ convert gpt ” command in Diskpart, but it only works when the disk is completely empty with no partition or data volume. You can use the “ delete disk [noerr] [override] ” command to empty the disk before conversion (with data loss). If you don’t want to lose your data we recommend using Partition Assistant as described above.
Solution 2: Convert FAT32 to NTFS (without data loss)
If even after converting the MBR disk to GPT you still cannot extend the partition above 2TB then you will need to check the file system of the partition as it is likely to be of type FAT32. To solve the problem you will need to convert FAT32 to NTFS but WITHOUT formatting the partition or volume otherwise all data on it will be erased. Fortunately, even in this case, the Partition Assistant program comes to our rescue because it allows you to convert FAT32 to NTFS without deleting your data.
Step 1 : First DOWNLOAD the Partition Assistant program on your Windows PC. Launch and this splash screen will appear:
From the initial screen select with the right mouse button the disk to convert and click on the Advanced option -> Convert to NFTS .
Step 2. The program will show the partitions of type FAT32. Choose the partition to convert and click Next to start the conversion.
After these two steps you will have solved your problem and will finally be able to create a partition larger than 2TB on the disk.
