As is self explanatory, I have seen a lot of 2.5-3TB internal disks being launched in the past few months. These incl. WD Greens (lower power and speed) and recently Barracuda XT (performance). The OS installed on my PC (windows 7 enterprise x64) can handle it and planned 2011-12 hardware changes (UEFI BIOS, sandybridge, etc) should take care of the hardware too. In the meanwhile, I am stuck with a x58 MSI X58M with core i7 920. I can buy the 3TB ones but do not dig too much the HBA system of WD unless it is idiot-friendly. Seagate Barracuda XT has a software oriented fix (discwizard, etc) which they claim works. However, I do not want this to be a primary disk (OS) unless it is performance oriented. As a storage disk, can I make these work and have say 2-3 partitions on this using partition wizard, windows 7. The bigger issue is the availability and the difficulty of returning the disk if it does not work. These disks are not easily available in India, and I can get it from UK when my brother comes visiting in Apr-May 2011. Please help with your experiences if any of these disks specifically for windows 7 (boot disks or otherwise).
It is possible to achieve that. It's all about how you do it when you install the OS and if you are going to use it as a system drive. If you do not use it as a system drive then it can be done after the fact. I use Acronis Disk Director for all of my partitioning needs. Good software. Oh! Also remember if you plan on encrypting the disk wait until all of your partitioning is done. Funny how you say you are stuck with a x58 mobo.
No planned usage as a system drive. Have a 2TB Caviar Black as system disk (with multiple partitions) and next system drive will be a SSD. I wanted to use WD Green 3TB as a storage (movie) drive but HBA is not clear. No point in getting a Barraxuda XT at a premium price and use it as a storage drive. With that in mind, can I just buy a 2.5-3TB WD Green on a running windows 7 x64 machine, just fit it, and hope it will do as I want (1 huge partition of 100% capacity). I think Seagate has a 2.05 TB parition and a 748GB partition. That will not be useful as it implies 2 partitions.
I think I will buy a 3-4 TB HDD soon. Hardly think that it will be a big issue in windows 7 x64 but need only 1 huge partition of 100% disk space. They do have a price premium (higher cost/GB). Let me check a good deal in India/UK.