I recently built my PC that has a 6700k cpu on an Asus Z170-a motherboard with 5gb hard drive. After install, my hd is only showing that it is 2gb in size. I understand from my research that my drive needs to be partitioned with GPT which requires UEFI. My drive must be partitioned with MBR hence the reason why I only see a 2gb drive. My question is that during the install when Windows 7 prompted me where to complete the install it showed my drive as being 5gb in size, but it never asked me about GPT vs. MBR partitioning. How would I go about getting a GPT partition if I were to reinstall Windows 7? BTW....other than the hd issue, everything else works great. Windows 7 install went fine after flashing with modded bios. Thanks! Stormy845
Probably you meant 5TB and 2TB... You are seeing that problem because you've installed windows 7 in CSM/legacy mode. Windows needs to be installed in UEFI mode if your boot device is bigger than 2TB. Since the UEFI support is limited on windows 7 and you have a Z170 chipset, consider installing windows 10. If you still want to keep windows 7, you have to reinstall your operating system in UEFI mode.
Windows 7 can't be installed in a GPT system without modifying the iso or using 3rd party tools like rufus. So when you're able to boot windows 7 on a UEFI/GPT system (after using rufus or modifying the iso) and the disk is brandnew (never been partitioned before), windows setup will set it to GPT, but only if there are not any other MBR drives connected. When there already exist partitions on the only connected disk you need to delete them first and let windows create new ones.
With the new cpu and Z170 board, an SSD drive will really help and you can use the 5 tb drive for storage, that would solve your >2tb problem and the GPT issue
To be precise, if you've burned the ISO to DVD & boot from it in UEFI mode, then it'll work. But in case of bootable USB, you stand corrected.
Thanks all. If I modify the Windows 7 with Rufus and am looking to do a reinstall of Windows 7, do I need to do anything with my hd beforehand or will I be prompted to delete the MBR partition that current exists during the reinstall?
When you boot the installer in UEFI mode, you will have to erase all partitions because if you don't do that you will have a "windows cannot be installed on this partition" error because you have a MBR partition layout. After that, you will see that the full 5TB are available to you.
Have your Win7 DVD in the optical drive. Turn on the PC & press F8 to get the Bios/UEFI boot menu. Select the UEFI instance of your optical drive. This will boot your Windows 7 DVD in UEFI mode. Continue with install... Yes, also do the below as LatinMcG has stated!
shift f10 during presetup. diskpart list disk select disk clean (this wipes it clean no files..) convert gpt exit continue installation.
Windows 7 boots only in UEFI-CSM AFAIK, as it still requires some INT features from legacy BIOS. On a system without any CSM, Win7 simply gets stuck during boot.
strange.. i have win 7 on EFI only bios settings. i must have pulled a miracle! he needs to add drivers to w7 usb like usb3, intel rapid storage and possibly lan and wifi. edit.. checked bios and shows efi and legacy oproms.. but its set to boot uefi only. i just flashed a xfx 6870 for efi compatibility on a different pc
Usually EFI firmware with CSM (called gen.2) will automatically provide the legacy graphical BIOS feature Windows 7 relies on if it is detected. But newer EFI without CSM (gen. 3) doesn't. My gen.3 Acer Laptop gets stuck at the Win7 boot animation if EFI is selected. Win7 will install in full legacy (BIOS+MBR) mode, but there's no CSM setting at all.
How about using for instance, Rufus with "Dual EFI/BIOS mode enable" (Alt + E) prior to create the bootable USB pendrive? Can't tell for other methods as I've never ever tried others.
That mode in Rufus formats the USB drive as FAT32, extracts the ISO contents in it, do the necessary adjustments with bootmgfw.efi & writes an NT6.0 bootloader - which doesn't change the fact that Windows 7 is unable to boot in a pure UEFI environment (Carlos's case).
Not all motherboards display all the options or even mention CSM. ie, for the Z270 GAMING PRO CARBON, the below is the default & enableing 1 disables the other. Code: Windows OS Configuration: - Windows 7 installation: Enabled - Windows 8.1/10 WHQL Support: Disabled