Cannot use MBR on >2TB external HDD

[vasilislam]

Official FAQ

• [X] I have checked the official FAQ.

Ventoy Version

1.0.97

What about latest release

Yes. I have tried the latest release, but the bug still exist.

Try alternative boot mode

Yes. I have tried them, but the bug still exist.

BIOS Mode

Legacy BIOS Mode

Partition Style

MBR

Disk Capacity

3TB

Disk Manufacturer

Western Digital

Image file checksum (if applicable)

None

Image file download link (if applicable)

No response

What happened?

I have an external 3TB HDD (WD Elements 107C), the disk is currently MBR and fully usable, when i try to install ventoy i get an error message that i have to use GPT on >2TB disk, which i dont want, i want it to be able to boot on older systems with only legacy Bios. How can i bypass the 2TB restrioction?

[steve6375]

Max volume size for MBR partitions is 2.2TB https://www.pcworld.com/article/486966/everything-you-need-to-know-about-3tb-hard-drives.html So Ventoy cannot make a 3TB first partition using MBR and nor can anything else!

[vasilislam]

I am currently using this disk and its MBR.. with its full capacity available.

[vasilislam]

[steve6375]

Can you run RMPREPUSB.exe and do a Drive Info command and show the output here?

[vasilislam]

[steve6375]

Is it a 4k bytes/sector drive? You cannot legacy boot from a 4k sector drive. Only standard 512 bytes/sector drives are legacy bootable.

[vasilislam]

Can i have ventoy installed on a flashdrive and boot the iso files from this disk? Is it possible with this 4k byte/sector drive?

[steve6375]

No - a legacy BIOS cannot access or boot from a 4K bytes/sector drive. The legacy BIOS expects a disk sector to have 512 bytes and the BIOS cannot read a sector of a 4k bytes/sector drive at all. So even if Ventoy could be placed on a 4k bytes/sector disk, it would not be able to legacy boot at all. If you put Ventoy on a 512bytes/sector USB flash drive, grub2 would not be able to access a 4k drive as it would use the BIOS to access any disk.

[vasilislam]

I cannot install ventoy even with GPT selected? (for UEFI use)

[steve6375]

Ventoy does not allow it because legacy booting would not work on such a drive.

[vasilislam]

I want only uefi booting, still bot possible?

[steve6375]

Possible, but not supported by Ventoy or Ventoy developer. Sorry. 4K drives are not supported - it has been asked for several times and the developer is not willing to spend the many many hours of extra resource to develop the code, modify all the current existing code, test all the new code and release all the new code. I don't blame him!