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Dell optiplex 780
I was looking at turning a older dell intel computer into a NAS and was wondering if it will support a 3 or 4tb hard drive. Emailed dell about this, and they sent me this reply:
good day to you. The 780 would be having the same limitation in size that come with the storage format of NTFS. I checked on this unit and it appears that it does not support GPT.
So NTFS limits + amount of drives + amount of size for each drive.
Just need a bit of hepl classifying what this computer can handle for storage?
speedstep
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September 18th, 2017 10:00
2TB can only be changed with Driver or Host Bus Adapter Bios that "see's" the whole drive. 3TB drives will be seen as 750 Gig Drives. The Rocket Controller allows for Booting OR for using a drive as additional storage. You have to make a GPT partition to access the whole drive.
http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/beyond-2tb/
Western Digital Did this with a bundled controller. Its actually a 780 tower in the video.
Seagate does this with the Free Disk Tools Software for seagate drives.
Windows 7 and up Require INTEL RST Driver 10.1.0.1008 and AHCI
to install larger than 2TB on a 780. You cannot use the native driver in 10 on an older system like the 780 because as the versions go up from 10 to 15 they drop support for the older chipsets.
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/20104/
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2581408/
Tuck521
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September 18th, 2017 09:00
ok this makes total sense, thanks.
it is 2tb max even if its just an additional storage hard drive?
thanks
speedstep
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September 18th, 2017 09:00
"So NTFS limits + amount of drives + amount of size for each drive."
MBR NTFS limits the size of drives and or volumes to 2TB.
You must use GPT and a Mass Storage Controller with BIOS if your system does not have UEFI bios.
64 bit version of the OS is also required if you want to BOOT from the larger than 2TB drive.
Western Digital Bundled a Rocket 620 Host Bus Adapter for that purpose.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115072
http://www.highpoint-tech.com/PDF/RR600/HighPoint%20Product%20Support%20and%20Warranty%20Announcement%20for%20Rocket%20620-OEM%20SATA%20Host%20Bus%20Adapter.pdf