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It is possible to install Windows Server 2008 R2 on a 3TB GPT hard drive on a Dell Vostro 260?

I know that hard drives must be GPT to recognize over 2TB so I formatted it GPT thinking I did everything correctly.

I have two 500GB partitions and the rest (1794MB) unallocated.

I wish to install 2008 to the first 500GB partition, keep the second partition for Linux (I may or may not install depending on how 2008 is) and partition the rest for data later.

But when I went to install to my partition it says it cannot be installed to GPT.

I tried to use Rufus to make a USB device but if I select GPT and use my ISO I get an error, do you need a special version of Windows for GPT?

error

I can format the flash drive as NTFS and boot it, but I get the same problem it telling me I cannot install to a GPT partition style drive.

While researching about UEFI I found this BIOS mod and installed it.

https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-Dell-Insprion-620-Vostro-260-AHCI-request?page=2

Rufus Config

user324747
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1 Answers1

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I was able to install Linux to this hard drive and boot from it.

It told me to make a biosboot partition and that there wasn't enough space to install grub (Guess 3TB isn't enough) so I installed the bootloader to my current Windows 7 boot hard drive.

LinuxInstallGPT

I still would like to install Windows 2008 but I am not sure if that is possible. But I know that any posts that claim it's a hardware limitation and not Windows are wrong.

EDIT: May 30, 2020: I was thinking about this question today and still never fully looked into this. Ironic today I seen this question pop up whose answers may contain beneficial information: Can a bios based windows 10 system access gpt disk drive?

user324747
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