Will RST accomplish what I need?

[TCulv]

Hello,

Just learned about RST, which apparently solved another guy's storage capacity access problem. Will it solve mine?

I have an HP xw4400 Workstation with XP Pro. I recently tried to enhance my hard storage by installing two 4TB SATA drives. Unfortunately, the OS can only "see" a little more that 1TB on each drive.

In initial research I did, I believe the solution was to upgrade to Win7 or higher in order for the OS to see all the volume.

Someone else I knew had this same problem and reported that he solved it by installing RST (v10.1.0.1008). Does it sound like this may solve my problem? (I do not have RAID.)

(I note that RST is now v15.8.1.1007)

Any help or advice is appreciated.

[AlHill]

You really cannot do anything until you get off of XP.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2581408/windows-support-for-hard-disks-that-are-larger-than-2-tb https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2581408/windows-support-for-hard-disks-that-are-larger-than-2-tb

Consider Windows 10, or Windows 7 at a minimum. You do not need RST to support larger drives, You just need to get off of XP.

Doc

[TCulv]

Thanks for your response, Al. Something told me this was too good to be true. You sort of take me back to my earlier research on this topic, where I came up with the same conclusion. Further, in looking closer at the thread where that guy reported "success" with RST for a similar problem, I note that he had Win7 on his machine.

When I can. I think I'll upgrade to Win10 and hope that most of my "XP apps" will be forward compatible.

Cheers.

Tom

[AlHill]

There are many reasons to get off of XP. As far as upgrading to W10, or W7, just make certain you have a good backup of your data, and programs, and any other install media you need.

Now, for the hardware, you will find that it will also require upgrading. It is unlikely that your processor (and Intel graphics if you have it) will be supported on Windows 10. And,. it is unlikely that your motherboard supports AHCI or any current SATA. So, I recommend a new machine that comes with Windows 10.

If you require some graphics power, I recommend you consider nvidia or amd-based add-on graphics cards, despite the intel graphics the CPU will provide. You will be glad you did.

The longer you delay this, the worse it will get, so upgrade your hardware and OS now, and then enjoy the larger storage available, as well as many other features and security.

Doc

[TCulv]

An afterthought:

In the system I described earlier (XP Pro) in which I installed two internal 4TB drives but could only see 1.6TB on each, I attached a 4TB external drive (WD My Book) via USB and - surprisingly - it saw all that volume! What's the difference?

[AlHill]

Did you install the WD software that came with the drive?

So, it works, and at a significantly lower speed.

Look, it makes no sense to stay on XP. You are only going to fall further and further behind. XP is 15 years old. How old is your cell phone and when was the last time you updated/replaced it?

Doc

[TCulv]

No, I installed no special software.

And Doc - I totally get your point about XP; you're preaching to the choir. In fact, I already said "When I can. I think I'll upgrade to Win10 ..." (Actually, I plan to install Win7 Pro.)

I was simply reporting an observation that seemed counter to the discussion here about the 2TB limit w/ XP, in an effort to perhaps learn something interesting about memory access (and why/how the external drive's memory was accessible). That was my only objective.

[AlHill]

No problem. It is just that many people wait so long to upgrade, or never upgrade. I know people that are still on Windows 98. The problems that I see is a huge security risk, and loss of data since most people have no backup. And, if their system suffers a hardware failure, the recovery can be costly. So, I am a huge fan of staying updated with hardware and software. And, I do tend to preach. My biggest complaint is about backups.

Over the years, I have learned to simply discard devices and hardware that are "working perfectly fine". In the end, if gives me more time to play with my system(s) rather than trying to make them work. In many cases, you can "make" it work. But, take a look at the time and effort in doing so. Time much better spent elsewhere.

But, there I go preaching again.

Doc