Scenario
This topic uses Windows Server 2012 Standard 64-bit Chinese Edition as an example to describe how to initialize a data disk with a capacity greater than 2 TB on Windows. When the capacity is greater than 2 TB, you must use a GPT partition for disk partitioning.
Before You Begin
The data disk mounted to the physical server or local data disk of the physical server has not been initialized.
Operation Steps
If the capacity of the data disk is greater than 2 TB, initialize the Windows-based data disk in two steps as follows:
l Log in to the physical server.
l Initialize the disk: Initialize the disk as instructed on the screen. If the capacity of the data disk is greater than 2 TB, select GPT (GUID Partition Table) as the partition form.
Logging in to a Physical Server
1. Log in to the console.
2. Click 
in the upper left corner of the console and select a region. In this topic, Hong Kong 2 is selected.
3. Go to Computing > Physical Server Service to go to the physical server list page.
4. Locate the row that contains the physical server for which the data disk is to be initialized, and in the Operation column, click Remote Login to log in to the physical server. For more information, see Logging in to Windows-based Physical Server.
Initializing Disk (GPT Partition)
1. After successful login, click the Start icon and select Server Manager in the pop-up menu. You will be directed to the Server Manager > Dashboard window.
2. On this page, click Tools in the upper right corner and select Computer Management from the drop-down menu bar.
3. In the left-side navigation pane on the Computer Management page, go to Storage > Disk Management to go to the Disk Management page.
In the disk area, there are two disks: disk 0 and disk 1. Disk 1 has a capacity of 3000 GB, greater than 2 TB and is in offline state. You can right-click and choose Online from the menu list to make the disk go online. Then, the disk status changes from Offline to Not Initialized.
4. Right-click the disk 1 area and choose Initialize Disk from the shortcut menu to initialize the disk.
5. The Initialize Disk dialog box displays a mounted disk that you want to initialize, that is, disk 1. Select GPT (GUID Partition Table) and click OK, as shown in the figure.
6. Right-click the unallocated capacity area of disk 1 and choose New Simple Volume, as shown in the following figure:
7. In the New Simple Volume Wizard window that appears, click Next as instructed on the screen.
8. You can specify the volume size as required (we recommend that you calculate the capacity of the disk partition before initialization). The default value is the maximum value. Click Next.
9. On the Assign Drive Letter or Path page, check Assign the following drive letter, and then, click Next.
10. In the Format Partition window, check Format this volume with the following settings, set parameters as required, format the new partition. Here, use the defaults. Then, click Next to go to the Finish page.
11. Click Finish and wait for the system to finish the initialization. If the volume status changes to Healthy, the disk is successfully initialized.
12. To verify the initialization, you can return to the desktop. Click the File Manager icon in the taskbar below to open the file manager to check whether Volume E is created successfully, as shown in the figure. When Volume E exists, the disk is initialized.
