Any USB Hard Drive up to 2TB can be used directly except if:

• It is using GPT partition style. See How to know if my USB Drive is using GPT or MBR partition style.

• AND your computer is using BIOS / Legacy. See How to know if my computer is using UEFI or BIOS (legacy).

Note: In this specific situation you will have to convert your USB Hard Drive to MBR partition style. Please follow step by step the instructions detailed in How to convert a GPT disk to MBR.

We don’t recommend using 3TB and more USB Hard Drives because of technical limitations but some scenario can be managed if you make some manual operations depending if your computer is using BIOS / legacy or UEFI. See How to know if my computer is using UEFI or BIOS (legacy).

• If your computer is using BIOS / legacy, it’s it not possible to make your USB Hard Drives of 3TB or more bootable and so they cannot be used as Recovery Media.

• If your computer is using UEFI, your USB Hard Drive required to use GPT partition style in order to ensure it will be usable as Recovery Media. See How to know if my USB Drive is using GPT or MBR partition style.

• If your drive is using MBR partition style please follow the step by step instructions detailed in How to convert a MBR disk to GPT.

• If your drive is already using GPT partition style, you have to ensure it is not formatted with exFAT file system. Please follow steps 1 to 3 from How to convert a drive from exFAT to NTFS file system. At the step 3 you will know if your drive is formatted with exFAT file system and if it’s the case you can continue with the next steps.

Note: All the methods to make your drive usable as Recovery Media will erase its contents so please ensure that you have no data to keep or else please back up them before.

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