Converting MBR to GPT during Windows Server 2012 Setup OR using more than 2TB of space on your server

Was recently tasked with setting up a number of Dell servers that had a large on board storage array (16TB RAID 6), but after Windows 2012 R2 was installed I noticed I only had 2TB of available space! I tried a number of things in the Disk Management snap-in, but nothing I would do would enlarge the partition. After some Googling, I realized that it was because my RAID volume was formatted as MBR, not GPT.

After more research I realized there was no way to modify the disk after an install and I had no option other than to repave the box (fortunately I hadn't done much on the install).

Below are the steps I used to convert the MBR to GPT, ready to install my OS.

1. Changed BIOS to UEFI (this took forever for me to figure out. UEFI is tied to GPT and even though when booting to BIOS, it will let you convert a disk to GPT, it won't stay that way during the install)
2. Start the Windows Server (or other OS) install, but get to a command line (in Server 2012, choose the option to repair an existing installation > command line)
3. Enter the following commands
1. DISKPART
2. LIST DISK
3. SELECT DISK 0 (make sure that's the disk you want to convert)
4. CLEAN
5. EXIT
6. DISKPART
7. LIST DISK
8. SELECT DISK 0
9. CONVERT GPT
10. EXIT
4. Proceed with your installation (for Windows Server, at this point, the installation window has disappeared. No worries, just cd .. up a directory, and then type setup.exe to start the setup again.

After this, you will be able to use all of your disk space. 

Resources;

http://www.howtogeek.com/193669/whats-the-difference-between-gpt-and-mbr-when-partitioning-a-drive/
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc738416(v=ws.10).aspx

Active Directory clients and server not synchronizing time (In a Hyper-V environment)

I had a problem with the Active Directory servers and clients I was setting up from scratch. They would not keep time and were constantly 5-6 minutes slow. I would reset the Primary Domain Controller clock (PDC) to correct time, then wait for the time to sync down to clients but it would fall back to being slow again. I was doing a lot of troubleshooting with w32tm but really getting nowhere - until I found this post and realized the problem was due to virtual machines losing time.

All clients were synching to the PDC, but the PDC was synching to the Hyper-V host, which had inaccurate time. Even when I manually changed the time source on our PDC using the command below, it did not work because the PDC quickly reverted to synching to the Hyper-V host machine.

PS C:\Users\Administrator> w32tm /config /syncfromflags:manual /manualpeerlist:"0.pool.ntp.org"

A few moments later

PS C:\Users\Administrator> w32tm /query /source VM IC Time Synchronization Provider

The solution was to manually change the time source on the Hyper-V host

PS C:\Users\Administrator> w32tm /config /syncfromflags:manual /manualpeerlist:"0.pool.ntp.org"
PS C:\Users\administrator.TDG> net stop w32time
The Windows Time service is stopping.
The Windows Time service was stopped successfully.

PS C:\Users\administrator.TDG> net start w32time
The Windows Time service is starting.
The Windows Time service was started successfully.

PS C:\Users\administrator.TDG> w32tm /resync
Sending resync command to local computer
The command completed successfully.
PS C:\Users\administrator.TDG> w32tm /query /source
0.pool.ntp.org

Once this is done, go back to the guest PDC and run a resync

PS C:\Users\Administrator> w32tm /resync
Sending resync command to local computer
The command completed successfully.
PS C:\Users\Administrator> w32tm /query /source
VM IC Time Synchronization Provider

Without prompting a manual resync, the corrected time may be delayed in propagating across your domain.