3tb drive reading as 746.39gb on windows 7 pro

[MysterioMask]

I just got a 3tb drive and put it into this machine. But its only showing up as 746.39gb. The machine is running windows 7 pro, but it was upgraded from xp. I do not need it to be a bootable or system drive. I just need it more or less for storage as there will be a lot of video files recorded and saved on the drive.

Is there a way to make the system read the whole drive without reinstalling the operating system. Or id be fine with splitting the drive into a 2 tb and 1 tb or three 1tb drives if that's easier to do. But once again without reinstalling the operating system.

Or is it easier to take it back and just get a 2tb or few 1tb drives?

 

[St1ckM4n]

Launch Disk Management, format the partitions there.

 

[MysterioMask]

Launch Disk Management, format the partitions there.

Uhh yeah, the problem is it only shows as 746gb for the entire drive.

 

[LinkedKube]

I remember something about disk drives larger than 2tbs can only be fully utilized with win 7 or higher. Too lazy to find it, do a google search.

 

[St1ckM4n]

Yeah, he has Win7 Pro. Also that was relating more to boot disks, as the HDD manufacturers actually 'tricked' the OS into thinking it was a multi-disk partition.


MysterioMask: so you're saying when you delete all partitions, then try and format, the available capacity is still only 750GB?

Also, do this (taken from here):

Right-click My Computer -> Manage -> Storage -> Disk Management -> find disk that you want to convert -> delete all partitions and volumes (you will lose all data on the drive) -> right click on the disk itself (to the left of where the partitions are) -> Convert to GPT Disk

 

[slh28]

For hard drive above 2TB on Windows 7 you need to run some software. See the Seagate guide here:
http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/beyond-2tb/

Not sure if this is different for other manufacturers but it's a well known issue.

 

[MysterioMask]

I didn't feel like dealing with the headache so I just returned it and got smaller ones and raided them together.

 

[St1ckM4n]

Keep in mind that your chance of failure on RAID0 increases.

 

[Darth Shiv]

I thought older mobos also had issues with > 2TB drives as well? Needs to support GPT or something?

 

[misor]

If it's a Seagate/Maxtor hdd, download/install Seagate disc wizard for windows (or use bootable Seagate disc wizard cd edition) to initialize the new hdd.
the new hdd will be partitioned according to your preference (gpt, mbr).

or you can try to use mini tool partition wizard which also has a bootable cd edition.