Windows not Recognizing full 4Tb SSD/HD Hybrid Drive ( SOLVED )
Anyone know of an easy fix?
Thursday, September 24, 2015 by AceMatrix | Discussion: Personal Computing
I just recently purchased a 4Tb SSD/HD Hybrid drive. It's the best of both worlds in terms of speed and capacity. The only problem is that Windows 7 64bit does not register higher than 2Tb on a hard drive. I've Googled for answers but the posts are old and most of the solutions I found were either too confusing or they simply did not work for me. Does anyone have any experience with this issue or know of a fix that is easy to apply to resolve this issue? Any help would be tremendously appreciated. Thank-you. -- ACE --
P.S. - By the way, I do have the drive installed and it is working beautifully, the only problem is that I have an extra 2Tb of space on the drive that Windows does not see. (just a clarification)
Reply #2 Thursday, September 24, 2015 6:57 PM
look at the software and manual the drive comes with.. usually something there.
eg
http://www.seagate.com/gb/en/support/downloads/beyond-2tb/
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-performance/i-have-a-3-tb-drive-windows-7-ultimate-wont-format/b1cc3811-f25f-e011-8dfc-68b599b31bf5?auth=1
Reply #3 Thursday, September 24, 2015 7:01 PM
From the above MS Forum thread:
- A computer using Windows Vista or later (Windows XP isn't compatible with GPT formatted disks, so it can't see them)
- A sata controller that is compatible (to find out if it is compatible, find out what motherboard or add-on board SATA controller you have and google it-e.g. Intel ICH8 3TB )
- A drive that is larger than 2.19 TB
Reply #5 Thursday, September 24, 2015 10:05 PM
Thank-you all for assisting me. I will try all the suggestions posted here and update this post as to my results. So much work to do ,so little time.... -- Ace ---
Reply #6 Friday, September 25, 2015 8:49 PM
O.K. , I'm finally finished fixing this issue. It has been a long and frustrating journey, full of missteps, but the results are in and I couldn't be happier. First let me just say that I had to incorporate all of your suggestions, and then some, to get this problem fixed, so once again I want to say thank you to everyone who has responded. I made all the necessary changes in the bios ( thank-you harpo ) and with the information gained from the posted links (thank-you Jim & alaknebs) I discovered that I don't have the required UEFI Bios that is needed to allow use of a larger than 2TB HD. UEFI compatible motherboards have only been available since 2011. My motherboard is dated from 2008.(guess I need a motherboard upgrade in my things to do list). Thankfully Seagate offers a free DiscWizard software solution for the problem. It takes the unseen volume and creates a virtual drive that has the same capacity as the unseen volume. In the Computer folder it appears just like a separate physical drive even though its part of the same drive. So now , as it appears in the Computer folder, I have 2 x 2TB drives instead of just 1 x 4 TB drive. This is actually much better for me in terms of organization of stored data. I couldn't be happier with the results. Once again, thank-you everyone for your wonderful assistance . Now I'm off to get some much needed sleep, this has been a lot of work...LOL ! -- Ace --
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Reply #1 Thursday, September 24, 2015 5:28 PM
did you set the BIOS to use ahci mode or is it still in ide mode?
another thought is the drive still in MBR mode or gpt mode (settings in windows partitioning) the gpt should allow partition sizes beyond 2tb while mbr does not
HarPo the GhOSt NON-subscriber