Just taken delivery of a Toshiba 3Tb SATA III hard drive. Plugged it in, but my WIndows 7 64-bit Pro, Asus Z87-A motherboard, is only recognising it as a 746Gb drive. Any ideas, please, as to how I can get Windows 7 to recognise and initialise the whole disk, albeit with the normal architecture limitations?

 

Thanks in advance.

Hi Rick,

 

Did you right click on "My Computer" - select "Manage" - then "Disk Management" ??? Does it show any un-partitioned space ??? OMG - if you have to format - LOL - it will probably take a week on something so large... If unsure - maybe a pix of the "Disk Management" screen would help...

 

Regards,
Scott

Rick,

 

if you have Acronis True Image (even a limited edition would do), you can initialize the new drive from there (just search the ATI manual for 'initiali').

Hi Scott

 

Thanks for your swift response.

 

Using Windows Disk Management it just shows 746Gb. Yet an earlier installation of a Western Digital 1Tb disk has been successfully initialised and shows up as a 931Gb drive, which is the norm.

 

I've just downloaded a freeware EaseUS Partition Manager and it too is only showing 746Gb, or maybe dumbo me has no idea how to use it correctly to partition that 3Tb drive. My Asus mobo BIOS is dated 6/3/2104 and is the latest, so I'm left scratching my head as to what else I need to do.

 

 

Rick,

 

if you have Acronis True Image (even a limited edition would do), you can initialize the new drive from there (just search the ATI manual for 'initiali').

Hello Oliver

 

Thanks for your input. yes, I do have a paid version of Acronis True Image, so I'll give that a shot.

Hi Rick,

 

Hmm - yeah - while I'm pretty savvy on PC stuff - I have never installed a drive in a PC larger than 1TB... It's really hard to know someone's skill level - so I'm just making sure - in Disk Manager - the disk in question goes from full left to full right of the screen - indicates 746GB - - - and there is no "unallocated" space to the right - correct ???

 

Regards,
Scott

Good news to report.

 

Thanks to Oliver's kind suggestion, I managed to use Acronis True Image. But the main reason it would not initialise was because I was trying to connect it to my computer via a USB dock. Once I had fitted the drive in a spare bay in my Antec 900/2 case, then enabled the SATA interface in the BIOS, using ATI was then a piece of cake.

 

Now I have a 2.79Tb back-up drive for my shedload of sim-related and photographic files.

 

Thanks for all the help, you two gents.

Rick, just curious here. Now that its initialized through the system will it see full capacity through the USB dock? It should...Is it USB 2 or 3? I wouldn't think that would matter though. Glad everything is working for you.

Rick, just curious here. Now that its initialized through the system will it see full capacity through the USB dock? It should...Is it USB 2 or 3? I wouldn't think that would matter though. Glad everything is working for you.

Just replied to you in another thread. I had so much hassles disconnecting everything in the Antec 900/2 case just to fit that 3Tb hard drive, that the thought of taking it out and then trying via the USB 3.0 docking station was more than I could contemplate, so have left it where it is. In situ. As a back-up drive.