3TB Seagate showing olny 746GB????

[muujig612]

Hello guys

I bought a 3TB HDD. Seagate Barracuda XT. When hooked it up to the computer it only recognizes 746GB of 3TB, which is unacceptable.

Please help,

My PC Spec

Fujitsu Siemens

G31 Mobo

E7200 C2D

160GB HDD

3TB HDD

Radeon HD 4850

Any answer appreciated

 

[Dangi]

Wich version of windows you have??

Also, did you format and select NTFS ??

 

[muujig612]

I have windows XP 32 bit version. and I didn't format it, I just hooked it up and tried to do everything from Windows.

Using the computer management

 

[Hawkeye22]

Your bios has to support large drives and you need to partition the drive as GPT instead of MBR. Windows 7 can boot from > 2TB drives as long as your motherboard supports EUFI and the drive is partitioned as GPT.

Make sure your bios is up to date too.

 

[Hawkeye22]

I have windows XP 32 bit version. and I didn't format it, I just hooked it up and tried to do everything from Windows.

Using the computer management

XP doesn't support GPT thus you need to partition the drive. You can make a 2TB psartition and a 1 TB partition on the drive.

Q. Can the 32-bit version of Windows XP read, write, and boot from GPT disks?

A. No. The 32-bit version will see only the Protective MBR. The EE partition will not be mounted or otherwise exposed to application software.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/gg463525.aspx

 

[muujig612]

I'm not trying to boot from this HDD

I'm gonna use it for storage only, no software will be installed on this thing

and right now I can't figure how to update my bios as the files I downloaded from Fujitsu Siemens are not working

My PC is Fujitsu Siemens Esprimo P3510 MI3W D2750

I'm starting to wonder if my board can support this HDD cause it's a G31 board

 

[Hawkeye22]

It doesn't matter if it's just storage, it must still be partitioned as GPT in order to see the full 3TB. Since XP doesn't support GPT, it will only see the hidden MBR block within the GPT partition thus restricting you to 2TB or less partitions.

If your motherboard doesn't support large drives than GPT makes no difference. I found the specs online and it uses a phoenix bios V6. This should support large drives. I think XP is holding it back.

 

[muujig612]

Thank you very mucho!

Going to Install Windows 7 and see if makes any difference!

 

[Iluv2raceit]

Hawkeye is correct. Windows XP 32-bit will not be able to access beyond 2TB on a GUID Partition Table (GPT) formatted drive. You will need to reformat the drive using Windows XP and select the "Format using GPT" option in order to access the 2TB (of the the 3TB availalbe). Your other best option (and most recommended) is to just go out and buy Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. No one in their right mind would run XP anymore! Just saying

 

[muujig612]

I love XP, it's just the perfect OS, why? cause I can tweak the shiiit out of it hehehehe but I guess it's become too old so sad!
DAMN that GPT and MBR difference!
I guess XP just wasn't built for it

 

[muujig612]

hardware and bios wise

AS LONG AS I'M not booting from the 3TB HDD, my g31 motherboard and it's lame old BIOS should be ok with 3TB HDD as another storage device right?

 

[muujig612]

Solved my own problem!

I have a 3TB Seagate Barracuda HDD,

And the problem was solved by downloading and installing Seagate DiskWizzard.

Which is a free software downloadable from seagate website.

What do you know huh? Now I got 1 2TB HDD and 1 746GB HDD partitions working perfectly on a Windows XP 32-bit OS.

 

[Hawkeye22]

No one said you couldn't use the 3TB drive, we only said you are restricted to 2TB partitons. I assumed you would just create 2 partitions on the drive, as you finally did. Glad it's working for you.

 

[muujig612]

Best answer selected by muujig612.