3TB WD elements not recocognised by Multimedia Player , ( 2TB WD elements is recognised) ?

[traceyleef]

I have the Following :
- 2TB WD elements 10B8 (USB 3) NTFS : Partition Style: Master Boot Record (MBR)
- 3TB WD elements 25A2 (USB 3) NTFS : Partition Style: GUID Partition Table (GPT)

The 2TB works on all PC's & Sony Media Player
The 3TB works on all PC's But NOT the Sony Media Player

How do i fix this ? In windows the formatting option does not give you a choice to specify the Partition Style - is this the problem ?

 

[Zkye]

Most of the times there's nothing you can do about it. Check the manufacturer's website for the maximum supported external HDD capacity. Maybe they have a firmware update that will allow 2TB+.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Welcome to the community, @traceyleef!

I'd strongly recommend you follow @Zkye's advice and check if your Media player is compatible with larger external hard drives.
You could perform some troubleshooting but it would require you to backup all the data from the 3 TB WD Elements to the 2 TB one or another storage device/computer before proceeding with it. You could try reformatting the 3 TB WD Elements through Disk management on one of your PCs. This will give you the option to choose the partition style.
However, changing a 3 TB hard drive's partition table to MBR would limit the access to only 2.2 TB of the capacity. Unfortunately, Master Boot Record (MBR) is unable to support larger hard drives which is why the 3 TB uses GUID partition table (GPT). If you are interested, you can read about the difference between the two partition styles here.

Hope this was helpful. Keep us posted if you have more questions or concerns!
SuperSoph_WD