Normally I don't post myself I usually find what I need via other's threads so I'm sorry if any of this is in the wrong place or improperly formatted. I've never done this before really.
So here's the story:
I recently bought a 4TB internal WD Black HDD from amazon.com for my Windows 7 x64 bit system. Though apparently it's more complicated than other drives. So I plug it into the system via the psu & sata cables as usual, no issues. I boot the computer everything goes fine, drivers install etc. Then I noticed it doesn't show up in windows explorer. So I go to google, find out it has to be initialized, no biggie. I pull up disk management and find that it shows it in the bottom as unallocated but it's only showing 1677 gb. This is strange to me so I investigate further. Almost ever post I saw says it needs to be in gpt partitions for you to be able to access the full 4TB. So I follow the directions, right click in the DM and change it to GPT. Literally, nothing happens/changes, still 1677gb. Soooo, I investigate again, everything keeps saying GPT should fix it. So I keep looking FINALLY find one that says to check what the BIOS says, when I check that BIOS says it's 1.8TB drive, though AHCI wasn't enabled. So I enable it hoping it changes something, it doesn't seem to do anything. When it boots, still says 1677gb. One forum post says if the BIOS sees it as less than capacity the BIOS is too dated to recognize past 2TB so I check for BIOS updates praying that it will fix it but according to HP my BIOS are up to date cause it found no updates for my system.
NOTE: I don't mind doing multiple partitions. I "intended" to make this the boot drive but with all the complications I'd settle for it simply working at full capacity. So partitions are fine I just can't get the SYSTEM to see the full 4TB soooo....
So here's my questions:
1) Is there anything else I can do to get it to recognize the full 4TB or because the BIOS won't see it is it going to stay that way as I'm beginning to think?
2) Were I to send the internal drive back to amazon & purchase a 4TB EXTERNAL, like this one: amazon 4TB External. Would this be able to work at the full capacity or am I going to run into the same problem due to the BIOS?
As I've said, I've done a TON of reading in forums but no one has seemed to post this specific situation only similar ones so I felt the only way to get a direct answer would be to write my own. So I'd appreciate ANY and all help or advice anyone can give. Thanks.
So here's the story:
I recently bought a 4TB internal WD Black HDD from amazon.com for my Windows 7 x64 bit system. Though apparently it's more complicated than other drives. So I plug it into the system via the psu & sata cables as usual, no issues. I boot the computer everything goes fine, drivers install etc. Then I noticed it doesn't show up in windows explorer. So I go to google, find out it has to be initialized, no biggie. I pull up disk management and find that it shows it in the bottom as unallocated but it's only showing 1677 gb. This is strange to me so I investigate further. Almost ever post I saw says it needs to be in gpt partitions for you to be able to access the full 4TB. So I follow the directions, right click in the DM and change it to GPT. Literally, nothing happens/changes, still 1677gb. Soooo, I investigate again, everything keeps saying GPT should fix it. So I keep looking FINALLY find one that says to check what the BIOS says, when I check that BIOS says it's 1.8TB drive, though AHCI wasn't enabled. So I enable it hoping it changes something, it doesn't seem to do anything. When it boots, still says 1677gb. One forum post says if the BIOS sees it as less than capacity the BIOS is too dated to recognize past 2TB so I check for BIOS updates praying that it will fix it but according to HP my BIOS are up to date cause it found no updates for my system.
NOTE: I don't mind doing multiple partitions. I "intended" to make this the boot drive but with all the complications I'd settle for it simply working at full capacity. So partitions are fine I just can't get the SYSTEM to see the full 4TB soooo....
So here's my questions:
1) Is there anything else I can do to get it to recognize the full 4TB or because the BIOS won't see it is it going to stay that way as I'm beginning to think?
2) Were I to send the internal drive back to amazon & purchase a 4TB EXTERNAL, like this one: amazon 4TB External. Would this be able to work at the full capacity or am I going to run into the same problem due to the BIOS?
As I've said, I've done a TON of reading in forums but no one has seemed to post this specific situation only similar ones so I felt the only way to get a direct answer would be to write my own. So I'd appreciate ANY and all help or advice anyone can give. Thanks.