Hard Drive Compatibility Question

[arsenal009]

Hey guys,

I'm interested in getting this hard drive:

HGST MegaScale 4000 HMS5C4040ALE640 - Hard drive - 4 TB - internal - 3.5" - SATA-600 - 5700 rpm - buffer: 64 MB
Here is a link: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7447368

Can someone please tell me if it's compatible with my motherboard, which is an Asus P5QL/EPU

Thanks

 

[Rookie_MIB]

Should be just fine, the only issues you may have is if you plan on using it as a primary boot drive which also depends on your OS. If you're using it as bulk storage only supplementing a SSD which holds the OS then theres no issues.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hi again.

Well, as @Rookie_MIB mentioned, you should have no issue with such a drive. I'd just like to add up to his answer a little bit. Check the user's manual of the motherboard or contact the manufacturer's customer support, to see if the SATA controller or the BIOS has any restrictions for larger than 2.2TB drives, just to be on the safe side. Otherwise, you can't use it as a boot drive as he has also mentioned.

Hope that helps.
Boogieman_WD

 

[arsenal009]

Hi again.

Well, as @Rookie_MIB mentioned, you should have no issue with such a drive. I'd just like to add up to his answer a little bit. Check the user's manual of the motherboard or contact the manufacturer's customer support, to see if the SATA controller or the BIOS has any restrictions for larger than 2.2TB drives, just to be on the safe side. Otherwise, you can't use it as a boot drive as he has also mentioned.

Hope that helps.
Boogieman_WD

Hey, so I checked the manual, & there is no mention of restrictions. BTW, I responded to you on the other thread, here is a link to it: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2813743/reliable-quiet-internal-hard-drive-suggestions.html#16712294

Can you please get back to me on it.

Thanks

 

[Rookie_MIB]

If it's a used drive, get a SMART readout on it. HGST makes some very reliable drives - apparently they're the only group who didn't suffer during the Thailand floodings which killed much of the capacity of the HDD manufacturers (which coincidentally led to a sudden uptick in bad drives especially for Seagate and to a lesser degree WD).

On the SMART readout, ANY reallocated sectors, uncorrectable pending sectors, do not buy the drive.

As for compatibility problems with using as a boot drive as related to the motherboard, it's not that you CAN'T use it as a boot drive, it's just you MIGHT have to go through partitioning gymnastics to use it. Here's what you need to figure out.

Is the mobo a UEFI or Legacy style BIOS?

If it's UEFI ONLY, you must use GPT partitioning AND you must use a 64bit OS if you want to use the entire drive as a single partition boot drive. If you don't want or care to use it as a single partition boot drive, you can use MBR to partition down to < 2TB partitions, and enable the 'Boot Legacy BIOS' which is usually in the firmware.

If it's a legacy style BIOS, you must use an MBR multi-partition setup, partition the primary boot partition down to <2TB, and you can use either 32 or 64bit OS.

And of course, as I mentioned, if it's a secondary drive (bulk storage) it doesn't matter one stitch as to BIOS, size, GPT/MBR partitions (although MBR partitions are limited to <2TB size restrictions unless you get creative with sector sizes and advanced formatting)