Installing Western Digital (WD30EZRX) 3 TB along with WD20EARX 2 TB...

[roshithbalu]

Hi guys,

First of all forgive me if this is an already discussed topic...

Today I have got a Western Digital Cavier Green 3 TB Drive (WD30EZRX).

My Boot drive is a Samsung 200 GB HDD (7200 RPM) and I already have a 2 TB WD Cavier Green (WD20EARX) installed in my system. And my OS is Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit.

I want to install this 3 TB into my current setup...

I'm aware that MBR has a storage limitation of 2.19 TB.

But my Mother Board is Asus M5A97 which has UEFI BIOS. I have learned that UEFI BIOS will support 3 TB Drives and I have to format in GPT Partition (Not clear about the concept yet) instead of MBR.

So my question is, how should I install this 3 TB HDD along with 200 GB and 2 TB...?

Can I simply connect and boot up..? Is there any compatability Issues.?

How do I format the Drive in GPT...? Or can Windows 7 detect the drive correctly..???


Please be specific guys... Waiting for your reply...

Have a nice day.

System Specs:
--------------------
Asus M5A97 MOBO

AMD FX-6100 3.8 Ghz Processor

Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 1 GB DDR5 GPU

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler

GSkill RipJawX 4 GB DDR3 1600 Mhz Ram

Samsung 200 GB 7200 RPM HDD + Western Digital 2 TB Cavier Green HDD

 

[zdbc13]

You should be able to connect and boot up just fine.

1 Click "Start" and type "cmd" in the "Search" box.

2 Right click "cmd." Select "Run as Administrator."

3 Type "diskpart.exe." Press "Enter." Type "list disk" and press "Enter."

4 Type "select x" and press "Enter," replacing "x" with the letter of the GPT partition. Type "clean" and press "Enter" to remove GPT protection.

5 Type "format x:" and press "Enter" to format the GPT partition.

Actually this is a better explanation:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297800

 

[Hawkeye22]

Why go old school command line?

1. Click start and right-click "computer. Select "manage".
2. Click on disk management in the left pane.
3. Find your 3TB drive, right click and select "initialize".
4. Select GPT when you are given the choice.
5. It should be pretty straight forward from here. Just follow the wizard.

Windows only requires a UEFI motherboard (plus GPT disk) if you are making the 3TB drive a boot drive, otherwise GPT is all that is needed for storage drives.

 

[zdbc13]

Much better idea, Hawkeye. I was a little drowsy this morning, mind in low gear....

 

[roshithbalu]

Best answer selected by roshithbalu.

 

[roshithbalu]

Thank you Hawkeye22 and zdbc13 for your replies...
I have followed Hawkeye's instructions and it worked like a breeze...

http://i50.tinypic.com/1zxruw3.jpg

Thanks buddies... Have a nice time...

 

[Hawkeye22]

Glad that was easy for you. You always need to "initialize" new drives before windows will see it and use it, otherwise the drive will show up in device manager and nowhere else.