New WDB 5tb only shows 561gb

cobonthecorn

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Jul 28, 2016
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I just bought a new secondary hard drive and tried installing it today, as far as I know the physical installation was fine, but the disk manager only recognizes the drive as 561gb (I had first initialized as MBR, then swapped it to GTP here). I had searched the issue and found people recommending updating Intel rapid storage technology (RST). After installing the programs and restarting comp the program gave an error and failed to start. I tried repairing through the installer, to the same effect, and then attempted to uninstall and try again. At this point the installer now says my platform is not supported, which never showed before. So I'm left wondering how to fix the Intel issue, or if it is necessary in properly installing and partitioning the drive. Any and all help would be appreciated.


OS is win 7 64. Please let me know if there is any more pertinent information I can give!
 
Solution
I see. Well at least the tests are a good sign. I'd also recommend that you perform a low level format via DLG. Here's how to do it: How to low level format or write zeros (full erase) to a WD hard drive or Solid State drive. Go with Full Erase, but note that it will probably take several hours to complete.
Once the process is completed, you should initialize the drive before you're able to partition and format it. Here's how to do that: How to initialize or write a signature to a secondary hard drive or Solid State drive in Windows (make sure that you use GPT instead of MBR when you initialize the drive) & How to partition and format a WD drive on Windows and Mac OSX.

Let me know if this fixes things up with the...
Hey there, cobonthecorn.

Sorry to hear about the issues you're having with your HDD.

Is that a WD drive? If it is would you please write it's full model or at least what type of drive it is? Did the drive always appear as a 561GB HDD? Would you be so kind as to post a screenshot of what you see in Disk Management about the HDD?

If it is a WD drive, I'd recommend that you download DLG (Data Lifeguard) and run both tests (Quick and Extended), to see if the same thing happens: How to test a drive for problems using Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for Windows. You should also give it a try with a different computer and a different USB cable if it's an external drive, or different SATA cables and port if it's an internal one, to see if the issue still persists.

Please let me know how everything goes.
Boogieman_WD
 

cobonthecorn

Commendable
Jul 28, 2016
5
0
1,510

cobonthecorn

Commendable
Jul 28, 2016
5
0
1,510
So I ran DLG, which showed 5000gb on the drive, and it passed both quick and extended tests. Should I start trying to figure out what is causing issues with the windows disk manager now?
 
I see. Well at least the tests are a good sign. I'd also recommend that you perform a low level format via DLG. Here's how to do it: How to low level format or write zeros (full erase) to a WD hard drive or Solid State drive. Go with Full Erase, but note that it will probably take several hours to complete.
Once the process is completed, you should initialize the drive before you're able to partition and format it. Here's how to do that: How to initialize or write a signature to a secondary hard drive or Solid State drive in Windows (make sure that you use GPT instead of MBR when you initialize the drive) & How to partition and format a WD drive on Windows and Mac OSX.

Let me know if this fixes things up with the drive's capacity. Give it a try with a different computer as well, if possible.
 
Solution

cobonthecorn

Commendable
Jul 28, 2016
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1,510
Forgive me, I accidentally clicked best solution to your last post, I am now back where I started, with the drive still only showing 560 gb in disk manager. I wrote zeroes to the entirety of drive (taking around 8 hours), and reinitialized according to the linked instructions (the same process I had initially tried, except I had initialized as MBR and then had it swapped to GTP). The result was the same, with the disk manager showing 560gb free on the drive, now, as before, if I attempt to create a new partition, only those 560 gb are available.

I will try the drive out in my other tower, running home version of vista, though the fact that the DLG diagnostics shows the drive as healthy, with the full capacity, suggests to me the issue lies in the drivers.

What can I start to do on this computer to ensure the drive can be properly installed and partitioned?

Thanks for all the help thusfar (and I like your avatar too) ;)

 

cobonthecorn

Commendable
Jul 28, 2016
5
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1,510
Okay, after a little digging around and reading more forums, I found what I beleive is the last supported version of RST from this motherboard. After installing it RST shows the new drive as 4.5 tb and windows disk manager shows it as ~4.7. This is quite acceptable, though I am now perplexed, why could the two programs skimming off a little bit from the total storage?
Is it simply this sort of thing?
http://www.howtogeek.com/123268/windows-hard-drive-wrong-capacity/
and why might RST show 100 GB less?

Anyhow, after accounting for that, what is shown in the disk manager is pretty much up to snuff. Thanks for all the help, DLG seems like a great utility to have around!
 

xen111

Commendable
Jul 29, 2016
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1,640
Well 5TB would indeed resolve to 5 x10^9 / 1024^3 = 4.66 "real" terabytes. So apparently disk manager shows the real number. I do not know about RST. Perchance it doesn't show the full size? But something slightly different?
 
xen111 is correct. However the RSTmight be rounding down for some reason. I assume that if Disk Management is showing the correct storage capacity, everything should be OK. Here's some more info on the subject of how's the capacity calculated (including a table with the most common capacities): Drive displays a smaller capacity than the indicated size on the drive label

Also, great job on finding out the solution! :)