Re-initialize a 4.0TB drive?

[ninjayar]

Long story short, I bought two 4.0TB WD Black HDD to use as non-booting data-only drives. I formatted them internally as 4.0TB (GPT) but later decided to use one of them in an external USB/eSATA enclosure. Everything has been working fine for a couple of weeks now with automated nightly backups being written to the new external drive. Today, I noticed that the external drive appears as a 1.6TB drive. The other 4.0TB drive that's always been internal still says it's a 3726.02GB drive. Both are GPT.

I deleted the partition planning to start rebuilding the backups on a full size drive but Disk Management only sees 1678.02GB of unallocated space. I tried a SATA docking station that's built into my system case and connected to the Intel SATA controller on the motherboard. No change. I tried putting the drive inside the case. No change. I know I need to re-initialize the drive as 4.0TB GPT but I don't see that option in Disk Management or in AOMEI PartitionAssistant. How do I get back to 4.0TB of unallocated space?

The USB - external drive issue is still confusing. My system evidently supports 4.0TB drives but maybe not on USB. If I buy a proper enclosure, do I need to do anything to the BIOS to support >2TB drives or does the enclosure somehow handle that?

 

[ninjayar]

I fixed it but the fix raises more questions. The motherboard has two SATA controllers. The Intel controller has six ports and the Marvell controller has 2. The BIOS recognized the 4TB drive on the Intel controller, but Windows only saw it as 2TB. After "cleaning" the disk in diskpart, I connected the drive to the Marvell controller because that's where the other 4TB drive happened to be. Now, Windows sees both of the 4TB drives and I can proceed.

So if the BIOS saw the 4TB drive while it was attached to the Intel SATA controller, why would Windows not see it? When I moved it to the Marvell controller, why did Windows see it then?

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, ninjayar!

I'm glad to hear that you've resolved the partitioning and formatting problem with your other 4 TB WD Black.
As to why Windows might have trouble detecting it on either one of the controllers, could actually be an outdated SATA controller driver. I'd recommend you to update those from the motherboard manufacturer's website, rather than letting Windows Updates take care of them.
The OS has the tendency to install more generic drivers that are compatible with most hardware components, yet again they might not be truly up-to-date. That's why it's highly recommended to use the Manufacturer's hardware drivers.

Hope I was helpful.
Best of luck with your new WD Blacks & don't forget to backup your files!
SuperSoph_WD