Replacing a WD Elements 5 TB with a smaller HDD

[JJBoy1]

Hi,

I have recently purchased a 5 TB WD Elements, with a Green drive inside. I used the 5TB as an internal HDD on my desktop, and put a Hitachi 1TB insde the WD enclosure.

When I connected my WD onto my USB port, Windows 8 recognized the HDD and asked to format my drive right away. However, after the procedure, Windows still recognized the drive as a 5TB...

How can I truly convert my "new" external HDD to the correct size?

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey there, JJBoy1.

Basically this can't be done correctly, unless the new drive's model matches the old one. It's a pretty long shot, but you could take a look at this thread here: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/259322-32-book-essential-hard-disk-swap. Here are some offered solutions on how to try and make the enclosure work with a different drive, but note that this is not a WD guide and there are no guarantees that this would work for you.

Hope that helps.
Boogieman_WD