WD Sata 3 terabyte hard drive advice.

Discussion in 'Processors, Motherboards & Memory' started by CoopDeVille, Sep 22, 2011.

  1. CoopDeVille

    CoopDeVille Newbie

    I just bought the WD Caviar Green 3 terabyte hard drive I had to get the sata and what is it, p7 cables to hook it up. I got it hooked up and it ended up as a disk 0 and only 743.52G altogether. I called WD tech support and they had me format it then told me to contact the company that my motherboard was from. That is an Asus, I have a P5N-E SLI and I called them up and flashed my BIOS to try and get this damn thing to work and it still will not show that it is a 3 terabyte hard drive and I have run out of people to call except for windows... (I am running Vista). So just looking to see if I have any other options, WD didn't want to be at fault so they blamed my Motherboard and ASUS didn't have anything to do after they updated my Motherboard so BAHHH! Like a three day thing over here!!
     
  2. Chai

    Chai Administrator Staff Member

    Unfortunately, you have not done enough research on 3TB hard disk. It is a known fact that 3TB will not work correctly in older systems like the one you have.

    You can read some articles on most WD 3TB hard disk reviews as they have most likely covered the topic on how to get it working and the compatibility issue with OSes.
     
  3. zy

    zy zynine.com Staff Member

    WD Caviar Green
    -------------------------------
    Hard drives greater than 2 TB do not work on existing operating systems
     
  4. CoopDeVille

    CoopDeVille Newbie

    First dude, thanks for nothing. I am running 64 bit Vista and it should be working, 2nd dude thanks for the help. It didn't change anything but you were trying to be very helpful. Don't worry Admin nerd I will not be on the forum again, I hate when tech people enjoy being less than helpful!
     
  5. PsYkHoTiK

    PsYkHoTiK Admin nerd

    Sorry the world owed you something and you didn't get it.

    People are trying to help for free and you make it sound like they're being a drag on you (and calling them names). Did you try Best Buy/Geek Squad yet? Have fun with your non-working "but should be working" HDD! :wave:
     
  6. Chai

    Chai Administrator Staff Member

    Admin Nerd...Makes a good title!

    You blamed everyone other than yourself for making this mistake. You are trying to blame the manufacturer for buying the wrong product, it's like blaming the tyre manufacturer for buying a 15" tyre to fit into a 14" wheel.

    Thank you for not returning! Good luck finding help elsewhere.
     
  7. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    Seriously, that's pretty rude. They were trying to help you.

    We posted some articles and reviews on 3 TB hard disk drives and we always pointed out to our readers to be aware of the limitations. Most systems will NOT be able to access the full 3 TB. You can read about it here - Tech ARP - The 3 TB Hard Disk Drive Installation Guide Rev. 1.1
     
  8. zy

    zy zynine.com Staff Member

    PEBKAC.

    OP is demanding. :nuts: He is like a person trying to fill up a car that uses petrol/gas with diesel and expects it to work. :mrgreen:
     
  9. Chai

    Chai Administrator Staff Member

    "I hate when tech people enjoy being less than helpful!"

    I don't remember I have to face such problems in my life, because when I ask for help politely, and admitting mistakes, I will get the help needed in the end.
     
  10. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    I guess he was hoping that we would tell him how to make his motherboard access the full 3 TB even though that's technically impossible.
     
  11. Chai

    Chai Administrator Staff Member

    Not without paying more money.
     
  12. Falcone

    Falcone Official Mascot Creator

    I hate it when people don't do their homework, then blame everyone else for their own stupid mistake. Even when people were trying to be helpfull.

    Tell you what. Serves you right for spending that much for a paper weight.
     
  13. Chai

    Chai Administrator Staff Member

    Well said. :thumb:
     
  14. mikegas

    mikegas Newbie

    eh... nerd admin..lol... I didn't even get to give my 2cents..
     
  15. Chai

    Chai Administrator Staff Member

    I wanted to change my title to Admin Nerd, but my account is locked! :haha:

    You can donate your 2 cents to us. I'm actually a bit confused about the 3TB compatibility myself. Can I get it to work as 3TB as a storage drive? If it doesn't, can I split into partitions, like 1.5TB and 1.5TB?
     
  16. PsYkHoTiK

    PsYkHoTiK Admin nerd

    <-- stole the title... :haha:
     
  17. mikegas

    mikegas Newbie

    So ONLY 2 cents worth, I myself have not tried on a lot of motherboards, I have tried with a HBA on Win7 32 bit and worked as secondary storage when format as GPT. To make it primary drive, motherboard have to have UEFI and format GPT and OS 64 bit with Win7sp1 or Vistasp2 (if not mistaken bout the OSs)
    Basically, there are still a lot of limitation on MB chipset that can support 3TB, that's why WD initially ship with a HBA...
     
  18. Calvin Woon

    Calvin Woon Banned

    Its really sad, though I'm not a tech person so can't help u as such but seriously some body should help him
     
  19. Chai

    Chai Administrator Staff Member

    In other words, I need HBA card, or a motherboard with UEFI support? No other ways? Even as a secondary storage formatted as GPT without UEFI or HBA is not possible?

    I would love to try, but not without buying one...

    So I didn't take the risk and bought a 2TB recently.
     
  20. Adrian Wong

    Adrian Wong Da Boss Staff Member

    With the HBA or UEFI support on the motherboard, you can access all 3 TB and boot off it, or use it as a secondary drive. But you need to use GPT, not the usual MBR. Without either, you can only access the first 2.1 TB.

    However, I understand that newer motherboards have upgraded BIOSes that allow you to work around this problem by "seeing" the 3 TB drive as two 1.5 TB drive. That means you won't be able to create a single 3 TB partition but it will allow you to access the full 3 TB storage capacity.

    That's why WD is phasing out the HBA boards.
     

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