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Topic: Can't create 3TB partition/Disk doesn't report full size in Win7

I have a new WD 3TB drive.  I don't use linux much but I am rescuing a bunch of data from a bad unraid array:

I booted into ubuntu, used gparted to make a new ntfs partition that spanned the full disk size. 
Copied the first batch of files over, shut down the ubuntu box, moved the drive over to my Win7 box.
Booted up Win7, disk shows up, I copy files over to other drives on that box.  Now it's time for the 2nd batch of files.
Shut down Win7. Move drive back to Ubuntu box, boot up

Try to remount new drive, get an error that I need to specify filetype. 
After poking around a bit, I fire gparted back up. It reports that the 3TB is unallocated! ok, not the end of the world, I have already transferred that data and the originals are still accessible from the unraid drives anyway.  I figure I'll just recreate the ntfs partition
I tell gparted to make a new, full span ntfs partition.  It comes back with an error about not being able to write a partition that large (I googled it at the time but didn't write it down or screengrab it.  Yes, I'm an idiot)
I try a fat32 partition, just to see if it's an ntfs thing.  Same error.
I create a smaller (~1.4 TiB) parittion--this appears to work.
I'd prefer a 3TB partition, but I can make a 1.5 and whatever's left over in a 2nd partition work, at least for the moment.  I tell gparted to resize the 1st partition and create the second.  It completely locks up my ubuntu. I wait for awhile, then resort to Alt-PrintScrn-REISUB
Frustrated, I now move the drive back to Win7 box, figure I'll just use Disk Management to format the whole drive fresh. DM reports that drive is only 746.52 GB!

Could realize use any advice at  this point. I found this page but the instructions are a bit daunting--I don't want to screw this thing up any further until I get some better informed opinions on it.

Thanks in advance, Mike

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Re: Can't create 3TB partition/Disk doesn't report full size in Win7

What type of partition table is being used?

With a disk sector size of 512 bytes, an MSDOS partition table is effectively restricted to just under 2 TiB.

What version of GParted are you using?

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Re: Can't create 3TB partition/Disk doesn't report full size in Win7

Unfortunately, there are still many problems with these new 3TB drives, mainly because operating systems aren't really ready for them.
GPT instead of the legacy MSDOS partition table is one of the issues, as gedack writes.

Drive manufacturers recommend UEFI BIOS and 64-bit operating system for a system disk, and UEFI BIOS with 32 or 64 bit operating system as a secondary data drive.
I found recommendations for PCI-E attached controller too. This means that you have perhaps to check that the motherboard/chipset is able to handle these hard drives.

From all thinks I heard and read to now, I'm not sure that you will be able to format this drive from win7. Even Linux tools aren't always up to date for this "new" format. They use a sector size of 4096 byte, but the disk firmware masks it under a 512-byte format for compatibility with older systems.I know there are some systems ready to use 3TB drives, like the newest Synology NAS units with software update. However, these drives were mostly used in some special USB enclosures (seagate), so that the mean consumer computer can use them.

You could visit the Western digital site too, for further details. I remember I read there something on a special format software for these "advanced format" drives.

*** It is highly recommended to backup any important files before doing resize/move operations. ***

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Re: Can't create 3TB partition/Disk doesn't report full size in Win7

Thanks.  I can't for the life of me figure out why it would have worked once and then stopped, though.  On the Win7 box, I connect directly to the MB but on the linux one it is going through a PCI-E SATA expansion card.  I'm not using it as a system drive in either.  I'll try updating the BIOS on both, but obviously they're not going to be UEFI (I just did some googling on that, as it news to me).

I'll see if I can find a tool from WD . . .

I wonder if I'll have to (or even be able to) return this drive.

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Re: Can't create 3TB partition/Disk doesn't report full size in Win7

I read many complaints about these new large drives. I looked myself for some 3TB hard drives last summer but I finally bought 2TB ones after reading such warnings in a web store page. I wanted to connect them on a rather old spec motherboard (Asus P5B Deluxe, issued around 2006).
FAT32 would be worse than ntfs, because it is older with lower maximum specs.

Before going for BIOS update, try to see if that update helps on this specific issue.

In any case, these "advanced format" WD hard drives have to be partitioned with the "Align to MiB" option (default for late GParted versions), not "Align to Cylinder". This has to do mainly with speed performance for rotating drives (and with hard drive life for SSD drives).
Be sure that you have an updated Linux kernel, to work with these drives.

Some links:
http://wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=120
(Large Capacity Drives)
http://wdc.com/global/products/features/?id=6
You will find there links to a pdf guide for large hard drive use (not just advanced format).
There was a first generation of WD 2.5TB and 3TB hard drives that needed a special controller, because there were no many compatible motherboard controllers at the time. Latest generation doesn't need this controller, as far as the motherboard or card controller is compatible. Please, check your model.

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/det … ing-system

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Format

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2510009/en-us

*** It is highly recommended to backup any important files before doing resize/move operations. ***

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Re: Can't create 3TB partition/Disk doesn't report full size in Win7

Sorry for the delay in replying.  Finally carved out some time to work on this issue again.  Thanks for your helpful replies.  I'm running the WD diagnostic tool now--the drive passed the quick test and the tool reports a correct size of 3TB.

Is this the other WD tool you referenced? link It says it's only for WinXP but then at the bottom lists Win7 in the supported operating systems.  I know I had to do the jumper trick when I installed 2TB drives in my unraid array, but I didn't think about it with this one, since I wasn't planning to use it in unraid.  I suppose I could try this software and/or physically switch the jumper and see what happens.  It looks like I can RMA it if nothing else works.

Using the Windows disk management tool, I just switched the drive from MBR to GPT. I'm going to reboot and see if it has any effect.  Then I'll try parted with the appropriate switches.  Then maybe the advanced format/jumper tweak. Then RMA, if it comes to that hmm 

I'm an IT Pro and it still annoys me that this much config is needed for what should be a relatively simple task.  I'm out of my depth with this advanced disk and linux stuff.  My fault for committing to unraid when I have neither the time nor inclination to really jump into linux.  That sea is too wide and too deep.  I'm just trying to extricate myself at this point with my data intact.

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Re: Can't create 3TB partition/Disk doesn't report full size in Win7

Is this the other WD tool you referenced? link It says it's only for WinXP but then at the bottom lists Win7 in the supported operating systems.

I don't think this could help. This software is a moving/resizing program to align a partition that is badly aligned.
This software is intended to fix problems with drives already formatted by xp.

I don't think that the jumper on the 7-8 position would help, because this is just something to "relocate" the sector addresses to be aligned to the 4096 byte physical sectors. Furthermore, it has to do mainly with xp. Anyway, the drive is supposed to work normally without jumper in newer systems.

I don't know much about UEFI BIOS. I suspect there are more parameters to control than with the older BIOS. So, you could review the details of the settings. In particular, look if the drive's capacity is correctly detected by the BIOS.

Some more thinks:
This link is from the microsoft technical support center. It concerns a seagate 3TB hard drive on win7, nevertheless I think it is similar to the WD problem (the 746GB issue). The supporters replied nothing essential. However, the last post on that page suggests:

In the link page there is a "Support for 4k sector disks" link.
Please, look there to see if your system is concerned. It is related to some updated Intel driver for the controller.

Another link, without any success report!
However, some ones suggest to wipe out the drive before partitioning. The last post even suggested exfat instead on ntfs.

Finally, the 3TB+win7 issues are extensively presented in this article.

*** It is highly recommended to backup any important files before doing resize/move operations. ***

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Re: Can't create 3TB partition/Disk doesn't report full size in Win7

I booted with a PartedMagic thumbdrive this time.  I also unplugged an uneeded hard rive so I could plug the problem drive into the MB, not my explansion card  Opened gparted and created a fresh GPT for the problem drive.  Staying extra cautious, I went with 2 NTFS partitions this time (1.6TB and 1.1TB) and left 2MB empty at the start of the disk.  First time through, Gparted made the first partition but failed on the second.  I had gparted change the "unknown" formatted 2nd partition to NTFS and it appeared to work.  Transferring files over from old disks now.  We'll see what happens when I try plugging it back into Win7 . . .

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Re: Can't create 3TB partition/Disk doesn't report full size in Win7

Progress, of a sort.  The 2nd partition on the 3TB has continued to be cranky.  I had trouble mounting it in PartedMagic but eventually succeeded with a different tool than the default file browser.  I moved the drive into my Win7 box. On boot, I can see that the RAID controller reports that drive as having only 746 GB (or thereabout) but leave that aside for the moment.  Windows reports errors in the 2nd partition and wanted to run chkdsk, which I allowed.  It tried to fix a ton of "orphaned files," but kept reporting that there was insufficient disk space for recovery.  After a half hour or so I decided it was a lost cause, so I did a hard reboot, so I could at least check on the viability of the first partition.  Lo and behold, once I skipped the disk scan and got into Win7, both partitions show up correctly.  Spot testing of the 1st partition shows that it looks intact.  Looking at the 2nd partition, the chkdsk deleted most of the "bad" files, but the folders that weren't touched before I interrupted the scan appear to be intact (the videos inside play).

I welcome any suggestions again, though I realize I'm rapidly creeping out of the context of this particular forum.  My current plan is, just to see what happens, delete the 2nd partition in Win7 and try to expand the 1st partition to fill the drive.  Failing that, I'll see if Win7 will at least create a new 2nd partition without choking.

FWIW, I did try to update the BIOS on both boxes but encountered odd (different) errors on both.  I'll see if I can get that to work, and maybe update the RAID controller, too.  I'm not running any disks as RAID but I'm still suspicious of it.

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Re: Can't create 3TB partition/Disk doesn't report full size in Win7

At this point I do not have any additional advice.  Class413 has a much better understanding of the challenges faced with 3 TB drives.  I am still learning a lot in this area.

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Re: Can't create 3TB partition/Disk doesn't report full size in Win7

To help later people who stumble upon this after googling: I appear to be in working order now, though haven't yet tested data thoroughly.  I used GParted to switch to GPT, then used Win7 Drive Management to create and format a full sive (2.7 TBish) partition.  Swapped the drive back to the GParted box, transferred files, swapped back to Windows, and nothing choked and died this time.  I don't have great faith in long term survival but I'll soon have a fresh unRAID or other local backup solution in place.

[I did manage to apparently accidentally wipe out 400GB of (nonessential) data in the blink of an eye in GParted's default file browser when performing the transfer.  I'll take the details of that to a new thread, though.]