2.5TB WD Storage HDD showing up as 280GB

Hello all! I purchased a 2.5TB WD HDD to use for storage via BlacX dock. I had been using a 1.5TB drive (for video) and it worked great! So, I figured I'd go a little bigger. Well ... I had forgot about the whole issue with windows not seeing drives over 2TB. I searched, found and used solutions to no avail. I'm running Windows 7 Pro with a Intel DQ45CB Board, 4GB Memory. I tried updating RST Drivers but it tells me I don't have the system requirements. But, I do have the requirements surpassed. I did Initiate the Drive in GPT. ANY help is GREATLY Appreciated!'

Regards!

D

 

Can you post a screen shot of Administrative Tool > Computer Management > Storage > Disk Mangement to show the partitions for that drive. What is the exact model number of your pocket drive?

Also, did you format it when you purchased it, or just connected it straight out of the box? Most of these drives come with a utility installed for backing up, and when I purchase them, I always format NTFS for Windows Vista/7/8 use. They always come pre-formatted FAT-32.

 

Are you running 64bit?

Windows 7 64bit and 32bit with SP1 will natively see 2.2Tb and higher secondary drives

You could diskpart the drive and format it in disk management making sure to initialize GPT as long as the BlacX dock supports 2TB and bigger drives.

You may want to make sure your chipset drivers are up-to-date as well. This can cause some drives to show the incorrect capacity.

Here is some information from WD:

http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/WhitePapers/ENG/2579-771501.pdf

 

brownizs ... it is not a pocket drive, it's an internal drive. Model WD 25EZRX. Nothing pre-loaded on it. The only partition that show's up AFTER formating is 280.64GB. I will post a screen shot.

NameHere ... I updated the chipset drivers. I also tried updating the RST drivers but that errors out saying I don't meet the min requirements but idk what it's looking for that I don't meet. I checked the readme and it has system requirements that I meet no problem. It was initiallized in GPT. I read the info from WD from the link you posted but it doesn't say anything about this issue. Unless I missunderstood it, it's just basic info about formating drives.

I'm still searching for solutions/answers, so any help would greatly be appreciated.

 

More readable ... Sorry if it's TOO big.

 

I am seeing your 2.5 as a USB, not as an internal SATA. See http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/128202-500gb-drive-only-shows-258gb.html

 

I just figured it out and I feel rather ... well, let's just say I should have listened to my gut when I first started! I have, in the past formatted drives as large as 1.5TB through the BlacX but since it is USB, it may have it's limitations. I opened up the tower, plugged it into a sata port and boom, there it was. Initialized it, Formatted it and it showed up as 2.27TB which was to be expected. Next ... I took it out of the tower and docked it in the BlacX and fired it up ... read it correctly, see's the full 2.27TB. Problem Solved. Thank you guys for your guidance and SORRY if I waisted your time! I will know in the future, at least anything over 1.5TB needs to be connected directly via SATA. Thanks again for all your help!

I wonder if it would have worked if I had the BlacX plugged in using the esata? I did try it and for some reason my port wasn't working so I abandoned that right away.

 

You did not waste anyone's time. Sometimes even when you think stuff out to yourself and try everything, you have to sound off to get input on what you think that you may have missed. As for the eSATA port, if it showed up as an error in device manager without the device plugged in, driver is the usual issue nine times out of ten.

Only way to learn, is to take the bull by the horns, or ask questions.