The volume of stored information is growing every day, sooner or later the question of replacement arises hard drives to more capacious ones. So I had to carry out a planned upgrade of one of the disks from 2 TB to 3 TB. But after connecting the HDD it suddenly became clear that operating system Windows 7 does not see the full volume hard drive, it perceives it as two pieces of ~2 TB and ~800 GB, and only the 800 GB piece is available. The same picture was observed when trying to connect the drive through an external docking station. At the same time, in the BIOS the disk was displayed as an honest 3 TB. I had to look for a solution to the problem, and this is how I managed to overcome it.

The ideal case, which does not require dancing with tambourines, is when you unpacked the disk and immediately connected it to the computer. In this case, it will be enough to go to the Control Panel in Disk Management and, when initializing the connected HDD, select the partition style " Table with GUID partitions (GPT - CUID Partition Table)". After initialization HDD can be formatted to the full volume, the system will see it as 3 TB in one partition. This is exactly what I did when replacing the following disks.

If the disk has already been split into two partitions, does not initialize, or for some other reason cannot be converted to GPT regular means, then you will have to use third party program. The best option - Acronis Disk Director at least version 11. The complete set of Acronis Disk Director Home 11.0.0.2343 is available. There are more recent versions on the Internet, but this one is quite sufficient.

Install and register the program, launch it. Now you need to select the unallocated partition of the connected disk in the list, and select “Convert to GPT” in the context menu.

Apply pending operations.

Wait until the partition scheme conversion operation is completed and restart your computer. Now the connected hard drive is initialized and converted to GPT.

That's it, you can go to the disk control panel, as described at the beginning of the article, create a partition for all 3 TB and format it. Problem solved. 4TB drives should, in principle, be connected in the same way. I don't have them in stock yet, so I can't check them.

Important addition. On older hard drive controllers, such an unpleasant situation as disk “wrapping” is possible. It lies in the fact that when a large-capacity disk is filled by approximately 2.2 TB, new data begins to be written to the beginning on top of existing ones. As a result, you risk losing all information, even if you have completed all the above steps and the system sees the full disk capacity. To verify that your controller is processing correctly hard disks with a capacity of 3 TB or more, you need to use free utility DMDE.

If you see a picture like in the screenshot ( file system recognized as NTFS), then everything is fine, with high probability the controller works correctly with your drives. But the DMDE utility cannot give a 100% guarantee, so the most reliable way to check would be to write more than 2.2 TB of information to the disk, naturally leaving the original files untouched. And of course, no one has ever canceled the regular creation of backups; this applies not only to upgrading hard drives, but in general. #3_TB #4_TB #5_TB #6_TB #8_TB #10_TB #12_TB

Everything you need to know about using hard drives larger than 2TB in Windows PCs

Introduction:

In fact, this FAQ is designed to explore the possibility of integrating 2.5 TB, 3 TB and higher hard drives into various desktop computer systems.

Understanding the difficulties that may arise after purchasing a 3 TB hard drive, some manufacturers of hard drives and motherboards decided to make life as easy as possible for customers by creating specialized technologies and utilities that can provide support for such hard drives.

Gigabyte is one of the few motherboard manufacturers that still doesn't use EFI BIOS even in the latest motherboards, so supporting high-capacity hard drives has become a particularly pressing issue for them. Thanks to DualBIOS technology, the company was able to implement support for 3 TB hard drives quite quickly and easily. The new technology, which is an add-on DualBIOS, was named and made it possible to organize hardware support for 3 TB HDD even for installing an operating system on it.

For those boards that do not support Hybrid EFI, the company has developed software GIGABYTE 3TB+ Unlock Utility, which allows you to use large disks as a boot or additional hard drive in all Windows operating systems, including the 32-bit version of Windows XP. In this case, you can create both MBR and GPT partitions.

Today, this utility will help owners of the following Gigabyte motherboard models:

Subsequently, Gigabyte plans to improve the GIGABYTE 3TB+ Unlock Utility to provide support for more motherboards.

Despite the fact that maternal ASUS boards With the latest generation of Intel chipsets using EFI BIOS, the manufacturer also thought about ensuring the operation of large HDDs on the rest of its boards and released free utility with the same functionality as the competitor. You can also create GPT or MBR partitions, however, no version of the Windows operating system can boot from a partition with a GPT table of contents.

ASUS Disk Unlocker can work with motherboards based on the following chipsets:

Seagate was one of the first manufacturers to introduce its 3 TB hard drives, and is also the only manufacturer today that offers the DiscWizard utility, which allows you to use Seagate drives larger than 2.2 TB in systems with motherboards not equipped with an EFI BIOS. At the same time, a 3 TB hard drive can become bootable even when using 32-bit versions of operating systems Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows XP.

In addition to the ability to make a 3 TB Seagate hard drive bootable or secondary, this utility will help you transfer all your data, including your operating system, to a new 3 TB hard drive.

The utilities and technologies presented above significantly expand the possibilities for using hard drives with a capacity of more than 2.2 TB in modern (and not so modern) computers.

Update from 06/08/2011

As practice shows, installing an operating room Windows system 7 64-bit on a GPT partition is very difficult even with an EFI BIOS, so it is strongly recommended to use the following scheme if you need to install the OS on a 3 TB hard drive:

This way we can use the entire hard drive capacity.

Note: The GIGABYTE 3TB+ Unlock utility, unlike a similar product from a competitor, worked not only on Gigabyte motherboards, but also on boards from other manufacturers (tested on MP and).

If new information becomes available about the compatibility of hard drives with capacities of 2.5 TB, 3 TB and higher, the FAQ will be updated.

Below is a list of the main problems due to which BIOS does not recognize a SATA hard drive. To find out the true cause of the malfunction, you need to carry out sequential diagnostics of all interconnected components of the computer to determine if they are working properly.

• The hard drive is not set as enabled in the BIOS.
• Serial ATA drivers are installed incorrectly or not installed at all.
• The data cable is damaged or not connected.
• The disk drive does not spin.
• The jumpers on the drive housing are set incorrectly.
• The hard drive itself is faulty.

First you need to make sure that the device you are testing is enabled in the BIOS. To do this, you need to enter the settings - at the very beginning of the operating system startup, press the F2 or Del key. Depending on the modification of the system, there may be different options. What exactly do you need to click to log in? BIOS settings? A message appears at the bottom of the screen when you turn on the computer. a short time. If you miss the period, you will have to turn off the computer again and wait until you enter the settings.

Find the hard drive that is not detected on one of the settings screens and look at what is written next to it. Automatic detection must be specified. If it says Off. (Off) you need to switch to automatic detection. This problem is typical in cases where a newly installed hard drive with a SATA connection is not detected.

Motherboard drivers not loaded

Problems with driver installation most often occur in cases where Windows OS is installed on a disk drive that is used as the main boot drive. Then the Bios does not see the SATA hard drive due to problems with the drivers.

To correctly download and install drivers, perform the following manipulations:

1. Load the Windows distribution into the DVD drive tray. After this, disconnect the computer from the power supply.
2. Insert the SATA hard drive and connect it. Turn on your computer.
3. During the installation process, you will need to press the F6 key at the appropriate moment to start the driver installation process. During the normal course of the system installation, a screen will briefly appear stating that in order to install the system normally, you need to download the missing drivers: “Press F6 if you need to install a 3rd party driver.” Try not to miss the moment, otherwise you will have to start all over again.
4. After a while, an interface for loading drivers for the SATA controller will appear. Press the S key to continue installation.
5. To download the drivers, you will need disks with installers; this must be found and downloaded in advance on the Internet, on the website of the manufacturer of the motherboard that is installed on your computer.

Data cable fault

Open the system unit and carefully inspect the connections connected to motherboard and hard drive cables. If there is visible mechanical damage, this is the problem. Data cables are easily bent and broken, which leads to a lack of contacts in the connections. It is advisable to check the cable by replacing it with a known working analogue.

Seagate technical services note that for normal operation of the devices, the length of the SATA cable does not exceed one meter. SATA cables often simply fall out of the connectors due to vibration of the computer during operation. Check the reliability of the cable connection to the SATA ports.

When connecting loops, be guided by the following conditions:

• The blue connector must connect to the motherboard controller.
• The gray connector is used to connect a Slave – an auxiliary hard drive.
• The black connector is for the Master – the main drive.

If the cable assignment order is mixed up, it confuses the BIOS and leads to device identification errors.

The disk does not rotate

The hard drive will not be found if it is not receiving power and is not spinning. It is impossible to see the rotation of the disk externally; one can only rely on indirect signs.

With the power off, open the system unit, then turn on the computer and listen. Taking precautions, try touching the side wall of the hard drive. If vibration is felt, the disk is rotating.

If nothing is clear, try turning the drive's power cable on and off and comparing the sound. To check the functionality of the power cable, connect it to a DVD drive, where you can accurately see whether the disc is spinning or not.

It is also useful to check whether the installed power supply supplies sufficient power? It is quite possible that with upgrades system unit energy consumption has increased significantly and now there is simply not enough current to maintain the required performance of the equipment.

To make sure that the device being tested is working properly, remove it from the system unit being tested and install it on a known-good computer. If it doesn’t work, the hard drive itself is faulty.

The BIOS tools include a function for testing connected drives for functionality. Run the test and see the results. If any disk is faulty, it will be clear after the test.

Incorrect installation of jumpers on the drive housing

First you need to check whether the jumpers on the Master-Slave attribute are correctly distributed. If both devices have the same settings, the BIOS will not be able to detect them correctly.

A diagram of the correct location of jumpers is drawn on the drive housings. Set them according to the required priority for selecting disks in the BIOS.

Instructions for installing internal hard drives larger than 2 TB

Thank you for purchasing your new Seagate hard drive. You are just a few minutes away from unlocking the entire capacity of your new hard drive. Download the new DiscWizard software to customize your drive to suit your needs.

Getting the most out of a 2TB+ hard drive

To use a hard drive larger than 2.1 TB on computer systems running Windows, special settings may be required:

operating system	BIOS	Boot disk	Data disk
	UEFI BIOS*	Only 64-bit Windows OS is supported
Windows Vista and later	PC BIOS		Supported by Windows operating system
Windows XP	PC BIOS	Using DiscWizard Extended Capacity Manager Software	Using DiscWizard Extended Capacity Manager Software
*Universal extensible firmware interface

Seagate Extended Capacity Manager

Use Seagate Extended Capacity Manager (ECM) if your operating system does not support high-capacity hard drives with MBR partitions. Then memory over 2 TB will be recognized as separate disk, and the OS and applications will be able to use it. (ECM User Manual)

Compatibility Basics

- If the system uses the Intel RST driver, a 3 TB hard drive may appear as an 800 GB drive. See our support article about the Intel RST driver.

— System memory requirements: 1 GB or more for 32-bit systems; 2 GB or more for 64-bit systems.

- BY Extended Capacity Manager Installs the device driver so that computers with legacy BIOS can use the full storage capacity.

— So that on a computer with Windows OS and an outdated BIOS and software Extended Capacity Manager The full capacity of the drive could be used; there should be two partitions on the boot disk.

— All computers based on the default do not support boot disks with up to 3 TB of data with GPT partitions for all systems.

— Computers based Windows Vista and later Windows versions by default supports boot data disks up to 3 TB with GPT partitions only for systems with BIOS and UEFI interface.

- Delay in the startup process on computers with high-capacity hard drives running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2

- Windows OS support for hard drives larger than 2 TB