Win 7 4TB HDD

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Hi

I cannot get my Win 7 system to recognise my new Western Digital 4TB HDD. It only recognises it as 1.64TB of unallocated space.

I have formatted it as GPT with AOMEI Partition Assistant since I know MBR is not appropriate for a 4 TB HDD. In fact I have reformatted it back to MBR and then back to GPT in case there were any formatting issues. The Intel drivers are up to date, though I am not using RAID, as are Win 7 patches.

Specs:
Intel i5 760
Gigabyte P55M-UD2 Motherboard
8GB Memory
Windows 7 64 bit
All HDD SATA connectors are SATA 3Gb/s

The MB is not a UEFI MB, but as I only plan to use the 4TB HDD for backup purposes, NOT to run the operating system, that should not be a problem from what I have researched.

I have also read this Microsoft article on the subject: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2581408

Any ideas what I am missing please?

Rob

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Sounds like a BIOS not seeing more than 2TB. Check the mobo site for specs.
If you leave it unformatted what does Windows see?
Is it connected to an internal SATA port?

cheers, Paul

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I have the latest BIOS for the MB.

Win 7 sees the drive as 1.64 TB (see original post).

Yes, on an internal HDD connected to a SATA 3 port.

Rob

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Sounds like a mobo issue to me. Can you test the drive in another computer to be sure it’s not a faulty disk?
What model is the drive? (to be sure it’s a 4TB disk.)

cheers, Paul

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I tend to agree with you and think it is probably a mobo issue.

The Western Digital Model Model No is WDC WD40EZRX-22SPEB0 and recognised by the HWiNFO64 program as 4000 GB.

I can probably test it in another PC at the weekend and will report back.

Rob

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I placed the HDD in another Win 7 PC over the weekend and it was correctly recognised as 4GB.

Also double checked I had the latest BIOS on the original PC. So it does look like the MB/BIOS will not support a 4GB HDD under Win 7 which I find rather surprising.

Rob

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Do you have odd settings for the hard disks?
Is AHCI enabled?
Try resetting to factory defaults – after making and testing a backup.

cheers, Paul

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The only other things I can think of and I would not be optimistic would be to update the chipset and SATA drivers.

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Thanks for your inputs.

Yes, AHCI is enabled and I don’t think I have any odd settings on the hard drives.

I have already checked chipset and SATA drivers and they are up to date.

I may try resetting to factory defaults but not until I have full backups. Otherwise I will just buy another 2GB HDD for the PC and use the 4GB drive in a new PC I am building.

Rob

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