Windows 7 - Unformatable Unallocated Space

Hi guys

i recently am in the process of reinstalling everything on windows 7 though i have only one problem

I got myself a western digital 3 tb sata 3 drive and have dual booted it well in the process i stuffed up somewhere after deleteing a partition of 700 gb i cannot get it back it shows in drive management but i cannot do anything to it if i try to format it using the windows 7 disk it just gives me some error

i would like to be able to use that partition again and format it so that i can use that space aswell in windows 7

as on the other partition that is fine i have windows xp and thats all going fine

i just want to get back this 3rd unallocated space partition that for some reason i cannot format

When you right click on it do you have any options? Are you sure there is no partition on it?

If it's is showing as unallocated there is no partition. You need to either create a new partition and format that or extend an existing one.

Can you post a screenshot of disk management.

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ive read that its because i have a 3 terbayte drive and the MBR is what windows seven uses apartently if i can convert it to GPT or something then i can use the extra 700 gig i payed for

is there anyway i can do this with the windows 7 disk as ive stuffed up and have to start again anyway

Um I missed the 3TB bit. I'm not sure but I think I read (I can't remember where but I will try to search) that you can use more than 2TB provided the final partition starts before the 2TB boundary and is less than 2TB in size. Perhaps someone else can correct me if I am wrong.

You may check the MB bios for your MB. It is my understanding that a bios update is required to overcome the 3TB limit. My MSI board came out with a new bios to address that issue. Failing that, you said you were using that 700 GB partition previously, can you extend the partition before that one to include that 700GB. Kado may have been correct about the 2TB limit. If you can extend the partition before that it would at least give you the use of that space.

Thanks essenbe. I think the 2TB limit applies to both the start address and the partition length so the op could have 2x 1.5TB partitions provided of course the total number of physical partitions is not greater than four.

It could be the Intel storage Driver.

There are some app. that do gpt loading - but you won't be booting windows from a drive that does that.

There might be a mobo update you could try.

What error does it give?

mmmm so im basicly stuffed unless windows 8 will support 3 terbayte drives

yay 700gig of waste
until then

or are you saying to do a bios update then it might support it installing windows gets a bit annoying after the 4th time in one day with no real progress

SIW - I believe he has a nvidia chipset and an AMD board. I don't believe an Intel storage driver would work.

Kado- If according to the OP, he was using that 700GB before, that should indicate there is some scenario where he can use it again. Perhaps 3 partitions of 1TB/500GB/1.5TB or 2X1.5 as you said.