Installing new 4TB Hard Drive with GPT won't format

I am trying to install a new 4TB HDD, to be used as extra storage (windows installed on different HDD) on my Windows 7 system.

I understand as my new HDD is over 2TB needed to be converted from MBR to GPT to work.

I ran Disk Management as Administrator and initially showed two partitions for the drive : '2048 GB Unallocated' and '1678GB Unallocated', so right clicked on the Disk 1 area to the left of them and clicked 'Convert to GPT disk'. After which showed only one partition at '3725 GB Unallocated', which is what I want. Just one partition for the whole of the drive to be used as extra storage (Windows installed on different drive)

I then Right clicked on the new area that shows '32735 GB Unallocated' and selected 'New Simple Volume' after which the new wizard appears. Clicked Next until get to the stage where says Format Partition. Left settings as they are -> Format this volume with the following settings, File system NTFS, Allocation unit size : Default. Peform quick format : Ticked

I then get an error saying 'The format did not complete successfully'. The New Drive letter then shows at the top but says under File System, 'RAW', whereas other drive shows 'NTFS'

Could someone please tell me where im going wrong.

Thanks in advance
James

Normally you would do this in Disk Management:

Delete all partitions -
Then right click on the "Disk #" box on the left side of the Disk Management Window > and select "Convert to GPT Disk"
Then create the new partition using the Wizard.

It sound like this is what you did, but just be sure you deleted all existing partitions.

Normally when you install a brand new hard drive you will get a window opening that asks if you want to initialize the disk the first time you start Windows. It is here where you would normally choose to initialize it GPT. Did you get that?

Thanks for the reply.

No, never got message asking if I wanted to initialize the disk the first time I started windows, since I installed the drive. I just went to disk management and it showed it as two partitions on Disk 1. I didn't delete the partition, just went straight to right clicking on the Disk 1 area and selected 'Convert to GPT', which then almagamated the two partitions into one bigger one. After which, tried to create the partition using the Wizard.

Should I have deleted the two partitions first? (Think I right clicked on the partions but didn't seem an option for deleting).

If I convert back to MBR and create the partion on the 2.2TB on the left then that works so Im assuming its not a loose conection or anything like that.

Thanks Again

Yes, it was important to have deleted both partitions before trying the conversion.

Here is what I would do now:
Run the "Clean" command from Diskpart in Windows. Instructions below. Just be very sure you know it is the right disk before executing the command, as detailed in the tutorial.
Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command

Once the procedure is complete you should get the "do you want to initialize..." window when you access the drive in Disk Management, if not before.

Many thanks. Will try that when I get home later :)

When I got home noticed Internet wasn't working so re-booted system but then it crashed where its sayings Starting Windows with the black background and icon. Tried again but same problem.

Removed the HDD and booted fine so tried using a different SATA cable and power connections on the motherboard and even went into the BIOS to change the boot order (Did have this new 4TB HDD as first boot device). Still crashes so have removed it.

Wonder if its a faulty HDD. Ive noticed that it did say 'Ideal for DVR / media player / media server' (but im assuming its not restricted to just that i.e works as normal internal HDD on PC)

Was thinking of trying to put it in my caddy as an external HDD then try using the 'clean' method you mentioned then install it back inside PC when I get it back in a few days.

It very well could be a bad drive. But since it is a data drive it should not be (or, should not need to be) the first boot device anyway. I've had bad data drives in my systems and they drop out, but do not affect the entire system.

There is another matter to have in mind.
If - your system is newer, and uses the new UEFI BIOS,
and - the drive that Windows is installed on is a MBR drive,
and - You have not set the BIOS to Legacy BIOS Mode or CSM Mode,
then it could be a problem where the system expects the boot partition on the GPT disk to be the Active partition, therefore creating a startup problem.

So as a side project here, let me know if any of the above is true.

I built the system about five years ago so not sure if it uses the new UEFI BIOS. My existing HDDs both must be MBR as not touched these settings and are less that 2TB.

OS
Windows 7 Ultimate (x64) Service Pack 1 (build 7601)
Boot Mode: BIOS (Secure Boot not supported)

Processor
3.00 gigahertz AMD Phenom II X4 940
64-bit ready
Multi-core (4 total)
Not hyper-threaded

Drives
Memory Modules c,d
2300.48 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
266.23 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

BENQ DVD DC DW1670 ATA Device [Optical drive]
3.5" format removeable media [Floppy drive]

Maxtor 6V300F0 [Hard drive] (300.09 GB) -- drive 1, s/n V60DCPNG, rev VA111630, SMART Status: Healthy
ST2000DL003-9VT166 [Hard drive] (2000.40 GB) -- drive 0, s/n 6YD01WRZ, rev CC32, SMART Status: Healthy

System Model
Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. GA-MA790X-UD4
Enclosure Type: Desktop

Main Circuit Board
Board: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. GA-MA790X-UD4
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: Award Software International, Inc. F3f 03/09/2009

Local Drive Volumes
c: (NTFS on drive 1) * 132.80 GB 68.80 GB free
d: (NTFS on drive 0) 2000.40 GB 149.04 GB free
e: (NTFS on drive 1) 167.28 GB 48.39 GB free


When I get my external HDD back tomorrow will be interesting to see if I can install the new 4TB HDD in it and see if I can run the 'clean' utility on it or even convert it back to MBR and see if the system boots with it like that and then try the 'Clean' untility

It does not look like that motherboard is UEFI.
Best to proceed as planned.

Thanks. Will do