127 GB limit for external USB hard drive

pvc · 02 Jun 2010

I have a USB external harddrive:
Generic case
WD 180 GB jumper=master, format=NTFS, capacity = 149 GB
It works fine.

I tried to switch to a larger USB external harddrive:
WD 250 GB jumper=master, format=NTFS

It wouldn’t recognize the 250 GB drive as jumper=master, it did recognise the drive with jumper=CS. Though it would only let me format as NTFS and only at 127 GB.

How can I get Windows 7 to use the more that 127 GB of the 250 GB Western Digital WD2500JB Cavier drive?

mpcrsc562 · 02 Jun 2010

pvc said:

I have a USB external harddrive:
Generic case
WD 180 GB jumper=master, format=NTFS, capacity = 149 GB
It works fine.

I tried to switch to a larger USB external harddrive:
WD 250 GB jumper=master, format=NTFS

It wouldn’t recognize the 250 GB drive as jumper=master, it did recognise the drive with jumper=CS. Though it would only let me format as NTFS and only at 127 GB.

How can I get Windows 7 to use the more that 127 GB of the 250 GB Western Digital WD2500JB Cavier drive?

You have the hard drive installed in an external enclosure? If that is what you are stating, then check the specs on the enclosure to make sure it can handle drives over a certain capacity.

I have a cheap SATA to USB enclosure I bought from CompUSA before they folded and on the box it stated plainly that it would only support drives under 500GB. Your enclosure may have a similar limitation.

pvc · 02 Jun 2010

mpcrsc562 said:

You have the hard drive installed in an external enclosure? If that is what you are stating, then check the specs on the enclosure to make sure it can handle drives over a certain capacity.

I have a cheap SATA to USB enclosure I bought from CompUSA before they folded and on the box it stated plainly that it would only support drives under 500GB. Your enclosure may have a similar limitation.

Yes, external enclosure. Yes it can handle over 127 GB because my current *WORKING* 180 GB is over 127 GB.

When I put the new 250 GB in the external case it says I must format it. It will only allow formatting NTFS (Not Fat32). And unfortunately the maximum is set to 127 GB in a pull-down menu that contains 127 GB as the only choice.

Oh, I have no specs or model # for this generic external enclosure.

mpcrsc562 · 02 Jun 2010

The controller in the enclosure might have a limitation on the drive size, say 200GB. So, 180 is less than 200, but 250 is more than 200, so the 250 drive might not be fully utilized (or in some cases, might not work at all).

Try this: install the drive in your pc, format it and create a volume on it, shutdown you pc and remove the drive, then install it in the enclosure.

pvc · 03 Jun 2010

mpcrsc562 said:

The controller in the enclosure might have a limitation on the drive size, say 200GB. So, 180 is less than 200, but 250 is more than 200, so the 250 drive might not be fully utilized (or in some cases, might not work at all).

Try this: install the drive in your pc, format it and create a volume on it, shutdown you pc and remove the drive, then install it in the enclosure.

Yep, I think you might be right. My generic enclosure is the limitation.

WindowsStar · 03 Jun 2010

You can try this:

Please note you need to be very very careful and pick the right drive! You will delete everything on the drive!

My code assumes your drive is DISK 1 yours may be different.

Open an elevated Command Prompt:

Code:

diskpart <enter>
list disk <enter>
select disk 1 <enter>  <-- Make sure this is the correct drive!!!!!
detail disk <enter>    <-- Make sure this is the correct drive!!!!!
clean all <enter>
create partition <enter>
format fs=ntfs <enter>
assign <enter>
exit <enter>