Cant get 7 Ultimate 64 to see 3TB drive

Bebeto94 · 27 Oct 2013

Guys,
Ive spent days now trying to get windows 7 64bit ultimate to see my new 3TB barracuda drive. Ive read several pages of info but still to no avail. All i want is a single 3TB partition but am always left with 2TB and a seperate partition of 750GB approx. My gigabyte motherboard is new and uefi compatible and so I booted the windows DVD in uefi mode but still no different. It still says I have 2TB and 750GB ?? Is this something to do with formatting the drive to sort this out as the windows setup wont let me increase or delete partitions.
Any help appreciated.
Cheers guys
Steve

gregrocker · 27 Oct 2013

I realize the board is new but check it's Support Downloads webpage anyway to see if there is a newer BIOS version which sometimes handles these larger drives which may not have been available during manufacture.

If you are trying to install Win7 using UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 7 with to this HDD after its been formatted in MBR format, then a UEFI install requires GPT formatting which handles large drives better. So be sure to wipe the HD first with Diskpart Clean Command to reset the formatting so the UEFI installer will create GPT partitions.

Keep in mind also that such a huge install partition makes backup imaging unwieldy, and this is the modern method by which most users handle recovery in 20 minutes if Win7 becomes unbootable.

Better to have a compact OS and Programs partition, then link your User folders data to a larger data partition by rightclicking each User folder copied there to add to the related Library - Include a Folder - Windows 7 Forums.

Bebeto94 · 27 Oct 2013

Thanks for the reply.
Yes, ive already checked and its running the latest BIOS version.
Perhaps it might be an idea to have a partition for backup/storage.
Cheers
Steve

theog · 27 Oct 2013

1) Clean the HDD.
Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command

2) Open Disk management.
Click on GPT.

Cant get 7 Ultimate 64 to see 3TB drive-capture001.png

jimbo45 · 28 Oct 2013

Hi there

Theog has shown how to set these up as GPT disks.

For 3 GB (> 2GB if my basic arithmetic still works in my advancing years (and this is BEFORE going out to the pub tonight) need you to use GPT disks.

Normal systems can read / write these too -- you just can't BOOT from them if you don't have UEFI in the BIOS -- you don't need UEFI to USE GPT disks though.

Cheers
jimbo

Bebeto94 · 28 Oct 2013

Thanks for all the replies guys. I thought id cracked it yesterday when I compiled a UEFI BOOT USB of windows 7 after using diskpart to clean and convert the hard drive to GPT and it displayed the whole 3TB drive (well about 2.89TB approx) in the installation setup but when windows was installed and I checked the properties of the drive, it displayed the same again :- 2TB partition (primary) and about 750gb in another partition I cant access. What Id ideally like is one primary drive (c:) with all available space from the 3TB. Ive read somewhere that you cant do this with a bootable drive using GPT ? Any further advice appreciated.
Cheers guys
Steve

gregrocker · 28 Oct 2013

Can you Partition or Volume - Extend?

If not see if you can get the Windows or CD version of Partition Wizard to Resize Partition - Video Help.

theog · 28 Oct 2013

All i want is a single 3TB partition

You can not have a single partition, if you install to that HDD.

theog · 28 Oct 2013

Is the HDD plug in to a SATA3 version port & cable?

Bebeto94 · 29 Oct 2013

Yes it is. So let me get this right as i might have got the wrong end of the stick. I cant have the full available 3TB on my boot drive but I can have a 2tb boot drive and the rest of the drive on a separate partition which is converted to GPT ?
Most appreciated guys
Steve