Solved Cannot format WD 4TB drive

[Bearcatrp]

Been all over the web but no luck. Trying to format this drive for 1 partition (4TB) to use as a data backup, not boot drive. Have initialized as GPT. Still will not let me format to 4GB. Just 2TB. Am using win7 pro 64. Suggestions?

 

[dsperber]

Try Partition Wizard?

 

[jumanji]

Please check whether your Motherboard/BIOS supports more than 2 TB drives.

 

[Bearcatrp]

The board does support it. Asus P9X79 LE. Been trying while external through usb. Tomorrow will put it in computer case and see what happens.

 

[jumanji]

If you were trying with a dock, the dock should support more than 4 TB.(Combined capacity of all HDDs on the dock)

 

[Anshad Edavana]

In my humble opinion, it is better to create two 2 TB partitions than a single 4 TB one. Two partitions means two different MFT records and less fragmentation. High capacity external drives shows higher rate of partition corruption issues and you may find yourself in a difficult situation if you stick with a single partition.

Some examples :

http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware...1tb-suddenly-unallocated-not-initialized.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/334380-disk-structure-corrupt-unreadable.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware...equires-formatting-read-raw-instead-ntfs.html

Partitioning a disk is not an alternative to regularly backing up data but it will reduce the chance of file system corruption greatly.

 

[Bearcatrp]

I would consider 2 partitions but after I initialize, only 1.6TB available to format. No option to partition it.

 

[Anshad Edavana]

Hi

Would you please post a "Disk Management" screen shot as per this guide ? : http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/274797-disk-management-post-screen-capture-image.html

 

[Bearcatrp]

Figured it out. Put it in the case instead of going through USB. Recognized it right away. Went ahead and made 2 partitions. Thanks for the suggestions and help.

 

[jumanji]

Putting it inside the case and trying it out is the most sensible thing that you have done.You guessed it right. Good going. Was it an external case or dock? I am still not sure. When you just said external (and not an external case), I took it for a dock and hence said the dock should support 4TB drive.

You may mark the thread as solved.

 

[Bearcatrp]

Used a universal USB adapter I use when working on folks computers. Must be something with the USB controller for it not to work. Thanks again.