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Resolved Question

cant get new Hard Drive to operate properly

Jan 24, 2015 4:11AM PST

Hi I have a used HP xw8600 work station I picked up cheap. its an awesome machine with 2 xeon 5430 processors and 16 gig ram running on windows 7 64 bit os.
it came with a 500 gig hard drive and has operated fine.
I just needed more storage so I bought a Western Digital 3 TB green sata internal drive to add in the case. to my knowledge no jumpers need to be set like the older drives with the master/ slave configuration required ?
computer still runs fine,new drive just doesnt show in my computer.
Under computer management/ Disk management screen my drives show up but the 3 TB drive shos as 746 gig only and is still unaccessible. Is it possible my bios needs updated to accomodate that large of drive? my bios must be original back to 2008 date. I did go to HP website and downloaded a whole bunch of updates for this particular machine including bios but I have yet to install or make changes as it is still operating good now just cant access that new hard drive. Thanks in advance guys! you are always helpful in past ! :> )

Discussion is locked

Bearster1 has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer

Best Answer

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thx!
Jan 24, 2015 5:15AM PST

Thanks Bob, Sometimes I dont fully understand all this stuff but I try..... Over the years now I have had a few issues and you've pointed me in the right direction I truly appreciate your help. So generally, this drive is meant for a server and not a desktop pc even though the box says Desktop hard drive? Once again thanks for your assisitance Bob ! take care !

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Re:desktop drive
Jan 24, 2015 5:34AM PST

The cached article Bob linked to is for Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 and Windows 8. It says you should initialise it as a GPT disk, not a MBR disk, you must have the right drivers and the motherboard must support it.

Maybe it's easier to buy a 2 TB disk! That's also more than 500 GB. And I expect a machine like yours to accommodate 2 of those, if necessary.

Kees

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I kinda get it lol
Jan 24, 2015 5:56AM PST

I would have bought 2 tb all best buy had in stock was this drive and a couple smaller drives for desktops. I think it should list compatiblity issues on the box for us geek squad wanna bes lol

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It's likely to be other issues.
Jan 24, 2015 6:21AM PST
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Answer
No jumpers but
Jan 24, 2015 4:18AM PST

Did you partition and format that drive in Disk Management?

(too many youtubes on that step)
Bob

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cant get new Hard Drive to operate properly
Jan 24, 2015 4:26AM PST

no I did not .

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With HD over 2.2 GB, can't use NTFS format
Jan 24, 2015 4:38AM PST

If you'd tell us HOW you formatted the drive, we could help. As it is, I'll just tell you my dog broke my crystal ball. I will point out that once you get over 2.2 GB, you can't format a partition NTFS,

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Time to try that.
Jan 24, 2015 4:42AM PST

Today's HDDs may or may not arrive ready to use. Some prep is required.

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ok now
Jan 24, 2015 4:51AM PST

in disk management it shows the two hard drives Disk 0 which = C: and Disk 1 which Im assuming is the new drive. all the info shown seems correct for the C drive but the data for other drive shows 746.39 gig?

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There are other limitations.
Jan 24, 2015 4:55AM PST

WD should have articles about limitations imposed by BIOS and OS. But to get the drive working we must prepare it.

WD also has ways to limit the drive size but I don't see enough detail to go down that path yet. You seen to be new to adding drives so finish the partition and format and once that's done we'll chat more.

In the meantime, look in Device Manager and tell me what model HDDs are listed.
Bob

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drive models
Jan 24, 2015 5:04AM PST

ST500DM002-1rd142 = C :

WDC WD30EZRX-00D9PB0 is new one

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did format and partition
Jan 24, 2015 5:06AM PST

So now it shows up but still 746. giga bytes

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partition first
Jan 24, 2015 6:15AM PST

divide the D drive into two partitions, the first partition about 1.8 GB and then format it. You can then format the second part also.