4tb drive not recognised. Am I missing something?

Forums › Desktop computing › 4tb drive not recognised. Am I missing something?

pbolger

241 posts

Master Geek

#162122 29-Jan-2015 22:27

I've just bought a 4tb WD drive, a WD4000FYYZ, and I think it's DOA. Before I send it back though, just want to check that I'm not doing something wrong.

I've tried putting it into an HP N40l, a little server, which has a bios dating back to 2011 (41 I think). The HP spends a while interrogating the drive at bios stage, but can't see it once the machine is running.

I've put it into an i5 machine which is about 5 years old and have got a 'sata error' message, and no drive available in gparted once I get Mint going. And, I've connected it to a Mac i7 (2011) via a USB to Sata interface, with no luck whatsovever.

This is the first drive I've had with a capacity over 2tb. I know that there were some operating system limitations on bigger disks, but surely I'd be seeing something on at least one of these machines. Does anybody have any idea whether it could be anything other than just a dead drive?

Paul Bolger
Christchurch

SATTV

1648 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#1225026 29-Jan-2015 23:27

A quick google on the HP mini server says that the maximum drive size is 2tb
http://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=c04111079
But more googleing suggests you can.
You have to add the drives through Disk Management and not through the Dashboard because you 1st have to convert the drive to GPT then format them. Then they will work.
Also since the BIOS does not support UEFI, you can not have a 4TB as the boot drive with any OS.

I hope that helps

I know enough to be dangerous

kiwigeek1

637 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#1225028 29-Jan-2015 23:42

i have 3tb usb wd not sure if I have a 4 yet but my laptop finds it ok.. however I have usb 3 port and
the latest drivers.

its see all the size using the new partition system. GPT or wharever its called

2tb limit or drive partition is not needed but if want to work on older systems or media servers
that havent been updated for these.. you might have to partition it into 2 x 2tb

depends if you want that though

and yes they can die.. I bought 5 new 4tb without cases for media server and one died making raid

too many bad blocks error.. as drives have a certain amount for bad block reallocation under the firmware

i see your using it on sata without a usb 3 case though.. new drives are like sata 3 now
but should be backward compatiable.. I run sata3 on sata2 ports inside media server

i know theres a jumper on some might need to check that out .. some systems need
the jumpers set on them.. master slave?

and before you send back.. if got a usb sata case to test it might be best. cos it
might be ok when they get it back and test it. however make sure the usb case
supports sata3 big drives some other cases might not.

its never easier is it lol good luck

JWR

821 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1225050 30-Jan-2015 00:30

pbolger: I've just bought a 4tb WD drive, a WD4000FYYZ, and I think it's DOA. Before I send it back though, just want to check that I'm not doing something wrong.

I've tried putting it into an HP N40l, a little server, which has a bios dating back to 2011 (41 I think). The HP spends a while interrogating the drive at bios stage, but can't see it once the machine is running.

I've put it into an i5 machine which is about 5 years old and have got a 'sata error' message, and no drive available in gparted once I get Mint going. And, I've connected it to a Mac i7 (2011) via a USB to Sata interface, with no luck whatsovever.

This is the first drive I've had with a capacity over 2tb. I know that there were some operating system limitations on bigger disks, but surely I'd be seeing something on at least one of these machines. Does anybody have any idea whether it could be anything other than just a dead drive?

Paul Bolger
Christchurch

I'd check for BIOS updates.

Support for drives over 2 TB is mainly a BIOS thing.

richms

28168 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1225055 30-Jan-2015 01:58

Only for booting, and then its a UEFI thing, as bios doesnt typically work with GPT formatted disks.

Not all USB adapters work with larger drives ok, so if its an old one then that may also be the problem.

I would try it internally on a current gen computer and see what happens. But I have put 3TB's ok into old core2 era machines - just not as the boot drive obviously.

Richard rich.ms

dickytim

2514 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1225060 30-Jan-2015 06:18

When I was trying to use a 3TB drive on my old system it would recognise the disk but only the first 2TB or it, I couldn't partition it to create 2 larger volumes either.