how to use 3T internal hard drive in USB docking station on Samsung TV

young707

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I have a Samsung UN60F6300 TV.
I have been using USB SATA hard drive docking stations to play video and movies inside internal hard drives, capacity up to 2T.
Recently, I got new 3T Seagate hard drives. I am able to format, partition (either in MBR or GPT, in various partition size), but the Samsung TV USB has not been able to recognize the 3T drives.

How can I use this 3T drives to my Samsung TV? Thank you.
 
Solution
yes, not all usb chips are compatible with 3tb+ drives. Neither are all PC bios's. Always check first to see if they are supported.

young707

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yes, I format this 3T Seagate internal hard drive into NTFS directory - USB docking station at Windows 7 desk top - diskmgmt.msc/control panel/administrative tools / computer management/ disk management. Both in MBR and GPT partition type and all different sizes. Even a small single partition. None is recognized by the Samsung TV. However, similar 2T hard drive has no problem at all.
 

chicken4thewin

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Perhaps the samsung's storage detector can't detect storage over 2TB, if so, then you should just stick to the 2TB.
 

chicken4thewin

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Like we said, the TV probably can't detect partitions greater that 2TB, maybe use 2 seperate partitions, you'll still get 3TB, and you won't have to worry about it not working.
 

young707

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OK. I have two USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 docking stations connecting to Samsung TV. Both docking stations work with 2T or small hard drives without problem.

However, when we got some 3T Seagate hard drives, the USB 3.0 docking station does not work with Samsung TV at all, regardless partition type or partition size.

The USB 2.0 docking station works with Samsung TV, only if this 3T hard drive is set to MBR partition type with maximum 2.048T capacity. (The rest is unallocated and cannot be used).

Is this conclusion correct?
 

chicken4thewin

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Should be.
 

jediboyuk

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Guys, I think it's maybe something you've overlooked, or at least is not made too clear for newbies, like me.
Took me a while to wrap my dumb head around it, to be sure, and it still seems a pointless PAIN in that MBR wasn't future-proofed, just like these bloody "dumb" so-called "Smart TVs"!

This is my first post but I can't take credit, though, I googled the problem and got the answer.

Very simple. Much simpler than NTFS formatting (although older tellys seem to prefer FAT32) and faffing around with caddies. Back to basics...

Old style partition tabling uses MBR (Master Boot Record) which will support drives up to 2TB.
Larger drives use GPT, you can initialise them to MBR but you will only be able to use 2TB od the drive, wasting the rest. You could use the 2TB in MBR for TV and the other 700MB for PC and Laptop storage only but it's not an ideal solution, really.
I'm doing some looking around at the moment and PRAYING that newer "Smart" TVs play nice with GPT drives but I cannot say what does and doesn't... yet.

I have a second PC or a laptop with HDMI out near my TV and run a "DRX" HDD enclosure which reads my 6T WD RED just fine, but my TV is an older model circa 2012 and I don't know if the firmware can be updated but I will let you know if I find anything.

I also have a couple of WD portable 2TB drives which sit snuggly under the TV and run just fine.