3TB Drive Only Showing 746.52GB Space For Install

DesertDryDock

Honorable
Apr 23, 2013
21
0
10,510
I'm trying to install XP Pro 64 bit on a HGST Deskstar NAS 3TB 7200RPM SATA III 64MB Cache Internal Hard Drive and it only shows 746.52 GB of space on the drive. How can I get it to jump over to the 2TB that I can't see?
 
Solution
Hi there DesertDryDock,

In case you want to use all the 3 TB of the HDD, it needs to be initialized using GPT. The thing is, that you can do that only if your drive is a storage one, not a boot(primary one). You cannot make full use of 3TB unless your motherboard supports UEFI boot mode in case you want to boot from it.
In case you want to boot from it, it need to be initialized as MBR. In this case though, you will not use the full capacity.

Check these out:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn640535%28v=vs.85%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396#gpt_faq_xp64_boot
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2581408

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

DesertDryDock

Honorable
Apr 23, 2013
21
0
10,510
I pulled the drive out and hooked it to my other PC. In this Disk Management it shows up as two unallocated partitions, the first is 2048 GB and the second is 746.52 GB. Also in my AOMEI Partition Assistant it simply shows 2.73TB of unallocated space.
 
Hi there DesertDryDock,

In case you want to use all the 3 TB of the HDD, it needs to be initialized using GPT. The thing is, that you can do that only if your drive is a storage one, not a boot(primary one). You cannot make full use of 3TB unless your motherboard supports UEFI boot mode in case you want to boot from it.
In case you want to boot from it, it need to be initialized as MBR. In this case though, you will not use the full capacity.

Check these out:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn640535%28v=vs.85%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396#gpt_faq_xp64_boot
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2581408

Cheers,
D_Know_WD
 
Solution