4TB OS DRIVE, slow, crashing

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NewBorn92

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So long story short, been sitting here since yesterday trying to work out why this wont work, so i have TWO 4TB HDD, but I only used 1 of them for games etc and an old 500 gb sea gate I've had for years what hosted my WINDOWS 7 on, but noticed over the months it would get to the point it would fill up and nothing to really delete to free space, so I decided to use my spare hard drive (Never used) in to my computer, but it has gave me nothing but issues, OS IS SLOW, it doesn't seem to want to download certain things, like windows update is stick at checking for updates, also if I try to install my "Anti virus" from my ISP provider it will make my screen lock up, I have formatted it over 10 times, tried the other 4TB hard drive, still issues after issues., the 4TB hard drive as the OS drive noticed is changing sizes all the time, it's went from Being normal to EMPTY WITH 150 mb left, jumping back down to normal again, can someone please help me? going crazy. Yes, I am in and installed UEFI MODE.


AND my 4 TB hard drives are WD black.
 
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13thmonkey

13thmonkey

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historically drives have had a 512 byte sector size, however once 'large' drives started to appear a 4k sector size was created to reduce losses in storage space. If you ar enot aligned that might, just might cause these problems.

Can you download As SSD Benchmark, don't start the benchmark itself, but in the top left panel you should get an indication of whether it is aligned.

This might however be an obsolete problem, but worth considering.
 
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SuperSoph_WD

SuperSoph_WD

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Hey there, @NewBorn92!

In addition to what @13thmonkey suggested, have you tried plugging the system drive to a different SATA port on the motherboard? I'd advise you to do so and also try using a different SATA cable as well. The poor system performance could be coming from a faulty cable/port connection to the primary drive.
It sounds like you are experiencing some OS issues as well, so it might be a good idea to consider running The StartUp Repair Options from your Windows installation media.
If the problem is still present after swapping of ports/cables, I'd strongly recommend you backup your data and then run the QUICK and EXTENDED tests from the WD Data LifeGuard Diagnostics for Windows.

Hope this helps. Keep us posted with the troubleshooting, though. :)
SuperSoph_WD
 
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NewBorn92

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I gave up, went back to my 500 gb drive, (No issues like before) ill try the extended test.. but i did a basic one and all turned out good,.. one of my drives is split into 2 unallowlocated and no option to convert to gpt as it says it has boot files on it in system reserve even though I didn't choose the drive to install OS too. so in short it couldn't get 4TB drive to work on WINDOWS 7, it booted, etc but was not working correctly...

I had all 3 hard drives plugged in when installing OS maybe should of disconnected them?

 
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ex_bubblehead

ex_bubblehead

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It would help to know the exact model of your drives. Windows 7 does not support drives that report as native 4k sectors and will exhibit performance issues. Windows 7 w/SP1 does support advanced format drives that emulate the older 512byte sectors (512E).
 
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NewBorn92

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I get it, it's an old drive, but my TWO 4TB WD drives are alot newer with one that was sitting in the case unplugged so your saying all 3 hard drives are bad? i tested with programs, changed ports, it didn't make a difference., though my windows 7 disk is a-bit messed up and quite old and messy, maybe that is the reason why my OS was asking weird, no one seems to understand my computer was working FINE yesterday with no such issue, only started to happen when i wanted to format my drives and to my OS on 4tb.
 
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NewBorn92

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update guys, so I tried 2 days straight trying to get my OS to work correctly on 4TB failed so much, sadly i have gave up and went back to using my 500gb, had no issues getting back up... maybe i am better just swaping the 500gb, for 1tb. in the future.. but for some odd reason it didn't like it.
 
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ex_bubblehead

ex_bubblehead

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As long as the drive is a 512E drive (emulates 512byte sectors) Windows 7 SP1 will support it, and is undoubtedly what was used in that tutorial. All indications are that your 4TB drives are NOT 512E drives but report both logical and physical sectors as 4k and are therefore not supported by Windows 7. That's why I asked for the exact model (which you still haven't provided). You may also find it on the disk label or as part of the model (look for 512E).
 
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NewBorn92

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and my hard drive is wd4003fzex

just checked my sectors and it states 512 on both my old and WD 4tb drives, also i was trying to hide my system reserved drive in computer management but now its nameless and can't use properties how can you fix that?
 
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SuperSoph_WD

SuperSoph_WD

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Hey there again, @NewBorn92!

I'd totally agree with @ex_bubblehead and ask you again to check how the drives would get recognized if you use different SATA cables, not only different SATA ports. The system might be underperforming due to a failed connection, so this is how you will rule it out as the source of the issue.
The guide that you shared about 'How to install Windows on 3TB or 4TB and larger HDD' definitely works with Windows 7, but you need to make sure that your OS version is 64-bit.

Keep us posted with the details.
SuperSoph_WD
 
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NewBorn92

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my os is 64 bit, kinda gave up just back using my 500 gb for the time being, checked cables, switched them around still same issue, i've noticed my sata cables do not Click on the WD hard drive, but they do on the seagate, so it's not the cables, but 2 of my 4 TB hard drive's fits on but don't click.
 
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NewBorn92

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wait, i have a question, is it possible it's a bad ram sticks? my ram sticks are from the same age as my sea gate hard drive, 14 gb, and 1 isn't even the same brand, could this cause issues on bigger hard drives with os installed?
 
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NewBorn92

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Update I guess. so this time I didn't delete my main OS, but unplugged it and tried to install WINS 7 on my 4tb hard drive again, I am running in to the same issues. hard drive sometimes to appears to change spaces to 500gb left, or nearly full or full back to normal etc... then slows down my computer then it looksl like the drive disconnected as it showed no space bar very briefly .. so honestly don't know what else to do, swaped cables around checked them etc, no joy.
 
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SuperSoph_WD

SuperSoph_WD

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This sounds like quite the struggle and headaches, @NewBorn92! I'm sorry that you are going through this. :( However, have you considered that there could be something wrong with the Windows 7 installation media itself? I'd strongly advise you to rule this issue out by re-creating the bootable media from the MS support site. This will ensure that the Windows 7 OS install has no corruption or issues. After creating the new bootable flash drive/DVD, try re-installing the OS on one of the 4 TB WD Blacks again and see if that will improve anything.

Keep us posted.
SuperSoph_WD
 
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SuperSoph_WD

SuperSoph_WD

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@NewBorn92, you just need to make sure that all secondary HDDs are disconnected from the motherboard while clean installing the OS on the primary drive. This way you will avoid the so-called OS confusion that occurs when you have more than 1 destination SATA drive connected to the mobo at that time!
This is pretty important, thank you for bringing up the additional steps, @13thmonkey! Once the OS is up and running from the primary drive, then it's safe to connect the secondary drives back to the system.
If that doesn't help either, I'd definitely consider installing a different, newer OS version.

SuperSoph_WD
 
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