Why can't my PC use large HDD?

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blobbyflob

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Nov 28, 2009
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Hi guys,

Could some kind person confirm or explain why I cant put a 10Tb HDD in my Dell PC please?

I have been told that the limit for each of the SATA connections in my 2013 Dell XPS8700 is 3Tb.
I would very much like to put a quiet 8-12Tb HDD in place of the existing 2Tb drive.

I have been told that this is a function of the present Dell bios for this model, which I accept as true.

The bit I don't understand is why can I plug in an 8Tb Seagate Hub Plus external USB, and seemingly not have problems?

It looks like I'm heading for getting a NAS I guess....

BlobbyFlob
 
Solution
photonboy
There's no such thing as a SATA connection limited by drive capacity.

There MAY be a BIOS/UEFI issue, though I thought that was mainly for drives you BOOT from not secondary drives.

Windows 7+ should be able to address high capacity drives.
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True Buie

True Buie

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Aug 29, 2016
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Heyo blobbyflob

I don't see why a 8-12tb HDD wouldn't work. Well, as you said yourself the BIOS might have a limitation, although I've never heard about that.
I'd say go for it, but maybe check on that BIOS thingy again.

Cheers
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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Jun 20, 2006
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There's no such thing as a SATA connection limited by drive capacity.

There MAY be a BIOS/UEFI issue, though I thought that was mainly for drives you BOOT from not secondary drives.

Windows 7+ should be able to address high capacity drives.
 
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Solution
T

thx1138v2

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Jun 18, 2011
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The answer to that part is the different interfaces - USB vs SATA. The USB external drive has some extra hardware that interprets and handles the read/write instructions. That's also why USB is slower.

 
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boosted1g

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Jun 12, 2013
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OEMS are notorious for posting "max" limits based on current technology (or just what they tested) and not true max specs.

If you are set to UEFI boot then you should have no issues mounting a >3TB drive.

Now I would suggest you get 2-3 4TB over a single 8TB drive. This way if one disk does fail you do not loose everything, and you can even put important stuff on both drives as a backup.
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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Jun 20, 2006
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My two cents again:

1. As said above, I recommend a SMALLER drive unless you absolutely need the space. I don't think the 8TB HDD's are proven reliable either.

2. WDMYCLOUD is an alternative
- attaches to your ROUTER via Ethernet and is accessible to all devices
- only high-speed transfer (up to 90MBps) if router is Gigabit and you connect to the router via Ethernet
https://www.wdc.com/products/personal-cloud-storage/my-cloud.html
and
https://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Personal-Network-Attached-Storage/dp/B01C7JIO5Y/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1503072178&sr=8-6&keywords=wd+mycloud

(reviews seem worse than they should as it fixed a lot of issues in firmware, and Amazon gets similar products mixed up in comments)

Works great and I watch movies (that I legally obtained of course) on OTHER devices such as my Samsung BluRay player by linking to the WDMYCLOUD.

3) No HDD capacity limit that I'm aware of and the install for SATA should be:
a) shut down
b) install HDD (see manual if necessary)
c) SATA power and data cables
d) start up, go into "DISK MANAGEMENT" as drive should not appear by default
e) format GPT (do a "FULL"format which may take a day or so but should build up a bad sector table)
 
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blobbyflob

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Thank you Photonboy

I've just had conformation on the Dell site that this is the difference, and this is the piece of information both myself and others had not mentioned.

There is a 3Tb limit on the boot device, but as long as the system/drive is using UEFI - GPT formatting, there is essentially not a limit on the second drive in the unit.

BTW - Not that I think it's relevent, but I am using W10 Pro. When I bought the system it was Windows 8.

I hope this thread helps someone else too.

 
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