Making Windows see 3 TB disk as one disk

ThemePark

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Jul 31, 2011
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I got a 3 TB internal harddisk today, which I then put into my external USB enclosure. Now it shows up as two separate harddisks, one 2 TB and one of 700 something GB. I have already tried converting the disk to GPT, and making sure there are no partitions on either disk, I've even tried cleaning it in Diskpart, in which case Device Management shows a popup asking me to initialize it, however it's STILL shown as 2 separate disks and yes, at that point it's already been converted to GPT. But I need to be able to use it as one disk.

The odd thing is that I already have two 3 TB internal harddisks in my computer that I've been able to use as one disk but I can't remember how I did it. I've thought about placing the new disk inside the computer but there's no more harddisk space in the chassis and I can't replace one of the harddisks already in there with my new disk.

So I could really use some advice on how to fix this 2 TB problem. Oh and btw, it's not intended as a boot disk which is good since I run Windows 7, and thus don't use UEFI.
 
Solution
You didn't mention it was pre-built external HDD in your first post, had I known that my first reply would have been different. They aren't designed for ripping out the original drive and putting 'foreign' one in it's place - - I'm sure it's that enclosure now which is causing your problem.


Third-party enclosures are cheap enough to buy so why don't you get one? - - manufacturer's product page usually tells you what max capacity HDD is supported so you could always check that before buying.

ThemePark

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Jul 31, 2011
3
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18,510
I did consider that but I didn't quite think that was possible though. It's an external Verbatim disk that I took the disk out of so I could use it for other internal disks that I need to access. It's model number is 47570. Considering that it came with a 1 TB disk, you might just be right.
 
May be there are available 5.25" drive bays in your pc enclosure. You could put 3.5" drive in there with 3.5"->5.25" adapters.
If no 5.25" drive bays are available, then get a different PC enclosure - one with more space for internal hard drives.
 
You didn't mention it was pre-built external HDD in your first post, had I known that my first reply would have been different. They aren't designed for ripping out the original drive and putting 'foreign' one in it's place - - I'm sure it's that enclosure now which is causing your problem.


Third-party enclosures are cheap enough to buy so why don't you get one? - - manufacturer's product page usually tells you what max capacity HDD is supported so you could always check that before buying.
 
Solution