How do i get win 7 32 bit to recognise a 2tb expansion external hdd

[powersystem]

I want to save files from a perfectly good 500gb hdd to a 2tb Seagate Expansion External HDD and am having no success at all. I have 3 systems ( one is a notebook) all running win 7 32 bit OS's. All of the systems recognise the drive in the BIOS and Device Manager, but the drive does not appear in Windows explorer. The Ext drive is GUID partitioned and from what I have seen from other posts on various sites that may well be the problem.

Is there a work around to enable the 32 bit os to recognise the drive or do I have to upgrade to the win 64 bit version.

I will be eternally grateful to anyone who can put me out of my misery. I am not entirely computer illiterate but by the same token I am not what you would call a power user either. So if someone answers this plea can you keep it simple please. After all I am 80 yrs old next year and the old grey matter aint what it used to be.

Powersystem.

 

[smorizio]

it wont show up in windows in till it has a fat or ntfs partion then you can format and use it as a reg drive.
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windows7/ss/format-hard-drive-windows-7-tutorial.htm
there should have been a disk with some software to format the drive.
http://www.seagate.com/support/external-hard-drives/portable-hard-drives/expansion-portable/
diskwizard is the software that will set the drive up.(partion it and format it for you.).
if diskwizard cant then download seatools and see if the ext drive is healthy, from seagate support site the drive should have been partion and formated allready so when the drive was plugged in windows should have see it and gave it a drive letter.

 

[robustus64]

Yes good answer.. you should have been able to use it out of the box really...

 

[powersystem]

it wont show up in windows in till it has a fat or ntfs partion then you can format and use it as a reg drive.
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windows7/ss/format-hard-drive-windows-7-tutorial.htm
there should have been a disk with some software to format the drive.
http://www.seagate.com/support/external-hard-drives/portable-hard-drives/expansion-portable/
diskwizard is the software that will set the drive up.(partion it and format it for you.).
if diskwizard cant then download seatools and see if the ext drive is healthy, from seagate support site the drive should have been partion and formated allready so when the drive was plugged in windows should have see it and gave it a drive letter.

Thanks Smorizio,

The drive isn't mine I am doing it for a friend whose mobo turned it up and they have purchased a new system and need to put their files on it. They informed me that they have been using it with their new PC and it goes beaut and I naturally thought that it would do the same for me. Anyway mate thanks for the info but I will have to go and have a yarn to them and find out what they are operating and get a few more details.

I have a version of 'Hirens Boot Disk' here so there will be something on it that I can use if necessary, but thanks for the URL's. I will certainly check them out but not until tomorrow. Its 9pm here and thats just about my bedtime.

My thanks again mate and also to 'robustus64' who gave your answer the big tick.

I will let you know what the outcome is when it's sorted out. G'nite

Powersystem.
.

 

[smorizio]

well when you wake up and having that spot of tea ask your friends if they had a mac before the pc. gogling guid partition table comes back as the drive is formatted for a mac. if they had a mac and now it a pc all you have to do is reformat it to fat 32 or ntfs.

 

[Hawkeye22]

well when you wake up and having that spot of tea ask your friends if they had a mac before the pc. gogling guid partition table comes back as the drive is formatted for a mac. if they had a mac and now it a pc all you have to do is reformat it to fat 32 or ntfs.

Windows seven has no problems formatting or reading a GPT formatted disk, unless it's a boot disk, then your motherboard has to be EUFI in order to read/boot off of it.

 

[powersystem]

Best answer selected by powersystem.

 

[powersystem]

well when you wake up and having that spot of tea ask your friends if they had a mac before the pc. gogling guid partition table comes back as the drive is formatted for a mac. if they had a mac and now it a pc all you have to do is reformat it to fat 32 or ntfs.

Hi Smorizio,

You nailed it my friend. They had an apple and it was formatted, as I said earlier, in Quid and it has now been partitioned and formatted in ntfs and is working great.

Windows Disk Manager did the job quite well. It just goes to show that no matter how old you are there is always a different scenario confronting you. My wholehearted thanks to you. Great advice. G'nite.

Powersystem