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[Solved] 3TB Unlocker" not fixing 6TB HDD as 1.5TB |
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ZiAMoA 
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 Topic: [Solved] 3TB Unlocker" not fixing 6TB HDD as 1.5TBPosted: 16 Aug 2016 at 3:01pm |
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My problem:
I'm trying to add a brand new 6 TB HDD to my PC to be used as a simple storage drive (not a boot drive), but Windows only sees it as a 1.5 TB drive. How can I get Windows to let me use the full 6 TB capacity?
I understand that if I were trying to boot off of my 6 TB drive (or any drive larger than 2 TB), I'd need a UEFI-capable motherboard, which I don't have. But since I'm not trying to boot off of the 6 TB drive, my lack of UEFI shouldn't be a problem (please correct me if I'm wrong). Here's what I've tried: Hooked up the 6 TB drive directly to a SATA port on the motherboard. Booted into Windows 7 and opened Computer Management -> Disk Management. Saw the new drive unitialized (as expected), but with a capacity of only 1493.03 GB. Initialized the drive to GPT and created a max-size simple volume to fill the disk, which gave a final capacity of 1492.90 GB. Downloaded and installed the ASRock 3TB Unlocker (v1.1.1). I couldn't find any documentation pertaining to it, but my motherboard (X58 Extreme3) was at least clearly listed on the page of compatible models. Nothing obvious happened after the Unlocker installation completed, and running the executable in the installed directory seemingly does nothing, so I can only assume that it has taken effect. However, my problem is still exactly the same. I don't know what exactly the Unlocker was supposed to make different, but nothing is different. I rebooted in case the Unlocker needs a reboot to work its magic, but no change. Next, I used Diskpart to clean the disk, then went back into Disk Management and reinitialized the disk to see if anything would be different now that the Unlocker was installed, but everything was the same as the first time (capacity still shown to be around 1493 GB). And now I'm out of ideas to try. Is there something more that I need to do with the 3TB Unlocker to make it work, aside from just installing it? Is there some other solution entirely that I can try to get Windows to recognize my 6 TB drive as being 6 TB rather than just 1.5 TB? Here are my specs: Windows 7 x64 Ultimate ASRock X58 Extreme 3 LGA1366 (with the latest drivers installed) Intel Core i7-920 @ 4.5 Ghz LGA1366 12 GB DDR3 1600 SDRAM GeForce GTX 970 512 GB Transcend TS512GSSD370S SSD (existing boot drive) 6 TB Western Digital Blue WD60EZRZ (the new storage drive I'm trying to add) Thanks a ton to anyone who's able to offer any help. |
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wardog
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Posted: 16 Aug 2016 at 4:08pm |
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So long as it'll be a storage drive, see the link and scroll down to "Creating GPT Drives"
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn653580(v=vs.85).aspx Honestly, I'm reasonably sure this boards non EFI/UEFI BIOS and or X58 chipset will not boot any drive lager than ~1.5TB, so 6TB is limited to storage |
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wardog
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Posted: 16 Aug 2016 at 4:12pm |
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parsec
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Posted: 16 Aug 2016 at 8:36pm |
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I don't know exactly why the 3TB Unlocker program does not seem to work for you. Frankly, I'm not sure what it even does. Could be a few things:
Is your 6TB HDD connected to the Intel, Marvell, or JMicron SATA/eSATA ports? Are you setting the SATA mode to AHCI in the BIOS, regardless of the SATA interface you are using? 3TB Unlocker might only work on the Intel SATA ports, with the SATA mode set to AHCI. As wardog pointed out, all you really need to do is format your HDD as GPT rather than MBR, in Windows Disk Management, or using Diskpart. When using MBR formatting, the range of disk addresses only allows up to a ~2.2TB drive. GPT formatting allows disk addressing far beyond that, and more than enough for a 6TB drive. In theory, you should be able to create multiple MBR partitions on a large drive, but then they would each have their own drive letter, which some people feel is awkward. |
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Kladno
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Posted: 16 Aug 2016 at 9:21pm |
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As I know this "3TB+ Unlocker tool offers a tweak-friendly feature, breaking the limitation of 32-bit operation system" and you have Windows 7 x64, so you don't need to install 3TB+ unlocker additionally.
How much capacity do you see in BIOS?
Edited by Kladno - 16 Aug 2016 at 9:22pm |
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ZiAMoA
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Posted: 17 Aug 2016 at 11:50am |
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Thanks so much for the quick replies everyone! I've investigated and tried everything you've suggested so far, but nothing has yielded any progress, sadly.
Yep, that's the one.
Yes.
Yes, it's set to AHCI.
So I guess it's no wonder that the 3TB Unlocker is doing nothing for me, since I have a 64-bit OS and it's only useful on 32-bit OSes. If anything, my problem is now even more inexplicable! The BIOS does not report the capacity of any of the attached hard drives, only their port and model number, so I can't see what the BIOS would say about the 6 TB drive's capacity. My hours of Googling this issue have been fruitless so far, but I'll keep looking and poking around to see if I can figure this thing out. I'd be happy to hear any more helpful ideas if anyone's got any.
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Kladno
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Posted: 17 Aug 2016 at 2:00pm |
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You can use any 3rd party SW to check capacity of your drive.
Try this one HWiNFO64 v5.34 for Windows (Native 64-bit) at If you can boot to DOS (from USB, FDD) it will be better to use DOS version to eliminate possible Windows errors. In Windows you can also use DISKPART command. In elevated command prompt (Command Prompt (Admin)) type DISKPART:. DISKPART> list disk Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt -------- ------------- ------- ------- --- --- Disk 0 Online xxx GB 0 B * DISKPART> exit
Edited by Kladno - 17 Aug 2016 at 2:48pm |
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ZiAMoA
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Posted: 17 Aug 2016 at 3:33pm |
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Thanks Kladno, you put me on the right track! I've found what seems to be a complete workaround to the problem.
I booted an old Windows 7 System Repair Disc I had on hand, went into the command prompt, and ran Diskpart there. It reported my 6 TB drive's size accurately as 5589 TB! So I ran the following commands to reinitialize it as GPT and format it:
Then I rebooted into Windows and the disk was all ready to use with its full 6 TB capacity available. Oddly, when I now run Diskpart from within Windows, it still shows the same disk as being only 1493 GB in size, just as before. So whatever the heck is crippling Windows' own partitioning tools making them unable to see the disk's full capacity seems to still be present. But since I've now gotten the disk properly initialized and formatted outside of Windows, I seem to have sidestepped the problem, so I think I can just ignore it now. Anyway, I'm considering this as good as case closed. Thanks again to everyone who offered me help.
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windowshelper
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Posted: 13 Feb 2018 at 2:15pm |
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windowshelper
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Posted: 13 Feb 2018 at 2:16pm |
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also faced same issues in my system, i do not find the solution of this problem. but My problem will be solve because i read your post and also meat the many solution of the problem, so thanks and your post is really informative for me and you faced the service registration corrupt error in your system so you can visit my site https://notresponding.net/service-registration-corrupt/ and find the solution of your problem.
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wardog wrote: