Author: ZiAMoA
Subject: "3TB Unlocker" not fixing 6TB HDD seen as 1.5TB
Posted: 16 Aug 2016 at 3:01pm
My problem:
Subject: "3TB Unlocker" not fixing 6TB HDD seen as 1.5TB
Posted: 16 Aug 2016 at 3:01pm
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.