How do I find out if 3tb internal/external hard-drive will work on my computer?

IRL_Drizzt · 06-22-12 at 12:55 AM

How do I find out if 3tb internal/external hard-drive will work on my computer?
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pc specs: Acer eMachine EZ1711, Windows 7-64bit, (all drivers updated), Intel RST v10.8.0.1003.

Acer-eMachines-EZ1711

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http://www.misco.ie/discontinued/187353/Acer-eMachines-EZ1711-All-in-one-PC-Atom-D525B-Dual-Core-3GB-RAM-500GB-HDD-18-5inch-TFT-Display-DVD-RW-Windows-7-Home

Everytime I hook up the Seagate Barracuda 3tb internal hard drive (in seagate expansion caddy (which 2tb hdd was in) it shows up as 750gb instead of 3tb.

In process of waiting for hard drive docking station (Friday / Monday to arrive).

If doesn't work, what should I do?

Thanks in advance.

Loora · 06-22-12 at 01:03 AM

Update your BIOS.

looj24498 · 06-22-12 at 01:13 AM

Is the hard drive fully partitioned? It could be that only a portion of the drive is partitioned.

AlienXX · 06-22-12 at 01:46 AM

There seems to be terrible support documentation available for your system.

1) Internal HDD upgrade to 3Tb would be risky in this case, as Loora has already said upgrade your BIOS. Then you gamble on whether or not the internal 3Tb will work...

2) External 3Tb USB drive should be fine. All you need is a free USB port, you are running Windows 7 64 bit so just partition the new drive as you see fit.

Tutorials on disk partitioning in Win7

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http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windows7/ht/disk-management-windows-7.htm

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http://www.7tutorials.com/how-manage-your-disks-using-disk-management-utility

IRL_Drizzt · 06-22-12 at 04:23 AM

How do I update my BIOS?

thanks for your help

**dormin** · 06-22-12 at 04:28 AM

You can go to the site of the manufacturer of your board. So since you list it as an acer I would suggest there. Believe it or not you could also try a query in google. Such as "Model make of comp support 3T drive" I am sure there are forums out there that discuss technical aspects and will have some great feedback for you.

Unless of course someone here happens to have that model and happens to have this drive. You could also drop an email to acer with all the pertinent info and see where that goes.

**TheWang** · 06-22-12 at 04:53 AM

The symptoms you have mentioned ie drive only showing as 750GB indicates that your bios does not support 3TB drives which rules out using it internally unless you can find a suitable bios update as already mentioned.

Disregarding the bios for a min your OS Win 7 64bit does support 3TB drives & could boot from one if the motherboard supported EFI (32bit doesn't support EFI).

If you can't find a suitable bios update all is not lost as without a bios update you should be able to use your 3TB externally (provided the ext dock supports it) but you will have to partition the drive as GPT not MBR to fully use it.
The older MBR partitions "Master Boot Record" only supports drives upto 2.2TB, you need to use GPT "GUID Partition Table" for drives over 2.2TB the GUID bit stands for "Globally Unique Identifier".

IRL_Drizzt · 06-22-12 at 04:54 AM

bios-update

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http://www.gatewaydrivers.org/emachines-desktop-ez1711-ez-series-bios-update.html

which one should i download and install?

thanks

IRL_Drizzt · 06-22-12 at 04:59 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by TheWang

Disregarding the bios for a min your OS Win 7 64bit does support 3TB drives & could boot from one if the motherboard supported EFI (32bit doesn't support EFI)...(provided the ext dock supports it) but you will have to partition the drive as GPT.

thanks for that explaination! :D

**TheWang** · 06-22-12 at 07:17 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by IRL_Drizzt

bios-update

Code: Select All

http://www.gatewaydrivers.org/emachines-desktop-ez1711-ez-series-bios-update.html

which one should i download and install?

thanks

In general any newer bios includes all updates/improvements in the previous ones however neither of those seems all that usefull the "L" ones are for Linux based setups so avoid those unless you are planning on switching to Linux.

The older one listed "P01.B0" is most likely the original bios shipped with which leaves "P01.B2" as the only update though it appears to be just a generic update rather than anything really new.

So from that list P01.B2 is about the only option worth trying though I'd check to see what bios you are currently using before continuing as you may already have it "P01.B2" is from last Aug.
Normally the bios ver will show on screen during booting though you may have to disable "Show full screen logo" in the bios to see it as a lot of manufactures display a product logo rather then the useful tech info.

NB - Only update the bios if you are sure of what you are doing & have the correct bios as any mistake will render the system unbootable & useless unless the MB has a backup bios to restore from on board...

btw don't forget to code those ext links:

AlienXX · 06-22-12 at 09:36 AM

OP take note of TheWang's warning - upgrading your BIOS can be risky, ESPECIALLY if you are a PC 'novice', it can render your PC unusable, if done incorrectly.

AlienXX · 06-22-12 at 09:39 AM

This may be a solution to your issue...

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http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/283723-14-drive-showing

I see TheWang has already suggested this.

OP Can you confirm what partition information you see about the 3Tb drive in the Win 7 Disk Manager tool?

IRL_Drizzt · 06-22-12 at 12:23 PM

thanks for this... gonna bring it down to computer repair place to see if the hard drive is faulty ... as sometimes a batch of them out of the company does be faulty ... as i've read online...

thanks for your help.

Loora · 06-23-12 at 01:24 AM

Your problem is BIOS related, I am sure of that. If your mainboard has SATA II ports it MUST (!) support 3+TB drives. If it doesn't the manufacturer has to provide a BIOS update that enables support for these drives because all that's needed to operate these large drives is already implemented in SATA II. It's just that during a transitional period not all BIOS/Board manufacturers updated their BIOS's SATA support to SATA II in time.

If you can't find a suitable BIOS update online don't hesitate to call their customer support and yell at them :) They have to provide you with a working BIOS upgrade so you have full SATA II support OR they will have to exchange your mainboard for a working one because SATA II is broken on your model unless they fix it with a BIOS update.

They'll probably try to weasel their way out of this but be persistent. They sold you SATA II and that's what they have to deliver, one way or another.

This is, btw, a very common problem with older mainboards that have SATA II ports. At the time they hit the market 500gb was as big as it could get and there was no issue so board/bios manufacturers went the easy way and left out a significant portion of the SATA II specs in their implementation.

06-22-12 at 01:46 AM	#4
AlienXX Expert Join Date: Jun 2010 Posts: 672	There seems to be terrible support documentation available for your system. 1) Internal HDD upgrade to 3Tb would be risky in this case, as Loora has already said upgrade your BIOS. Then you gamble on whether or not the internal 3Tb will work... 2) External 3Tb USB drive should be fine. All you need is a free USB port, you are running Windows 7 64 bit so just partition the new drive as you see fit. Tutorials on disk partitioning in Win7 Code: Select All http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windows7/ht/disk-management-windows-7.htm Code: Select All http://www.7tutorials.com/how-manage-your-disks-using-disk-management-utility Last edited by AlienXX; 06-22-12 at 01:49 AM.

06-22-12 at 04:54 AM	#8
IRL_Drizzt Novice Join Date: Jun 2012 Posts: 128	bios-update Code: Select All http://www.gatewaydrivers.org/emachines-desktop-ez1711-ez-series-bios-update.html which one should i download and install? thanks Last edited by TheWang; 06-22-12 at 06:10 AM.

06-22-12 at 07:17 AM	#10
TheWang Insane Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 21,553	Quote: Originally Posted by IRL_Drizzt bios-update Code: Select All http://www.gatewaydrivers.org/emachines-desktop-ez1711-ez-series-bios-update.html which one should i download and install? thanks In general any newer bios includes all updates/improvements in the previous ones however neither of those seems all that usefull the "L" ones are for Linux based setups so avoid those unless you are planning on switching to Linux. The older one listed "P01.B0" is most likely the original bios shipped with which leaves "P01.B2" as the only update though it appears to be just a generic update rather than anything really new. So from that list P01.B2 is about the only option worth trying though I'd check to see what bios you are currently using before continuing as you may already have it "P01.B2" is from last Aug. Normally the bios ver will show on screen during booting though you may have to disable "Show full screen logo" in the bios to see it as a lot of manufactures display a product logo rather then the useful tech info. NB - Only update the bios if you are sure of what you are doing & have the correct bios as any mistake will render the system unbootable & useless unless the MB has a backup bios to restore from on board... btw don't forget to code those ext links:

06-22-12 at 09:39 AM	#12
AlienXX Expert Join Date: Jun 2010 Posts: 672	This may be a solution to your issue... Code: Select All http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/283723-14-drive-showing I see TheWang has already suggested this. OP Can you confirm what partition information you see about the 3Tb drive in the Win 7 Disk Manager tool?

06-22-12 at 01:03 AM	#2
Loora Apprentice Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 441	Update your BIOS.

06-22-12 at 01:13 AM	#3
looj24498 Master Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: California, USA Posts: 1,272	Is the hard drive fully partitioned? It could be that only a portion of the drive is partitioned.

06-22-12 at 04:23 AM	#5
IRL_Drizzt Novice Join Date: Jun 2012 Posts: 128	How do I update my BIOS? thanks for your help

06-22-12 at 04:28 AM	#6
dormin Illuminati Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: 3rd Rock Posts: 2,320	You can go to the site of the manufacturer of your board. So since you list it as an acer I would suggest there. Believe it or not you could also try a query in google. Such as "Model make of comp support 3T drive" I am sure there are forums out there that discuss technical aspects and will have some great feedback for you. Unless of course someone here happens to have that model and happens to have this drive. You could also drop an email to acer with all the pertinent info and see where that goes.

06-22-12 at 04:53 AM	#7
TheWang Insane Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 21,553	The symptoms you have mentioned ie drive only showing as 750GB indicates that your bios does not support 3TB drives which rules out using it internally unless you can find a suitable bios update as already mentioned. Disregarding the bios for a min your OS Win 7 64bit does support 3TB drives & could boot from one if the motherboard supported EFI (32bit doesn't support EFI). If you can't find a suitable bios update all is not lost as without a bios update you should be able to use your 3TB externally (provided the ext dock supports it) but you will have to partition the drive as GPT not MBR to fully use it. The older MBR partitions "Master Boot Record" only supports drives upto 2.2TB, you need to use GPT "GUID Partition Table" for drives over 2.2TB the GUID bit stands for "Globally Unique Identifier".

06-22-12 at 04:59 AM	#9
IRL_Drizzt Novice Join Date: Jun 2012 Posts: 128	Quote: Originally Posted by TheWang Disregarding the bios for a min your OS Win 7 64bit does support 3TB drives & could boot from one if the motherboard supported EFI (32bit doesn't support EFI)...(provided the ext dock supports it) but you will have to partition the drive as GPT. thanks for that explaination! :D

06-22-12 at 09:36 AM	#11
AlienXX Expert Join Date: Jun 2010 Posts: 672	OP take note of TheWang's warning - upgrading your BIOS can be risky, ESPECIALLY if you are a PC 'novice', it can render your PC unusable, if done incorrectly.

06-22-12 at 12:23 PM	#13
IRL_Drizzt Novice Join Date: Jun 2012 Posts: 128	thanks for this... gonna bring it down to computer repair place to see if the hard drive is faulty ... as sometimes a batch of them out of the company does be faulty ... as i've read online... thanks for your help.

06-23-12 at 01:24 AM	#14
Loora Apprentice Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 441	Your problem is BIOS related, I am sure of that. If your mainboard has SATA II ports it MUST (!) support 3+TB drives. If it doesn't the manufacturer has to provide a BIOS update that enables support for these drives because all that's needed to operate these large drives is already implemented in SATA II. It's just that during a transitional period not all BIOS/Board manufacturers updated their BIOS's SATA support to SATA II in time. If you can't find a suitable BIOS update online don't hesitate to call their customer support and yell at them :) They have to provide you with a working BIOS upgrade so you have full SATA II support OR they will have to exchange your mainboard for a working one because SATA II is broken on your model unless they fix it with a BIOS update. They'll probably try to weasel their way out of this but be persistent. They sold you SATA II and that's what they have to deliver, one way or another. This is, btw, a very common problem with older mainboards that have SATA II ports. At the time they hit the market 500gb was as big as it could get and there was no issue so board/bios manufacturers went the easy way and left out a significant portion of the SATA II specs in their implementation.