WinstonTJ & ALL, Need more help. I have a second 2 Tb HDD which was the back up drive & it fell down & hence I want to buy 3 tb HDD to replace that back up drive. Dead drive is Seagate 2 Tb GoFlex external drive. When I start it, it spins for a while with some clicking noise inside & few bips & then it stops spinning after 30 seconds or so. Also it doesn't get detected. Any solution to that ? It is out of warrenty. Thanks
OK #1, I'm not sure that you have a choice on the BIOS. You are using a Dell T7500 correct? I own a bunch of them (five or so) and I'm running A13 (most recent version) and it doesn't give you a choice, Dell just builds the BIOS and it just "is what it is". In the BIOS drives, SATA operation options just make sure you select the AHCI vs. ATA (it's under the Drives dropdown in the BIOS). Here is what I'm running: (Something is fishy with the spacing so I can't hyperlink it properly) #2 - to be honest I have always used a RAID controller with drives that big rather than just plug one directly into the motherboard but for reference I'm building a 24TB box right now with a T7500 (eight 4TB drives in RAID6) and it's fine, it sees the array without an issue. I also have an engineering sample 5TB HDD that's in a T5500 (same BIOS as T7500) and that works fine, plug & play, etc. #3 - Assuming you are running windows 7 or XP just plug the drive in and turn the computer on. Once it's on right click on "My Computer" and click manage. From the Manage menu expand the storage dropdown and click "Disk Management". It can take a second for that screen to come up. From there just find the disk, right click on it and make it active (use the wizard that comes up). Do a format... and if I were you I'd do a quick format because a full format will take hours on a 3TB drive. #4 - I stopped reading that PC World link at "These new hard drives may have issues in some drive enclosures and in older PCs,". A T7500 is a very new PC and you don't have any issues. The largest single drive I've shoved in a Dell box is 5tb and the largest RAID array is 32 TB (eight 4TB HDD's striped in RAID0). That went in an OLD Dell Precision 690 so again, you have no worries. Regarding the dead/clicking drive... I have no idea. If it's accessible at all I'd copy as much data as you can off of it as quickly as possible. If not you can send it out for data recovery which is pretty expensive. If you are daring enough you can try yourself (I do it... it's not hard) just take apart the enclosure and strip it down to the bare HDD. Once you find out what brand & type it is go out and buy an exact model probably used on eBay or somewhere similar (down to the matching exact firmware) and then take them both apart. Move the good platters over to the good used HDD, plug it in... keep your fingers crossed... copy your data fast because it will probably blow up soon. Wear gloves, don't leave dirt of fingerprints ANYWHERE inside the drive and whatever you do don't get water in there.
I am about to get that 3 TB HDD & it is shipped as COD ( Cash on delievery ) Should I plug it in to make sure it gets detected before I hand over $200.00 to the courier guy ? Also should I partition it as GPT or MBR will work too ? What if I want to install Win-7 ( 64 bit ) on it ? Do I then have to Partition it as GPT ?
If you are purchasing from a reputable source (such as new OEM or the drive manufacturer) it won't be an issue at all. If you purchased used or from another source (eBay, etc) just use buyer protection. If you are installing Windows 7 you only need to put in the DVD and let Windows 7 do it's thing. You may have to go into the BIOS on the T7500 and turn on that SATA port but other than that the OS will format and partition appropriately.
Purchasing from an online store & they do have 30 day exchange policy but I have never bought from them & hence the cautious. Thanks again WinstonTJ . Really appreciate the help.
Hi WinstonTJ, I just received my 3.0 TB WD Green HDD. I popped it in my T-7500 & it detected it as a 2.0 TB HDD in Device Manager & asked me to initialize it either as MBR or GPT. Before I fool around with it, I thought to ask you couple of questions. How should I proceed if : (1) I want to install Win-7 ( 64 bit ) You suggested to put Win-7 DVD & it will do the rest. Right now it is showing only 2.0 TB & asking me to initialize it. Should I initialize it before installing Win-7 & how do I get the full 3.0 TB of space ? (2) Make only single 3.0 TB partition & not install any OS. Please see the attachment & advice. Thanks
MBR is fine as long as you aren't running anything really old like Windows 95 or 2000. Even XP will pick it up. I'm a little worried/concerned giving advice much more than that. The screen that you posted to initialize your drive is coming from within a Windows OS. If you initialize the new 3.0TB drive from inside windows it'll be fine - it will ask you to format the drive so it will lose all data. What I don't fully understand is why you would be installing an OS on the 3.0TB drive AND have one on the 2.0TB drive already in the machine. If you do that and don't have proper backups and do a proper install you can risk losing everything on the 2.0TB drive. I would just be careful and have EVERYTHING backed up.
Hi WinstonTJ, I have decided not to install any OS on new 3 TB HDD. The other 2 TB HDD is just the back up data drive & does not have OS on it either. I have a separate 500 GB HDD for Windows-7 ( 64 bit ) that I have been using all the time. I bought this 3 TB HDD because one other 2 TB back up HDD crashed & I needed a back up of the current 2 TB HDD & also needed more space. So now I need help installing the new 3 TB HDD & be able to use full 3 TB HDD Space. I have not initialized this 3 TB HDD because it is detected as only 2 TB HDD. So if I initialize it as an MBR I probably will end up with only 2 TB of space. I was encouraged from your extensive experience with T-7500 workstations & you were able to install not only 3 TB but even 4 & 5 TB HDD on this machine. Yes, I have a brand new Dell T-7500 machine. So please tell me how can I get the full 3 TB space on this HDD drive ? Right now it is still a totally fresh HDD, detected as 2 TB HDD & asking me to initialize it either as MBR or GPT but I haven't done it because I am afraid I might end up with only 2 TB HDD. ( I am using Windows-7 (64 bit) on a 500 GB HDD & connecting this as a slave 3 TB HDD. Thank You again WinstonTJ. I appreciate your help.