4TB Hard Drive registers as 1.8TB

Question

I have a 4TB hard drive that is formatted as GPT with Windows. Windows and disk management recognizes 4TB and partitions are sized correctly. However, numerous partition management software such as Partition Wizard and EaseUS Partition Manager show the device as having 1.8TB. HDD Low Level Format Tool shows 1.8TB but says under physical parameters that the full device capacity is 4TB. What is causing this discrepancy?

Update: The hard drive is recognized correctly in Windows 10 but not in Windows 7. This leads me to believe that it is a driver issue as jiggunjer suggested. What driver do I need? I've downloaded and installed all the most recent drivers from the dell website but that doesn't seem to be what I need to fix it.

PC: Dell XPS 8300

Disk management/Windows says 3.62TB. Partition Wizard and EaseUS say 1665.7GB and total disk size is 1.64TB. — ayao1337, Jan 13 '17 at 03:05
So you have one single partition of 3.62TB? Yet your questions says partitions. I think any GPT disk should have at least 2 partitions, check with diskpart. — jiggunjer, Jan 13 '17 at 04:15
Please indicate (editied into your question) exactally how this hard drive is connected to your system, or any paths it takes like USB dock controller and usb wiring to usb3 port on ? motherboard. Or if it is Sata off the motherboard and Which controller it is connected to, like the intel or a marvell or external on the intel , or via your raid card . That information could be very important to getting a correct answer. — Psycogeek, Jan 13 '17 at 08:26
I'd advise you use the Disk Management utility instead of third-party tools and atttempt to format the 4 TB HDD properly from there. If you suspect any sort of issues, you should probably try plugging the drive to another PC as well and check how it will be recognized there. I'd also second @jiggunjer suggeston and check how the HDD is recognized through DiskPart in Command Prompt (run as administrator). Hope this helps. Good luck! — SuperSoph_WD, Jan 13 '17 at 09:22
Well Windows stopped booting after installing intel rapid storage drivers... I'm going to reinstall windows and see if this continues to happen. — ayao1337, Jan 13 '17 at 21:58
@jiggunjer I checked the drive in disk part. Its again showing this weird info. Under list disk, it shows the size is 1678GB and it is GPT. Under list partitions, it shows the 3 partitions that I have and the main partition is 3713GB, so essentially, the partition is larger than the entire disk according to disk part. I will be running HDD low level format tool and recreating the partition using disk management to see if it fixes the issue. — ayao1337, Jan 16 '17 at 01:28
@SuperSoph_WD BTW this is a WD Black 4TB drive from an RMA due to a failing WD Black 2TB drive. — ayao1337, Jan 16 '17 at 01:29
@SuperSoph_WD I've already tried plugging it into another computer. Same issue. — ayao1337, Jan 16 '17 at 01:32
@psychogeek The hard drive is connected via sata off the motherboard. I've also tried a usb dock on another computer with the same results. — ayao1337, Jan 16 '17 at 02:25
@jiggunjer Well, I have booted into linux and the disks app did show 4TB, but why Windows also shows 4TB? Its just that any third party app on windows shows the weird sizes. Maybe third party apps on linux will also show this error? I do remember booting into linux at one point and I got this. BTW I was only using 1.9TB, not 3.8TB. — ayao1337, Jan 16 '17 at 03:28
@jiggunjer Actually you may be correct. After the low level format, all tools began showing the same incorrect size. I went into linux and created the partition table and formatted the drive. When I booted back to windows, I get the same problem as before. Disk management shows one thing, disk part shows another. I'm struggling to see what drivers it could be though. I just installed a clean version of windows 7 and downloaded fresh drivers. Intel Rapid Storage does say the correct size if that makes a difference. — ayao1337, Jan 16 '17 at 04:53
I've now plugged the hard drive into another windows 10 pc. Disk management and disk part showed the same correct size, 4TB. So is this a driver issue or? The original pc was running a fresh copy of windows 7. — ayao1337, Jan 16 '17 at 05:46
I've installed windows 10 in place of windows 7 and the drive is recognized correctly. I believe this may confirm a driver issue? I still would like to use windows 7, so what driver do I need? — ayao1337, Jan 16 '17 at 06:02
@irule311 are both Win 10 and Win 7 a 64-bit OS version? Another that comes to mind is checking the BIOS version on your PC and make sure you have the latest one installed. The issue could also be coming from disabled AHCI mode in the BIOS, so make sure you got that one running for your storage controller as well. Hope it works in Windows 7 as well. Good luck! — SuperSoph_WD, Jan 17 '17 at 10:50
@SuperSoph_WD They are both 64-bit. I didn't mess with the BIOS when I installed Windows 10 so I would guess the BIOS settings are fine? — ayao1337, Jan 17 '17 at 15:25

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 20 '17 at 02:14

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An upgrade to Windows 10 fixed my issue. My guess is there was some driver that was unavailable or not preinstalled in Windows 7.

answered Jan 20 '17 at 02:14

ayao1337

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Maybe it's both a driver and uefi issue. Here is a link which might be helpful https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/5b26c3bf-a4ae-4604-944d-cd1b53bfaecf/windows-7-doesnt-recognize-all-of-a-4-tb-drive?forum=w7itprogeneral – Tech-IO Jan 20 '17 at 14:18

4TB Hard Drive registers as 1.8TB

1 Answers1