how to use terabyte hard drives

[Pamphlet]

I quote how this works again

All it does is render existing data junk when the private key is cleared.

Which doesn't have any bearing on drive geometry. The re-deployment benefit is that the lost key leaves it ready for immediate reuse with no need to spend a day repeatedly writing random patterns to every sector.

 

[anne O'nymous]

low level formatting took a while but unfortunately hasnt really done anything. i had a popup saying the drive needed to be initialized and i chose GPT but the system still says there is only 750ishGB

It's really strange. It would be a small difference between the expected size and the seen one, I would say that SMART marked the sectors as dead. But no one would wait to have lost more than two third of the storage capacity before changing the drives.

But aside from that - there is an

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of that disc.

Not the same serial, not the same series (the 750GB is a TravelStar, while the 3TB is an UltraStar) and, more important, not the same size (2.5 for the 750 GB, 3.5 for the 3TB).
The last part render any labeling error really improbable since they probably aren't not assembled on the same line, or at least not at the same time ; they wouldn't have let go a full batch with the wrong label. It's also highly improbable that someone used 2.5 for a server.

 

[*inhales*Boi]

Since it was part of a company chances are very high that you deal with encrypted data on that drive thus reducing what software sees as capacity.

even then wouldnt the low level format i just did have cleared that?

Have you checked all possible reasons listed in the link I posted? It also mentions that old versions of Intel's rapid storage won't support drives over 2tb. It could be a lot of things.

my machine doesnt have intel in it as far as i can tell(though i admit i might not be doing it right) i appear to have AMD


just in case there is any details im accidentally leaving out ill talk about every action im making once i got them and what i saw

once i got home with the 2 3tb drives i wanted to start trying to use them, so i got out my EZ-dock to use the internal drives as external ones temporarily while i set it up
it uses my 6prong for power and my USB for interfacing with my computer
once the 3TB drives are in and my computer recognizes them i look at them via disk management
from what i remember there was about 200ishGB used for a partition, 500ishGB of unallocated space, and 2ishTB for another partition
both partitions were unaccessible to my computer so i right-clicked then deleted the volumes
i was then left with a 800ishGB.
thinking that my first drive was a dud i repeated this process on the second drive
confused as to what was going on i searched the web and found the link 'Meaning Less' provided and followed those instructions as best i could to no avail
when that didnt work i thought i'd give this place a go

if you guys need additional information of the state of the drives before i deleted the volumes i could go back to where i got the 2 drives in the first place theres another 10 or so there

 

[Meaning Less]

it uses my 6prong for power and my USB for interfacing with my computer

If you are using usb as interface it probably is reason 3 from that link then.

In general, there are some USB enclosures that have a 2TiB limit, irrespective of the partition type. At this time, users can try connecting external hard drive to a computer via SATA.

 

[*inhales*Boi]

but then wouldnt it be capped at 2TB? not 800GB?

 

[Meaning Less]

but then wouldnt it be capped at 2TB? not 800GB?

It seems like showing only 750gb on 3tb is quite normal when your system is incompatible with them.
Probably is related with how they work, usually they have multiple disks inside and maybe you can only acess one of them without the proper instructions.

 

[*inhales*Boi]

hrmm, ok. ill try to plug it in the traditional way and see what happens

 

[rayminator]

can you take a screenshot of the label does it say sata or sas connector?

if it a sas connector then you might out of luck depending on the connector

sas and sata connectors look identical but different and also the cables as well

this is what sas cables/controller look like depending on the configuration



Wikipedia reports

drives may be connected to SAS backplanes, but SAS drives may not be connected to SATA backplanes

so this MIGHT be your problem the hard drive were under a sas controller not a sata controller

if you know the brand of hard drive contact them and ask how to reset the firmware so it can read sata controller

 

[*inhales*Boi]

...well uh, id like to take a moment to apologize for being an incompetent twit, not to mention my outright boobery

that worked. the hardrive has made a 180 and i can now write to the 2TB and am unable to access the 750GB and, frankly, i dont care! that 750 can jump into a lake

thanks to @Meaning Less for pointing out my problem the moment i became smart enough to mention it

and additional thanks to all you guys for your help in trying to stop the fool writing this from hitting himself in the head any further with the solution to his problem

 

[Meaning Less]

that worked. the hardrive has made a 180 and i can now write to the 2TB and am unable to access the 750GB and, frankly, i dont care! that 750 can jump into a lake

That last disk is probably just formated as another partition now (with everything you done previously).
You probably can still do a full format again to get that 750back.
But either way I guess at least it got a bit better.

 

[*inhales*Boi]

i just checked and it decided to boot as MBR a quick GPT conversion and i can now pull the 750 out of the lake XD

 

[Pamphlet]

additional thanks to all you guys for your help

No problem, man! It's been fun to see a thread with a proper tech mystery.