EXT3: Reformatting to NTFS ?

Windows 7 Professional SP1

Swapped out a 3-TB drive from my NAS box and want to format it to NTFS
for use on my PC.

Did what seemed like the obvious:

- MyComputer | Manage | Disk Management

- Selected the EXT3 drive

- Deleted existing partitions


But that left me with only 746.52 gigs available - instead of 3 TB.

And somebody, somewhere threw a Warning dialog:
"The detected total capacity (746 GB) of the drive Disk #7: Hitachi....
is not correct the capacity should be 2794 GB....."

On a command line, I tried "CONVERT G: /fs:ntfs", but CONVERT said that
the disk was already NTFS (true, but only 746 gigs...). Deleted the
partition and, of course, the drive letter went away so there was no
drive letter to feed to CONVERT.

Seems like I have been here before and the solution was something with
FORMAT. Tried Googling and wound up with many hits - but all from a
Linux perspective.

??
--
Pete Cresswell

On 24-Sep-2015 09:08, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
Windows 7 Professional SP1

Swapped out a 3-TB drive from my NAS box and want to format it to NTFS
for use on my PC.

Did what seemed like the obvious:

- MyComputer | Manage | Disk Management

- Selected the EXT3 drive

- Deleted existing partitions


But that left me with only 746.52 gigs available - instead of 3 TB.

And somebody, somewhere threw a Warning dialog:
"The detected total capacity (746 GB) of the drive Disk #7: Hitachi....
is not correct the capacity should be 2794 GB....."

On a command line, I tried "CONVERT G: /fs:ntfs", but CONVERT said that
the disk was already NTFS (true, but only 746 gigs...). Deleted the
partition and, of course, the drive letter went away so there was no
drive letter to feed to CONVERT.

Seems like I have been here before and the solution was something with
FORMAT. Tried Googling and wound up with many hits - but all from a
Linux perspective.

??



Try Free MiniTool Partition Wizard.

http://www.partitionwizard.com/

(PeteCresswell) wrote:
Windows 7 Professional SP1

Swapped out a 3-TB drive from my NAS box and want to format it to NTFS
for use on my PC.

Did what seemed like the obvious:

- MyComputer | Manage | Disk Management

- Selected the EXT3 drive

- Deleted existing partitions


But that left me with only 746.52 gigs available - instead of 3 TB.

And somebody, somewhere threw a Warning dialog:
"The detected total capacity (746 GB) of the drive Disk #7: Hitachi....
is not correct the capacity should be 2794 GB....."

On a command line, I tried "CONVERT G: /fs:ntfs", but CONVERT said that
the disk was already NTFS (true, but only 746 gigs...). Deleted the
partition and, of course, the drive letter went away so there was no
drive letter to feed to CONVERT.

Seems like I have been here before and the solution was something with
FORMAT. Tried Googling and wound up with many hits - but all from a
Linux perspective.

??

The MBR on a MSDOS partitioned disk uses 32 bit fields
for the LBA sizes. This limits useful representations
to 2.2TB ( 2^32 * 512 byte sector). While some Areca RAID
cards use the clever method of making "fake" 4K sectors and
extending the apparent capacity, this isn't an option
for you right now.

When 3TB drives came out, one workaround was Acronis Capacity Manager.
It was a freebie provided by the disk manufacturer. It made
one physical disk (2.2TB), and one virtual disk (746GB). On my
machine here, typically Disk3 was the physical disk, and
Disk5 was the virtual disk. So by, at the driver level,
splitting the disk into two disks (each governed by the 2.2TB
limitation), it was able to use MSDOS flavor partitioning
of a 3TB disk. (In Linux, you would not normally expect the
746GB portion to mount, but by presenting an offset= option
to the mount command, you can actually access that partition
in Linux too. This makes the format "barely maintainable" at
my house :-) )

OK, and the final option is GUID Partition Table. Which
you can read about on Wiki.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table

Using the GPT partitioning method, there is still an
MBR, but it is a fake one. The partition type signals
to Windows, to go look for the GPT section (right after
the MBR).

The GPT supports the 3TB as a single partition if you want.
GPT also supports a *lot* of partitions, numerically speaking.

In the Wikipedia article, scroll down to the OS support
section, to understand what OSes can work with GPT, and
under what circumstances. If you need the widest possible
range of support, you might try Acronis Capacity Manager
(so you can work with the entire disk while in WinXP).
If you're willing to restrict usage to modern OSes (V/7/8/10),
then GPT is a better choice. You can do a "data disk" on
V/7/8/10.

Once you've changed the partitioning type to GPT,
this should be pretty easy.

If you cannot convince Windows to do it, you could
always try "Diskpart" from the command line. If you
select that disk and do "clean" that should remove
the MBR. Then quit Diskpart. Go back to Disk Management
GUI, and then GPT or MBR options should be available.
That's just in case it insists on staying MBR (MSDOS).

MBR/GPT partitioning methods
NTFS file system contained within a partition

HTH,
Paul

PeteCresswell wrote:

Windows 7 Professional SP1

Swapped out a 3-TB drive from my NAS box and want to format it to NTFS
for use on my PC.

Did what seemed like the obvious:
- MyComputer | Manage | Disk Management
- Selected the EXT3 drive
- Deleted existing partitions
But that left me with only 746.52 gigs available - instead of 3 TB.

Delete all partitions and then initialize the disk. Initialize is a
separate step to prepare the disk: sets up the MBR or GPT and creates a
disk ID. Initializing does not create any partitions. First
initialize, then partition, then format. Disk Mgmt's help can tell you
how to initialize.

If you use MBR, you'll have to create 2 partitions. 2.2TB is the
largest partition size supported by MBR.

En el artículo ,
(PeteCresswell) escribió:

But that left me with only 746.52 gigs available - instead of 3 TB.

Something has got confused.

At the command prompt, run DISKPART

At the Diskpart prompt, type: list disk

Note the number of your 3TB Hitachi drive (elsewhere in your post, you
indicate it is disk #7, but check anyway.)

At the Diskpart prompt, type: sel disk X

where X is the number shown in list disk

At the Diskpart prompt, type: clean

This wipes the disk and makes it look to Windows like a virgin drive.

Exit Diskpart: exit

Press Windows-R and type: diskmgmt.msc

Disk Management will start.

Select your 3TB drive which will show as unformatted, create a GPT
partition table, create a partition spanning the disk, then format it.

It should now work normally.

--
(\_/)
(='.'=) Bunny says: Windows 10? Nein danke!
(")_(")

On 09/24/2015 04:35 PM, VanguardLH wrote:

[snip]

If you use MBR, you'll have to create 2 partitions. 2.2TB is the
largest partition size supported by MBR.


2.2GB is the largest DISK that a MBR can handle (32-bit sector count
field). Apparently, software that allows MBR on larger disks makes the
disk look like multiple disks, each with its own MBR. I don't know how
it does that.

BTW, I have used larger disks. I use GPT for them.

--
91 days until the winter celebration (Friday December 25, 2015 12:00:00
AM for 1 day).

Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.us/

"One man's religion is another man's belly laugh." Robert A. Heinlein.
Contributed by Larry Reyka.

Per Mike Tomlinson:
At the Diskpart prompt, type: clean

This wipes the disk and makes it look to Windows like a virgin drive.

Something is seriously goofy with this drive, then.

Tried DISKPART CLEAN

Then I tried DISKPART CLEAN ALL... both ran successfully and when I
initialized it, chose GPT....

But it's *Still* showing up as "745.39 GB Unallocated".

I am thinking that CLEAN and CLEAN ALL just write zeros to the "Data"
part of the disk and there are some other areas that are still not
reset.
--
Pete Cresswell

In article , lid
says...

Per Mike Tomlinson:
At the Diskpart prompt, type: clean

This wipes the disk and makes it look to Windows like a virgin drive.

Something is seriously goofy with this drive, then.

Tried DISKPART CLEAN

Then I tried DISKPART CLEAN ALL... both ran successfully and when I
initialized it, chose GPT....

But it's *Still* showing up as "745.39 GB Unallocated".

I am thinking that CLEAN and CLEAN ALL just write zeros to the "Data"
part of the disk and there are some other areas that are still not
reset.

Can't you just use Disk Management to delete all the partitions then
allocate one new large one?

I have a 3Tb Seagate external that I had to do nada to it for Win 7 to
see all of it. It's warranty replacement was the same.

If not and I can I'd just take the thing back to the store. Basically my
attitude towards hardware is "it works like I expect it should without
any special efforts or I don't want it." Doesn't matter I can make it
work as I'm sure I'll have to go thru it all again sometime in the
future long enough memory has become fuzzy about it.

I also stay away from companies have proven they don't update drivers to
least two versions later of Windows from when hardware was sold, e.g. XP
era hardware should have accessible at least Win 7 & 8 drivers.

En el artículo ,
(PeteCresswell) escribió:

But it's *Still* showing up as "745.39 GB Unallocated".

I am thinking that CLEAN and CLEAN ALL just write zeros to the "Data"
part of the disk and there are some other areas that are still not
reset.

HELP CLEAN says:

"If the ALL parameter is not used, the first 1MB
and the last 1MB of the disk are zeroed. This erases any disk formatting
that had been previously applied to the disk. The disk's state after
cleaning the disk is 'UNINITIALIZED'"

That should be more than sufficient to clear any configuration
information.

It's early and I haven't had my first shot of caffeine yet. Suggestions:

* Are you using it in an USB enclosure? If so, try a direct motherboard
connection. Some USB adapters won't handle drives larger than 2TB.

* Boot a Linux live CD, open a terminal, type "fdisk -l" and see how big
Linux thinks the disk is.

* You're not using it on Windows XP, are you?

--
(\_/)
(='.'=) Bunny says: Windows 10? Nein danke!
(")_(")

(PeteCresswell) wrote:
Per Mike Tomlinson:
At the Diskpart prompt, type: clean

This wipes the disk and makes it look to Windows like a virgin drive.

Something is seriously goofy with this drive, then.

Tried DISKPART CLEAN

Then I tried DISKPART CLEAN ALL... both ran successfully and when I
initialized it, chose GPT....

But it's *Still* showing up as "745.39 GB Unallocated".

I am thinking that CLEAN and CLEAN ALL just write zeros to the "Data"
part of the disk and there are some other areas that are still not
reset.

Maybe you could try checking it from Linux and
see if the entire disk shows up.

For example, I can do this, to check to see if an HPA
(Host_Protected_Area) has been applied to my 2TB drive.
Since your drive is 3TB, the numbers might be on the
order of 5.9 billion sectors or so.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo hdparm -N /dev/sdb

/dev/sdb:
max sectors = 3907029168/3907029168, HPA is disabled
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

The other command you could use would be

sudo disktype /dev/sdb

and that reports partitioning and file system identification
information.

Another command I use, is

sudo fdisk /dev/sdb
p
q

to print out some info about the drive, and to give
me some idea which drive is which. After using fdisk
for a quick look, then I can try some other commands,
knowing the experimental value I tried for /dev/sdX
is the correct one.

For example, I have two disks on the machine right now.
In Disk Management, disk 0 is 500GB, disk 1 is 2TB.
So /dev/sda is probably the first one, /dev/sdb is
the second (2TB) one. But this correspondence doesn't
always have to exist.

Paul

Paul wrote:
(PeteCresswell) wrote:
Per Mike Tomlinson:
At the Diskpart prompt, type: clean

This wipes the disk and makes it look to Windows like a virgin drive.

Something is seriously goofy with this drive, then.

Tried DISKPART CLEAN

Then I tried DISKPART CLEAN ALL... both ran successfully and when I
initialized it, chose GPT....

But it's *Still* showing up as "745.39 GB Unallocated".

I am thinking that CLEAN and CLEAN ALL just write zeros to the "Data"
part of the disk and there are some other areas that are still not
reset.

Maybe you could try checking it from Linux and
see if the entire disk shows up.

For example, I can do this, to check to see if an HPA
(Host_Protected_Area) has been applied to my 2TB drive.
Since your drive is 3TB, the numbers might be on the
order of 5.9 billion sectors or so.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo hdparm -N /dev/sdb

/dev/sdb:
max sectors = 3907029168/3907029168, HPA is disabled
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

The other command you could use would be

sudo disktype /dev/sdb

and that reports partitioning and file system identification
information.

Another command I use, is

sudo fdisk /dev/sdb
p
q

to print out some info about the drive, and to give
me some idea which drive is which. After using fdisk
for a quick look, then I can try some other commands,
knowing the experimental value I tried for /dev/sdX
is the correct one.

For example, I have two disks on the machine right now.
In Disk Management, disk 0 is 500GB, disk 1 is 2TB.
So /dev/sda is probably the first one, /dev/sdb is
the second (2TB) one. But this correspondence doesn't
always have to exist.

Paul

There's an article here on 3TB drives. Jul 6, 2011.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/23508...rd-drives.html

Paul

Per pjp:
Can't you just use Disk Management to delete all the partitions then
allocate one new large one?

No - that's the whole problem.
--
Pete Cresswell

Per Mike Tomlinson:
* Are you using it in an USB enclosure? If so, try a direct motherboard
connection. Some USB adapters won't handle drives larger than 2TB.

We have a winner!!!!!

Yes, was using it in a USB enclosure.

Tried it in the SATA sled that I use for backup drives: nooooo problem -
the full 2794.

Then it dawned on me that the "USB" enclosure also supported eSata
(which I was not using because of other issues). Changed the
enclosure over to eSata and "Bingo"....

Allocated a 2794 partition, did a Quick Format, no problem.

Right now, it's doing a non-quick format and I expect no problems.

So, bottom line for anybody else going he at least some USB
enclosures cannot deal with 3-TB drives. OTOH, SATA and eSATA are
able...

64-bit Windows 7 w/SP-1, Intel i7-4770K CPU


Pigs would fly before I ever thought of that....

THANKS !
--
Pete Cresswell

En el artículo ,
(PeteCresswell) escribió:

THANKS !

You're welcome. Glad you got it sorted

--
(\_/)
(='.'=) Bunny says: Windows 10? Nein danke!
(")_(")

On 09/26/2015 12:37 AM, Mike Tomlinson wrote:
En el artículo ,
(PeteCresswell) escribió:

But it's *Still* showing up as "745.39 GB Unallocated".

I am thinking that CLEAN and CLEAN ALL just write zeros to the "Data"
part of the disk and there are some other areas that are still not
reset.

HELP CLEAN says:

"If the ALL parameter is not used, the first 1MB
and the last 1MB of the disk are zeroed. This erases any disk formatting
that had been previously applied to the disk. The disk's state after
cleaning the disk is 'UNINITIALIZED'"

That should be more than sufficient to clear any configuration
information.

It's early and I haven't had my first shot of caffeine yet. Suggestions:

* Are you using it in an USB enclosure? If so, try a direct motherboard
connection. Some USB adapters won't handle drives larger than 2TB.

* Boot a Linux live CD, open a terminal, type "fdisk -l" and see how big
Linux thinks the disk is.

If the live cd has gparted on it, you can use it to wipe
the drive.

USE AT OWN RISK !!!!! THIS WILL WIPE THE DRIVE !!!!

FIRST, REMOVE ALL OTHER DISKS!

On the live cd as root
USE THIS ONLY IF THE DISK YO WANT TO WIPE IS /dev/sda
dd bs=4096 if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda

I have to do this to clear off Windows 8 and 10's weird
partitioning to get W7 reinstalled on a corrupted disk.


* You're not using it on Windows XP, are you?