Deleting Partitions/Formating HDD

I have this HDD
http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard.../barracuda-xt/

That is showing as a 2TB drive. In disk management I see an
unallocated 750Gig partition and I want to restore this drive to it's
original 3TB size. Can someone tell me the best and quickest way to
get this done? I had this drive put away as a cloned drive of a system
and just now noticed what somehow has happened. I get confused when I
am using cloning applications when I am dealing with drives of
different sizes. I have since moved on to using all Crucial 256GB SSDs
on all my systems to keep things simple. Downside is these drives
always seem to need firmware updates that don't seem to like being
done with USB connection.

Thanks for any help and comments.

Al

Allen Drake wrote:
I have this HDD
http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard.../barracuda-xt/



That is showing as a 2TB drive. In disk management I see an
unallocated 750Gig partition and I want to restore this drive to it's
original 3TB size. Can someone tell me the best and quickest way to
get this done? I had this drive put away as a cloned drive of a
system and just now noticed what somehow has happened. I get confused
when I am using cloning applications when I am dealing with drives
of different sizes. I have since moved on to using all Crucial 256GB
SSDs on all my systems to keep things simple. Downside is these
drives always seem to need firmware updates that don't seem to like
being done with USB connection.

I'm fuzzy on the circumstances. If it is not the active operating
system, you can do what you want with Windows Disk Management
(StartProgramsAdministrative ToolsDisk Management). If you want to
preserve the data on the disk, resize the partition to use the whole
disk (Right clickExtend volume). If you don't care about saving the
data, you can alternately delete the partition and create a new one,
using the whole disk.

If the partition in question is the active operating system, you will
have to use a third party partitioning program. There are several free
ones available.
--
Crash

"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."
~ Samuel Johnson ~

On Sat, 26 May 2012 07:52:56 -0400, "Dave \"Crash\" Dummy"
wrote:

Allen Drake wrote:
I have this HDD
http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard.../barracuda-xt/



That is showing as a 2TB drive. In disk management I see an
unallocated 750Gig partition and I want to restore this drive to it's
original 3TB size. Can someone tell me the best and quickest way to
get this done? I had this drive put away as a cloned drive of a
system and just now noticed what somehow has happened. I get confused
when I am using cloning applications when I am dealing with drives
of different sizes. I have since moved on to using all Crucial 256GB
SSDs on all my systems to keep things simple. Downside is these
drives always seem to need firmware updates that don't seem to like
being done with USB connection.

I'm fuzzy on the circumstances. If it is not the active operating
system, you can do what you want with Windows Disk Management
(StartProgramsAdministrative ToolsDisk Management). If you want to
preserve the data on the disk, resize the partition to use the whole
disk (Right clickExtend volume). If you don't care about saving the
data, you can alternately delete the partition and create a new one,
using the whole disk.

If the partition in question is the active operating system, you will
have to use a third party partitioning program. There are several free
ones available.

This is a spare drive that shows in disk management as two
partitions. One is active and shows as 2048.00 GB and healthy(primary
partition) there is an unallocated 746.52 GB. I want to restore this
to a 3TB drive that is one partition and healthy. I have found no way
to do this in disk management that I understand. If I right click and
format it only formats as the 2TB. If I right click on the 746 GB
unallocated part I can do nothing.

On Sat, 26 May 2012 07:52:56 -0400, "Dave \"Crash\" Dummy"
wrote:

Allen Drake wrote:
I have this HDD
http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard.../barracuda-xt/



That is showing as a 2TB drive. In disk management I see an
unallocated 750Gig partition and I want to restore this drive to it's
original 3TB size. Can someone tell me the best and quickest way to
get this done? I had this drive put away as a cloned drive of a
system and just now noticed what somehow has happened. I get confused
when I am using cloning applications when I am dealing with drives
of different sizes. I have since moved on to using all Crucial 256GB
SSDs on all my systems to keep things simple. Downside is these
drives always seem to need firmware updates that don't seem to like
being done with USB connection.

I'm fuzzy on the circumstances. If it is not the active operating
system, you can do what you want with Windows Disk Management
(StartProgramsAdministrative ToolsDisk Management). If you want to
preserve the data on the disk, resize the partition to use the whole
disk (Right clickExtend volume). If you don't care about saving the
data, you can alternately delete the partition and create a new one,
using the whole disk.

If the partition in question is the active operating system, you will
have to use a third party partitioning program. There are several free
ones available.

BTW Extend volume is grayed out.

Allen Drake wrote:
On Sat, 26 May 2012 07:52:56 -0400, "Dave \"Crash\" Dummy"
wrote:

Allen Drake wrote:
I have this HDD
http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard.../barracuda-xt/





That is showing as a 2TB drive. In disk management I see an
unallocated 750Gig partition and I want to restore this drive to
it's original 3TB size. Can someone tell me the best and quickest
way to get this done? I had this drive put away as a cloned
drive of a system and just now noticed what somehow has happened.
I get confused when I am using cloning applications when I am
dealing with drives of different sizes. I have since moved on to
using all Crucial 256GB SSDs on all my systems to keep things
simple. Downside is these drives always seem to need firmware
updates that don't seem to like being done with USB connection.
I'm fuzzy on the circumstances. If it is not the active operating
system, you can do what you want with Windows Disk Management
(StartProgramsAdministrative ToolsDisk Management). If you want
to preserve the data on the disk, resize the partition to use the
whole disk (Right clickExtend volume). If you don't care about
saving the data, you can alternately delete the partition and
create a new one, using the whole disk.

If the partition in question is the active operating system, you
will have to use a third party partitioning program. There are
several free ones available.

BTW Extend volume is grayed out.

Okay. I have no experience with drives that big. You apparently have run up
against a partition size limit. Watch for wrap:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/askcore/a...s-storage.aspx

--
Crash

"The fewer the facts, the stronger the opinion."
~ Arnold H. Glasow ~

On Sat, 26 May 2012 09:02:28 -0400, "Dave \"Crash\" Dummy"
wrote:

Allen Drake wrote:
On Sat, 26 May 2012 07:52:56 -0400, "Dave \"Crash\" Dummy"
wrote:

Allen Drake wrote:
I have this HDD
http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard.../barracuda-xt/





That is showing as a 2TB drive. In disk management I see an
unallocated 750Gig partition and I want to restore this drive to
it's original 3TB size. Can someone tell me the best and quickest
way to get this done? I had this drive put away as a cloned
drive of a system and just now noticed what somehow has happened.
I get confused when I am using cloning applications when I am
dealing with drives of different sizes. I have since moved on to
using all Crucial 256GB SSDs on all my systems to keep things
simple. Downside is these drives always seem to need firmware
updates that don't seem to like being done with USB connection.
I'm fuzzy on the circumstances. If it is not the active operating
system, you can do what you want with Windows Disk Management
(StartProgramsAdministrative ToolsDisk Management). If you want
to preserve the data on the disk, resize the partition to use the
whole disk (Right clickExtend volume). If you don't care about
saving the data, you can alternately delete the partition and
create a new one, using the whole disk.

If the partition in question is the active operating system, you
will have to use a third party partitioning program. There are
several free ones available.

BTW Extend volume is grayed out.

Okay. I have no experience with drives that big. You apparently have run up
against a partition size limit. Watch for wrap:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/askcore/a...s-storage.aspx

Do you have an understanding of diskpart commands?

On 26/05/2012 8:31 AM, Allen Drake wrote:
This is a spare drive that shows in disk management as two
partitions. One is active and shows as 2048.00 GB and healthy(primary
partition) there is an unallocated 746.52 GB. I want to restore this
to a 3TB drive that is one partition and healthy. I have found no way
to do this in disk management that I understand. If I right click and
format it only formats as the 2TB. If I right click on the 746 GB
unallocated part I can do nothing.

"Unallocated" means there is no partition there, just empty sectors.

In theory, you should be able to either create a new partition in the
unallocated space, or to extend the primary partition.

In a follow-up, you say that "Extend..." is greyed out. This indicates
problem(s) that I speculate cannot be resolved without a complete
reformatting of the whole disk. Just a guess.

IMO, that leaves only the option of creating another partition. Try it.
If that doesn't work, you'll need more help than I can give you.

Good luck,
Wolf K.

PS: here's a simplified account of "partition" etc:
A "partition" is a list of tracks and sectors available for use.
Its structure depends on the "file system". A file system is a method of
listing and allocating tracks and sectors to partitions, folders, and
files. When you "format a disk", the OS writes file-system information
onto the disk. When you "create a partition", the OS writes relevant
data onto the HDD. File system and partition data are stored in the
Master Boot Record for the HDD, along with boot data for the OS.
Each partition includes an automatically generated default file
that lists the files and folders in that partition. The necessary
bookkeeping could be done entirely by the HDD itself, without any OS
involvement, but for many different reasons, OS involvement is
preferred. One consequence is the kind of problem you're facing.
For historical reasons, Windows displays partitions as disks,
which can be confusing.
WEK

On Sat, 26 May 2012 09:10:31 -0400, Wolf K
wrote:

On 26/05/2012 8:31 AM, Allen Drake wrote:
This is a spare drive that shows in disk management as two
partitions. One is active and shows as 2048.00 GB and healthy(primary
partition) there is an unallocated 746.52 GB. I want to restore this
to a 3TB drive that is one partition and healthy. I have found no way
to do this in disk management that I understand. If I right click and
format it only formats as the 2TB. If I right click on the 746 GB
unallocated part I can do nothing.

"Unallocated" means there is no partition there, just empty sectors.

In theory, you should be able to either create a new partition in the
unallocated space, or to extend the primary partition.

In a follow-up, you say that "Extend..." is greyed out. This indicates
problem(s) that I speculate cannot be resolved without a complete
reformatting of the whole disk. Just a guess.

IMO, that leaves only the option of creating another partition. Try it.
If that doesn't work, you'll need more help than I can give you.

Good luck,
Wolf K.

PS: here's a simplified account of "partition" etc:
A "partition" is a list of tracks and sectors available for use.
Its structure depends on the "file system". A file system is a method of
listing and allocating tracks and sectors to partitions, folders, and
files. When you "format a disk", the OS writes file-system information
onto the disk. When you "create a partition", the OS writes relevant
data onto the HDD. File system and partition data are stored in the
Master Boot Record for the HDD, along with boot data for the OS.
Each partition includes an automatically generated default file
that lists the files and folders in that partition. The necessary
bookkeeping could be done entirely by the HDD itself, without any OS
involvement, but for many different reasons, OS involvement is
preferred. One consequence is the kind of problem you're facing.
For historical reasons, Windows displays partitions as disks,
which can be confusing.
WEK

I tried deleting the partition and creating a new one but that only
gets me back to the original problem. I have found links to
information on using drives over 2TB with Win7 so I have some reading
to do. I have an external 3TB USB 3 drive that works fine so I may
just use it that way for now but my curiosity will get the best of me
and I will eventually find out what needs to be known.
Thanks.

Al

Allen Drake wrote:
On Sat, 26 May 2012 09:02:28 -0400, "Dave \"Crash\" Dummy"
wrote:

Allen Drake wrote:
On Sat, 26 May 2012 07:52:56 -0400, "Dave \"Crash\" Dummy"
wrote:

Allen Drake wrote:
I have this HDD
http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard.../barracuda-xt/







That is showing as a 2TB drive. In disk management I see an
unallocated 750Gig partition and I want to restore this drive
to it's original 3TB size. Can someone tell me the best and
quickest way to get this done? I had this drive put away as a
cloned drive of a system and just now noticed what somehow
has happened. I get confused when I am using cloning
applications when I am dealing with drives of different
sizes. I have since moved on to using all Crucial 256GB SSDs
on all my systems to keep things simple. Downside is these
drives always seem to need firmware updates that don't seem
to like being done with USB connection.
I'm fuzzy on the circumstances. If it is not the active
operating system, you can do what you want with Windows Disk
Management (StartProgramsAdministrative ToolsDisk
Management). If you want to preserve the data on the disk,
resize the partition to use the whole disk (Right clickExtend
volume). If you don't care about saving the data, you can
alternately delete the partition and create a new one, using
the whole disk.

If the partition in question is the active operating system,
you will have to use a third party partitioning program. There
are several free ones available.
BTW Extend volume is grayed out.
Okay. I have no experience with drives that big. You apparently
have run up against a partition size limit. Watch for wrap:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/askcore/a...s-storage.aspx



Do you have an understanding of diskpart commands?

I know what they are, but I have never used them. I think they will have
the same limitations as the GUI manager, including the 2 TB limit. Give
it a try. Since you don't care about saving data, you can't hurt anything.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l...(v=ws.10).aspx

--
Crash

Atheism is a matter of faith, too.

On 5/26/2012 5:47 AM, Allen Drake wrote:

I have this HDD
http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard.../barracuda-xt/

That is showing as a 2TB drive. In disk management I see an
unallocated 750Gig partition and I want to restore this drive to it's
original 3TB size. Can someone tell me the best and quickest way to
get this done? I had this drive put away as a cloned drive of a system
and just now noticed what somehow has happened. I get confused when I
am using cloning applications when I am dealing with drives of
different sizes. I have since moved on to using all Crucial 256GB SSDs
on all my systems to keep things simple. Downside is these drives
always seem to need firmware updates that don't seem to like being
done with USB connection.

Thanks for any help and comments.

Al
Try giving the free (for home use) program EasUS Partition Master.

Here is a link for information on the program

http://www.partition-tool.com/easeus...o-tutorial.htm

You can download the free home edition at:
http://www.partition-tool.com/landing/home-download.htm

At the worst it should be able to delete all partitions found on the
drive and create one large partition for you.

On Sat, 26 May 2012 09:33:24 -0400, "Dave \"Crash\" Dummy"
wrote:

Allen Drake wrote:
On Sat, 26 May 2012 09:02:28 -0400, "Dave \"Crash\" Dummy"
wrote:

Allen Drake wrote:
On Sat, 26 May 2012 07:52:56 -0400, "Dave \"Crash\" Dummy"
wrote:

Allen Drake wrote:
I have this HDD
http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard.../barracuda-xt/







That is showing as a 2TB drive. In disk management I see an
unallocated 750Gig partition and I want to restore this drive
to it's original 3TB size. Can someone tell me the best and
quickest way to get this done? I had this drive put away as a
cloned drive of a system and just now noticed what somehow
has happened. I get confused when I am using cloning
applications when I am dealing with drives of different
sizes. I have since moved on to using all Crucial 256GB SSDs
on all my systems to keep things simple. Downside is these
drives always seem to need firmware updates that don't seem
to like being done with USB connection.
I'm fuzzy on the circumstances. If it is not the active
operating system, you can do what you want with Windows Disk
Management (StartProgramsAdministrative ToolsDisk
Management). If you want to preserve the data on the disk,
resize the partition to use the whole disk (Right clickExtend
volume). If you don't care about saving the data, you can
alternately delete the partition and create a new one, using
the whole disk.

If the partition in question is the active operating system,
you will have to use a third party partitioning program. There
are several free ones available.
BTW Extend volume is grayed out.
Okay. I have no experience with drives that big. You apparently
have run up against a partition size limit. Watch for wrap:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/askcore/a...s-storage.aspx



Do you have an understanding of diskpart commands?

I know what they are, but I have never used them. I think they will have
the same limitations as the GUI manager, including the 2 TB limit. Give
it a try. Since you don't care about saving data, you can't hurt anything.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l...(v=ws.10).aspx

Oh, I tried but I am having a hard time understanding what all that
means. The syntax and all. It might just be simpler to use this drive
in my USB cradle as it's just a file backup anyway. I tried the format
command where I types Diskpart and then select disk 3 then I can't
understand the format procedure. I type help format and enter
everything that it says and that is where it ends.
Try try again............

On Sat, 26 May 2012 09:05:52 -0500, GlowingBlueMist
wrote:

On 5/26/2012 5:47 AM, Allen Drake wrote:

I have this HDD
http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard.../barracuda-xt/

That is showing as a 2TB drive. In disk management I see an
unallocated 750Gig partition and I want to restore this drive to it's
original 3TB size. Can someone tell me the best and quickest way to
get this done? I had this drive put away as a cloned drive of a system
and just now noticed what somehow has happened. I get confused when I
am using cloning applications when I am dealing with drives of
different sizes. I have since moved on to using all Crucial 256GB SSDs
on all my systems to keep things simple. Downside is these drives
always seem to need firmware updates that don't seem to like being
done with USB connection.

Thanks for any help and comments.

Al
Try giving the free (for home use) program EasUS Partition Master.

Here is a link for information on the program

http://www.partition-tool.com/easeus...o-tutorial.htm

You can download the free home edition at:
http://www.partition-tool.com/landing/home-download.htm

At the worst it should be able to delete all partitions found on the
drive and create one large partition for you.

Ya, I saw that app but I always hesitate to download things that
don't come recommended personally. I never really know what I might
get. Iv 'e thought of partition magic also so maybe I will do
something like that.

On 5/26/2012 10:12 AM, Allen Drake wrote:
On Sat, 26 May 2012 09:05:52 -0500, GlowingBlueMist
wrote:

On 5/26/2012 5:47 AM, Allen Drake wrote:

I have this HDD
http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard.../barracuda-xt/

That is showing as a 2TB drive. In disk management I see an
unallocated 750Gig partition and I want to restore this drive to it's
original 3TB size. Can someone tell me the best and quickest way to
get this done? I had this drive put away as a cloned drive of a system
and just now noticed what somehow has happened. I get confused when I
am using cloning applications when I am dealing with drives of
different sizes. I have since moved on to using all Crucial 256GB SSDs
on all my systems to keep things simple. Downside is these drives
always seem to need firmware updates that don't seem to like being
done with USB connection.

Thanks for any help and comments.

Al
Try giving the free (for home use) program EasUS Partition Master.

Here is a link for information on the program

http://www.partition-tool.com/easeus...o-tutorial.htm

You can download the free home edition at:
http://www.partition-tool.com/landing/home-download.htm

At the worst it should be able to delete all partitions found on the
drive and create one large partition for you.

Ya, I saw that app but I always hesitate to download things that
don't come recommended personally. I never really know what I might
get. Iv 'e thought of partition magic also so maybe I will do
something like that.

For a personal recommendation, I have used the program on many drives
from time to time to create or delete partitions.

I have used it to change the size of partitions when needed with out
deleting the user data but I also keep a backup copy of the data prior
to doing that just in case things go wrong.

On Sat, 26 May 2012 09:05:52 -0500, GlowingBlueMist
wrote:

On 5/26/2012 5:47 AM, Allen Drake wrote:

I have this HDD
http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard.../barracuda-xt/

That is showing as a 2TB drive. In disk management I see an
unallocated 750Gig partition and I want to restore this drive to it's
original 3TB size. Can someone tell me the best and quickest way to
get this done? I had this drive put away as a cloned drive of a system
and just now noticed what somehow has happened. I get confused when I
am using cloning applications when I am dealing with drives of
different sizes. I have since moved on to using all Crucial 256GB SSDs
on all my systems to keep things simple. Downside is these drives
always seem to need firmware updates that don't seem to like being
done with USB connection.

Thanks for any help and comments.

Al
Try giving the free (for home use) program EasUS Partition Master.

Here is a link for information on the program

http://www.partition-tool.com/easeus...o-tutorial.htm

You can download the free home edition at:
http://www.partition-tool.com/landing/home-download.htm

At the worst it should be able to delete all partitions found on the
drive and create one large partition for you.

Success. I have formatted this disk and it shows as 2.72 TB. I needed
to enter the Clean function before the format procedure. I found no
documentation suggesting this so I tried it anyway and it worked.

So to break it down:

Command line: diskpart
then enter: list disk
this will show the disks online

Then enter the disk number you want to format so I entered selected
disk 2

It replied Disk 2 is now the selected disk.
I entered: Clean
it took a few seconds then I entered:

Format fs=ntfs label "new volume" quick

new volume was the name of that disk.

http://www.jwgoerlich.us/blogengine/...artitions.aspx

Al.

Allen Drake wrote:
On Sat, 26 May 2012 09:05:52 -0500, GlowingBlueMist
wrote:

On 5/26/2012 5:47 AM, Allen Drake wrote:
I have this HDD
http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard.../barracuda-xt/


That is showing as a 2TB drive. In disk management I see an
unallocated 750Gig partition and I want to restore this drive to
it's original 3TB size. Can someone tell me the best and quickest
way to get this done? I had this drive put away as a cloned drive
of a system and just now noticed what somehow has happened. I get
confused when I am using cloning applications when I am dealing
with drives of different sizes. I have since moved on to using
all Crucial 256GB SSDs on all my systems to keep things simple.
Downside is these drives always seem to need firmware updates
that don't seem to like being done with USB connection.

Thanks for any help and comments.

Al
Try giving the free (for home use) program EasUS Partition Master.

Here is a link for information on the program

http://www.partition-tool.com/easeus...o-tutorial.htm

You can download the free home edition at:
http://www.partition-tool.com/landing/home-download.htm
At the worst it should be able to delete all partitions found on
the drive and create one large partition for you.

Ya, I saw that app but I always hesitate to download things that
don't come recommended personally. I never really know what I might
get. Iv 'e thought of partition magic also so maybe I will do
something like that.

Those apps will run into the same 2 TB limit as Disk Management. Find
out if they have some magic workaround before you download. It's
something they'd brag about.
--
Crash

English is not my native tongue; I'm an American.