Ext 4TB HD not shown in Win XP

Da Mail Man

Da Mail Man

Active Member
Greetings all,

1)...Win XP PRO, SP3...Dell Desktop....3.4ghz....32bit

2)...Obtained a new 4TB SATA hard drive...

3)...Purchased an external hard drive case with external power supply and usb cable...

4)...Placed HD into computer with no other drives "inline"...

5)...Used Hirens boot cd to format the drive NTFS...

6)...Reinstalled the 4TB hard drive into external enclosure and plugged into ac power and connected usb cable from the enclosure to WORKING usb port on computer Windows does not recognize it...

7)...Connected my working/usable win XP hd into system and rebooted...

8)...External drive doesn't show up in disk mgmt or in "control panel" page of XP...

9)...Any fix for this?....Do i have to install windows on it just to get a format (NTFS) which I thought
Hirens did?
 
Last edited:
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
XP won't see a drive that big, 2 tb is the limit. If you had it partitioned into more then 1 drive, it may work. That may be a bios issue as well for an xp system.
 
Da Mail Man

Da Mail Man

Active Member
Thanks for the reply!..

My intent is to make this Ex HDD as a back up - to image or back up on win xp drive...Any ideas?

Additional....Are you implying that IF i partition into 2 separate 2tb drives/partitions, It MAY work?
 
Da Mail Man

Da Mail Man

Active Member

What is OR how to I do a format of the 4tb ext disk?..Have no clue as to what "GPT" is or how to get it-do it......I am going to attempt to partition the Ext HDD in TWO 2-TB partitions and see what happens.......back after a bit.

The following came from Microsoft site:
"The 2-TB barrier is the result of this 32-bit limitation. Because the maximum number that can be represented by using 32-bits is 4,294,967,295, this translates to 2.199 TB of capacity by using 512-byte sectors (approximately 2.2 TB). Therefore, a capacity beyond 2.2 TB is not addressable by using the MBR partitioning scheme.

To make more bits available for addressing, the storage device must be initialized by using GPT. This partitioning scheme lets up to 64 bits of information be used within logical sectors. This translates to a theoretical limitation of 9.4 ZB (9.4 zettabytes, or 9.4 billion terabytes). However, the issue that affects GPT is that most currently available systems are based on the aging BIOS platform. BIOS supports only MBR-initialized disks to start the computer. To restart from a device that is initialized by using GPT, your system must be UEFI-capable. By default, many current systems can support UEFI. Microsoft expects that most future systems will have this support. Customers should consult with their system vendor to determine the ability of their systems to support UEFI and disks that have storage capacities that are greater than 2 TB."
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
You will need to partition the drive into smaller ones if you want to utilize this on XP. Also make sure its formatted as a mbr partition instead of gpt since your old xp system most likely doesn't utilize UEFI.
 
Da Mail Man

Da Mail Man

Active Member
THANKS FOR THE REPLY...

Just now getting back to this. Maybe I should have stayed on a bit longer to read this. I took the drive and wiped it, then, placed 2 almost equal NTFS partitions onto it but, after reinstalling into hd enclosure and booting computer, is still NOT recognized.
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
You'll most likely need to use a bootable drive partitioning program to convert the drive to MBR instead of GPT. XP can't see a GPT drive. Disk management will tell you if its a GPT drive.
 
Da Mail Man

Da Mail Man

Active Member
johnb35 said:
You'll most likely need to use a bootable drive partitioning program to convert the drive to MBR instead of GPT. XP can't see a GPT drive. Disk management will tell you if its a GPT drive.
Click to expand...

***********************************

So, you mean I have to change each partition to MBR? If i use the ext HDD to back up my entire computer, will it be able to to either partition?...Can I have 2 partitions MBR?....Back in a few - going to see how I can change each partition to MBR.
 
Da Mail Man

Da Mail Man

Active Member
johnb35 said:
Yes, or you may just want to reformat it as MBR and then create smaller partitions under 2tb. You can try converting it first to see if that works.
Click to expand...

****************************************

Thanks for reply.

I am using a program I didn't even know I had...It is called "Spotmau".....Each partition is below 2tb's....However, I don't see a way to convert from the 2 current NTSF file partitions on this disc to "MBR"...Gives me the option of NTFS or Fat32...Getting rather frustrated and confused here.
 
P

_Pete_

Active Member
It would be a damn site easier if you got up to date and put Win 7, 8, 8.1 or 10 on. If it's an old machine then Win 7. If it's a newer machine then Win10. If it came with Windows XP bin it and buy a new one.
 
Da Mail Man

Da Mail Man

Active Member
It would be a damned site easier if you allowed me to have my preferences in an operating system instead of adapting to your tastes.

This is what I choose to run, not you. I have the other os's but, this is what is on this (MY) computer so, live with it or leave. This site is for finding answers and fixes for the problem(s) that exist an not to "bail" and run away when a difficulty pops up.
 
Da Mail Man

Da Mail Man

Active Member
johnb35 said:
Never even heard of that software, not sure if it can convert to MBR or not. Try using this software

http://download1.minitool.com/10.2.2/pw102-free.exe

See how it says convert gpt to mbr on disk 2 on the left side.

View attachment 8885
Click to expand...
************************************************************Thanks for the reply.

Update:
Have used the program you had mentioned and have attempted to split the hd to two sections below the 2gb max xp has and not doing well.

I have formatted the 1 partition below 2gbs as NTFS and the other remaining space in unallocated. I have placed the hd into it's new hd external enclosure and plugged it in via usb cable. XP sees new hardware connected (apparently) by a "safely remove hardware" icon appearing on/in the task bar but, does not show up in my computer still.

What am I doing wrong here?....Also, can 2 NTFS partitions exist on the same drive? I may tackle this tomorrow and take some picts to post.
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Did you check to see if the drive was done as MBR or GPT? Partitions won't mean nothing if the drive is still in GPT...
 
Da Mail Man

Da Mail Man

Active Member
johnb35 said:
Did you check to see if the drive was done as MBR or GPT? Partitions won't mean nothing if the drive is still in GPT...
Click to expand...

****************************
Thanks for the reply!
A bit burned out at present. What I am going to do is start from scratch tomorrow late morning - format the entire drive as NTFS and see if I can split into 2 parts. This way I would have 2 partitions below the XP 2gb max....Will take picts each step...Time for a beer!
 
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