Hard Drive Problem

[jhphoto]

I just bought a new 3.5" bare hard drive. The capacity is 3tb, but when I plug it in to my USB dock, it tells me only 800 gb is available. I know that often new hard drives have some space given to software, etc. but +2tb is excessive.

I was asked to initialize the drive when I plugged it in, which I did. I have tried to erase the disk using disk utility. I am on Mac os 10.9.3.

Any idea of what I should do from here?

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

-Which model Mac?
-What brand/model hard drive?
-What brand/model USB dock?

C

 

[jhphoto]

Mac Book Pro Retina.. 2.6 GHZ i7
Western Digital HD
Thermaltake Black X doc

 

[Cory Cooper]

You could try this to reformat again:

1. In Disk Utility select the drive, not the partition.

2. Click Partition tab, then under Partition Layout: click Current and sleet 1 Partition from drop-down.

3. Change the Name: from Untitled 1 to whatever you want. Use Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Then click Options... button.

4. Choose GUID Partition Table, click OK, then click Apply.

When done, check available space and let us know if it is corrected. Make sure you have no data on the drive, as these steps will totally erase it.

C

 

[jhphoto]

Still didn't work.

One update when I do this though.. Before when i tried a variation of this, selecting the drive it said "801.57 gb available" and the partition had 800 gb available.. now when I partition it has all 801.57 gb available.

I wonder if there is something wrong with the drive?

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hmmm...

-What does it list as the size in the sidebar?

One issue I have found in reading the manual for the Thermaltake BlacX Duet eSATA & USB Docking Station, is that it only supports drives up to 2 TB. That is probably why you are having the issue.

C

 

[jhphoto]

That could definitely be it.. I have never tried anything over 2 tb with the dock. I may try to put it into an external hard drive enclosure to see the drive works in that.. I will keep you posted, but thanks for your help so far!

 

[Cory Cooper]

Definitely keep me updated. Good luck.

C

 

[jhphoto]

When I popped it into an old enclosure, all 3 tb are available. Thanks for your help!

 

[Cory Cooper]

No worries...glad it's sorted.

C