2.2 TB limit applies even to eSATA drives? 3TB appears as 746 GB

I have an Icy Dock 3.5" external enclosure with USB 2.0 and eSATA. I have an Intel DG45ID motherboard with USB 2.0 and eSATA ports. In the past I had a 2 TB Seagate drive in the enclosure, and it worked fine via either interface. I just bought a 3 TB Hitachi drive, and it shows up as 746.39 GB!

At first I thought, no problem, the USB storage controller in this couple-year-old enclosure just doesn't support drives over 2.2 TB (a famous limit, apparently). So I switched to eSATA, thinking that this would be a simple pass-through connection and it would work, because the enclosure isn't really doing anything with the interface then. But apparently it isn't so.

I have Windows Vista 64-bit, with the current patches. I initialized the disk as GPT, rather than MBR, as recommended in the GUI for disks larger than 2 TB.

So, what gives? Was I wrong that the eSATA enclosure just passes the SATA connection through unmodified? Is my motherboard to blame? Some drivers?

Edit: I just installed the Intel Rapid Storage software, which updated my SATA controller driver from 8.6 (dated 2-3 years ago) to 9.6 (dated a bit over a year ago). This didn't change how Windows Vista sees the drive, but it did install an "Intel Rapid Storage Technology" application which shows the drive as 3 TB! So, some part of the system sees the full drive size, but not the OS. What gives?

Solution 1:

From what I've read, you need an even newer version of the Rapid Storage Technology driver, version 10.1 or newer. Looks like 10.6 is now available.

The main problem is that the combination of your BIOS, OS, and storage drivers don't know how to handle drives with that many 512-byte sectors on it (the Hitachi 3TB disk doesn't have a 4KB sector size, unlike some other > 2TB drives). By updating the storage drivers to something new enough, it can handle the OS/BIOS special interactions better.

Solution 2:

The famous 2.2TB limit applies to all volumes on a Microsoft system, internal or external, regardless of the connector. For more information, see here:

http://www-947.ibm.com/support/entry/portal/docdisplay?brand=5000020&lndocid=MIGR-5079632

Solution 3:

The limitation is in the traditional BIOS based system - it can only handle 2.2TB. UEFI systems can use the GPT and are not limited. So, the limitation is not the OS. Swap your motherboard out or check if intel has a BIOS update (but i doubt this, totally different systems) to get 3TB support. I recommend Asus boards if you have to buy something.

EDIT: I missed the part where you said the tool saw 3TB. Did you format the drive using MBR or GPT?

Go to control panel > administrative tools > computer management > disk management

From there you can reformat and repartition the drive. I know MBR and GPT are formatting options in windows 7 64.

This explains everything and is written by people who know- Hitachi.

Article about UEFI and 3TB

Solution 4:

Your problem is probably that Windows does not support GPT for removable media.

From Windows and GPT FAQ, dating from June 15, 2011, section Windows Disk Support :

Q. What about removable media?

A. Removable media must be MBR or "superfloppy."

As far as I know, there no way around this limitation, so you are stuck with not using your entire external drive, unless you convert it to internal. What you are seeing is the "protective" MBR header and only a part of the disk, rather than the real GPT partition.

If you cannot format the external drive as MBR with 2.2 TB, then the disk's firmware may be damaged. I hesitate whether to point you to the article Restore factory Hard Drive Capacity, since the utility described there can brick your drive.