[jfmiii]

Has anyone had any luck formatting a 3tb seagate external drive ? I have a 27" Imac quad core running lion and an external Iomega 2TB drive had run out of space so i ordered two 3TB drives and replaced them in the case and connected firewire 800 and Viola 2.2TB recognized instead of the 3TB each. Any help would be appreciated.....

[Typhoon14]

 jfmiii, on 21 April 2012 - 08:51 AM, said:

Has anyone had any luck formatting a 3tb seagate external drive ? I have a 27" Imac quad core running lion and an external Iomega 2TB drive had run out of space so i ordered two 3TB drives and replaced them in the case and connected firewire 800 and Viola 2.2TB recognized instead of the 3TB each. Any help would be appreciated.....

You say you "replaced them in the case"? Have you ensured that the drive enclosure you're using actually supports 3 TB drives?

[jfmiii]

I don't know how to tell whether it can or not. I assumed that it would....
other sites i looked at said it is handled by the computer.

This post has been edited by jfmiii: 21 April 2012 - 05:22 PM

[bastion]

 jfmiii, on 21 April 2012 - 05:20 PM, said:

I don't know how to tell whether it can or not. I assumed that it would....
other sites i looked at said it is handled by the computer.

Other sites are probably wrong. It's not at all uncommon for the bridge chipset in the enclosure to impose its own limits on the size of supported drive mechanisms. The jump to 3TB was one a sort of watershed in terms of how drives and controllers interact.

[Typhoon14]

cases will generally list their maximum supported drive size somewhere in the included documention, or on the company website. If a case doesn't specifically list supported for drives 3 TB+, chances are it does not support them.

[bastion]

 Typhoon14, on 23 April 2012 - 02:33 PM, said:

cases will generally list their maximum supported drive size somewhere in the included documention, or on the company website. If a case doesn't specifically list supported for drives 3 TB+, chances are it does not support them.

True, when you actually buy a case. The OP bought an assembled external drive, so it's going to be more of a matter of identifying the bridge inside it and then trying to hunt down the specs manually. You can't even rely on anecdotal reports from other people with the same device, because the vendor may change sources over time. One person might get a unit that simply meets the advertised specs while another gets one that uses a different chip set and happens to exceed it.

[Typhoon14]

 bastion, on 24 April 2012 - 02:43 AM, said:

True, when you actually buy a case. The OP bought an assembled external drive, so it's going to be more of a matter of identifying the bridge inside it and then trying to hunt down the specs manually. You can't even rely on anecdotal reports from other people with the same device, because the vendor may change sources over time. One person might get a unit that simply meets the advertised specs while another gets one that uses a different chip set and happens to exceed it.

Or, phrased another way: Get a new enclosure: http://www.newegg.co...e=1&PageSize=20

[dmfaczan]

I'd check out cases from OWC - they often have better prices. I've dealt with them for years, and they've always been my choice for stuff like this.