hard drive capacity reduced after swapping cases

[PapaPiccolino]

Hi everyone.

Today I purchased a Seagate Expansion Desktop external hard drive, 4TB. It only has USB, and after using it to back up some files, and realising it was a little slow, I decided to remove the drive and install it into my older OWC Mercury Elite Al Pro case, which has FW400 and 800. The OWC case originally had a 500MB drive. The problem is, the 4TB drive is now only showing up as 1.8TB capacity. I have erased and reformatted the drive, but no dice. How did 4TB become 1.8 ? It was definitely 4TB in the original Seagate case.

Thank you.

 

[Ifti]

The chipset in the HDD enclosure has a limitation. Its not an issue with your drive, its how much space on the drive the chipset see's...

 

[PapaPiccolino]

Hi ifti. Thanks for that prompt reply.

1. Why would manufacturers of enclosures install chip sets with such a limitation ?
2. Is there anything I can do to get my OWC enclosure to read the full 4TB ?

Thank you

 

[Fishrrman]

"1. Why would manufacturers of enclosures install chip sets with such a limitation?"

Because at the time, it was "all the technology would allow".

"2. Is there anything I can do to get my OWC enclosure to read the full 4TB ?"

No.

Put the drive back into the original case, if you "want to use it all".

 

[PapaPiccolino]

Thank you Fishrrman. I appreciate your reply.

That's a bummer.

 

[Fishrrman]

You could also try a USB3/SATA docking station. They're cheap.

 

[Erehy Dobon]

You could also try a third-party external drive enclosure. They're cheap.

 

[PapaPiccolino]

Thanks gents. I appreciate your help.