Put a 3TB HD in my Time Capsule shows as 750GB??

[nikhsub1]

So, I put a WD 3TB HD in my 1TB Time Capsule and it shows up as on 744GB The only info I'm able to find so far is here: http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1125622 Basically, older models can format the drive properly for some reason, Mine can not. Any help appreciated!

 

[hammten]

Im not sure what the reason for it is, but im pretty sure the 3tb drive has 3 platters, so your TC is reading only one of them... Bummer

 

[nikhsub1]

Im not sure what the reason for it is, but im pretty sure the 3tb drive has 3 platters, so your TC is reading only one of them... Bummer

And not even a full one at that! My 1TB TC sees that disc as 931GB... the 3TB is seen as 744GB. Confusion abounds.

 

[colmaclean]

The WD 3TB uses four 750GB platters, which roughly ties up to your HD showing 744GB...

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...gital-caviar-green-3tb-hard-drive-review.html

I've read of some NAS enclosures having the same issue - older SATA interfaces are not able to access more than one platter of a 3TB drive...

http://forum.qnap.com/viewtopic.php?f=182&t=40880

Damn shame, but it's a sad fact that all hardware has a shelf life...

 

[fat jez]

It may be that the firmware can only read up to a 2GB drive, so whatever counter keeps track of the number of blocks wraps around when you stick a 3TB drive in. Old Sky Satellite boxes in the UK used to have the same issue if you stuck too big a hard disk into them (they came shipped with 300GB ones initially).

 

[nikhsub1]

It may be that the firmware can only read up to a 2GB drive, so whatever counter keeps track of the number of blocks wraps around when you stick a 3TB drive in. Old Sky Satellite boxes in the UK used to have the same issue if you stuck too big a hard disk into them (they came shipped with 300GB ones initially).

Its running the newest firmware, 7.5.2...

 

[fat jez]

Its running the newest firmware, 7.5.2...

That doesn't mean each generation doesn't have different firmware, just that they all could be at the same version. There could well be hardware limitations in the controller inside that means the drive can't address above 2TB, but unless somebody wants to tear their TC down, hunt out the SATA controller chips and look up model numbers, then disassemble the firmware and analyse what Apple are doing, we won't know.

Alternatively, wait until somebody sticks a different make and model of 3TB drive in their older TC and see what happens.

 

[nikhsub1]

That doesn't mean each generation doesn't have different firmware, just that they all could be at the same version. There could well be hardware limitations in the controller inside that means the drive can't address above 2TB, but unless somebody wants to tear their TC down, hunt out the SATA controller chips and look up model numbers, then disassemble the firmware and analyse what Apple are doing, we won't know.

Alternatively, wait until somebody sticks a different make and model of 3TB drive in their older TC and see what happens.

Well that is part of the issue, it seems OLDER TC's can address all 3TB just fine... the thread I linked to in the first post details that. One user bought an older TC just to format the 3TB drive to then swap in his newer one... And even if there were a 2TB limit in mine, shouldn't I see 1.8TB or so instead of 744GB?

 

[fat jez]

And even if there were a 2TB limit in mine, shouldn't I see 1.8TB or so instead of 744GB?

Not if there was a variable to store the number of blocks available on the disk. A 3TB disk might have a greater number of blocks than would fit in this counter, so it might only show a partial value. There are any number of programming or hardware reasons why this might happen. There are plenty of PC bios's out there that won't boot from a 3TB drivel, for example. Here's an example of somebody showing symptoms in Windows that are very similar to yours - note the capacity they can see.

http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=882909&mpage=1

And a support Article from Seagate about systems that cannot see beyond 2.2TB

http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=218615&NewLang=en



basically, you're trying to do something that's not supported

 

[hitekalex]

Well that is part of the issue, it seems OLDER TC's can address all 3TB just fine... the thread I linked to in the first post details that. One user bought an older TC just to format the 3TB drive to then swap in his newer one... And even if there were a 2TB limit in mine, shouldn't I see 1.8TB or so instead of 744GB?

Yeah, it's a known issue. Amazing that Apple used lower quality SATA controllers in 3rd-gen Time Capsules, as compared to 2nd-gen. So you basically need to buy a 2nd gen A1254 model TC, if you want 3TB of storage "on the cheap".

I just upgraded my 1TB 3rd-gen time capsule to 2TB. That worked fine, no great surprise.

 

[joegomolski]

EUREKA! This is what worked for me.

In disk utility rather than partioning the 3TB drive. Instead go to the tab, at the top of the disk utility bar, and select erase.

For some reason when I selected the erase option, rather than partition, it initialized correctly.

When you selected the erase tab, the drive is erased, and is then partioned.

 

[Radad48]

Has a solution been found.

Hey nikhsub1 have you solved the mystery of the 3 TB not formatting in the TC properly. I recently tried the same procedure in a 3rd gen TC using a WD Green Caviar 3 TB drive and can't get the TC to recognize the 3TB capacity. Same issue as yours.

Please let me know if you found a work around.

Thanks

 

[nikhsub1]

Hey nikhsub1 have you solved the mystery of the 3 TB not formatting in the TC properly. I recently tried the same procedure in a 3rd gen TC using a WD Green Caviar 3 TB drive and can't get the TC to recognize the 3TB capacity. Same issue as yours.

Please let me know if you found a work around.

Thanks

No, I ended up trading a friend for a 2TB and that worked fine...

 

[mayone]

someone who solved? I'm in the same situation with a wd green 3tb and a a1254 TC...