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HP Recommended
Prodesk G4 SFF
Microsoft Windows 10 (64-bit)

Hi. Is this system limited to 2tb or less drives?  I recently tried to install a secondary 4tb drive and the computer (running the latest version of Windows 10 with updated drivers and the latest bios) could not see the drive in Windows.

 

I could see the drive in bios and in windows disk manager, but could not access the drive in windows explorer. And disk manager would not let me format the drive. I installed a pcie sata card to run the drive off of, thinking the motherboard sata ports were limited but that did not help the problem. I tried a larger, 6 tb drive (thinking maybe there was possibly an issue with the 4tb drive) but no joy. I even tried to format the drives with 2tb partitions in guid format on another Windows 10 machine but that didn’t work either. 

Eventually I installed a spare 2tb drive and it was instantly recognized. Is there any work around for this or is it a limitation of the system?

4 REPLIES 4
HP Recommended

@Chewbaccaman , welcome to the forum.

 

Here is a guide to help you with installing your 4 TB drive as a boot drive:  https://www.diskpart.com/articles/windows-10-4tb-hard-drive-3889.html

 

Also, here is a link to Aomei's Diskpart app:  https://www.diskpart.com/free-partition-manager.html

 

I use the FREE version when I need the app.



I am not an HP Employee!!
Intelligence is God given. Wisdom is the sum of our mistakes!!
HP Recommended

Thanks for the quick reply. I am using the 4tb drive as a second data drive, with a 500gb ssd as my primary drive where Windows is installed.  

I’ve done everything listed in those links already. The drive is already gpt. Yet in drive manager all options — from formatting to assigning a drive letter — are greyed out. Other tools, like EaseUS partition manager, also are not able to format, partition or assign a drive letter to the drive. This leads me to believe that the motherboard is limited to 2tb or less hard drives. 

HP Recommended

You are welcome, @Chewbaccaman!

 

When you go into Device Manager and right click on the drive, is the option titled "Mark Partition as Active" available to use.  If so, you should choose it to Activate the drive for use.  I had the same situation with my Samsung 860 EVO last year when I installed it.  Once I activated the drive it worked perfectly.  Mine is only used for storage, also.



I am not an HP Employee!!
Intelligence is God given. Wisdom is the sum of our mistakes!!
HP Recommended

Unfortunately all my options are greyed out in disk manager. 

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