I was given a 3TB external drive only to realize later that windows xp doesn’t see it. Is there a patch or program I can use to make xp see it?
Did you reformat the drive before using it? Try using the WD format tool in the download section for your drive. I think it has the option to work on XP. 32 bit XP doesn’t normally recognize drives above 2T. Also make sure you have all of the critical updates and SP3 for XP.
Joe
I haven’t done anything to the drive. I just thought it would be plug and play like the 2TB drives I have. Only after contacting MS did I find out it wouldn’t work with XP. I’ll give the format tool a try, thanks.
AIUI, WD’s 3TB external USB drives are/were configured with 4KB LBAs (via the firmware on the bridge board). This makes them compatible with Windows XP straight out of the box. At least that was the case the last time I looked. Maybe the latest models are different. What is the model of your drive?
Actually I goofed, it’s not external, it’s internal. I have 4 ext and 3 int drives and I forgot which was which because it’s been sitting in the box for a while. It’s a 3TB caviar green. I don’t have an empty sata cable atm but I hope to get one today or tomorrow.
AIUI, Hitachi has a GPT driver for Windows XP. This would allow you to set up a Hitachi drive with a GPT partition on a Windows XP box. WD has acquired Hitachi’s HDD business, so perhaps Hitachi’s software may work for WD’s drives???
Hitachi GPT Disk Manager (supplied in Retail Kit):
http://www.hgst.com/internal-drives/above-2tb/
http://www.paragon-software.com/hitachi/ (36MB download)
Otherwise there is Paragon GPT Loader (US$20):
http://www.paragon-software.com/technologies/components/gpt-loader/
“Paragon GPT Loader supports internally connected single 3TB+ drives under Windows XP, excluding drives used as external storage or those combined into RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks).”
It appears that Hitachi’s software may be an OEM version of Paragon’s GPT Loader.
