3TB (WD30EZRX) only formats to 2TB in Win 7 x64, unless I go GPT route

WD Internal Drives Desktop & Mobile Drives
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Hi I have 2 of these drives one is in the My Book and it’s fine shows 3TB (used WD_Quick_Formatter_Win_1_2_0_10 to format) the other is in a windows 7 x64 machine running a “Asus P5E3 Premium wifi-ap @n” motherboard with it’s latest bios, which by the way is very old, however I have the WD30EZRX hooked up to an “Adaptec RAID 1430SA” controller with it’s latest bios that does support 3 & 4 TB drives, when I boot the 1430SA sees my 2 x 2TB drives as well as the new WD 3TB drive so that is fine.

However when in windows I can format the drive to 2TB no problems but I’m left with another 700 odd GB as a separate partition, I can make it a single drive with full value if I got the GPT (think that’s what it says in windows) but I have read this can cause compatibility (spelling) issues, do we know if this is true I have used a linux boot disk that had gparted on it and formatted that to NTFS but when I then booted into my cloning software it showed that disk as GPT which is at odds to every other disk, anyone have any suggestions how I can format so I can see the whole single drive at it full value?

All1

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Drives larger than 2TB must be formatted with GPT,

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TonyPh12345 wrote:
Drives larger than 2TB must be formatted with GPT,

Jesus I have been looking for a way to format using normal MBR, and i presume using GPT gives no compatability issues as far as you know? I do a fair bit of cloning of data but this 3TB drive will never be used in that way.

All1

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This isn’t just a WD thing. ALL drives larger than 2TB from ALL manufacturers use GPT.

I guess I don’t understand what your concern about compatibility is.

As you’ve already seen, MBR is giving you compatibility problems…

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TonyPh12345 wrote:

I guess I don’t understand what your concern about compatibility is.

It’s only i had read somewhere over the weekend that GPT can give issues but from you say it should not be an issue, I have now formatted in GPT and all seems well so far.

All1